It’s hard for me to believe, but donigreenberg.com/Food for Thought has just passed its six-month anniversary. During this time, Doni and a cadre of helpers created a rich community resource; part newspaper, part magazine, part blog, part e-village.
With each month, more writers joined Food for Thought to contribute their talents and expertise to broaden the depth of this Web site’s content. All of us, as readers, have had the good fortune to enjoy this abundance of quality work.
Here at donigreenberg.com/Food for Thought Doni takes care of the editorial side and I handle the business side.
With that in mind, last quarter I presented our first status report.
I’ll start today’s update with some numbers: Thus far, 38 writers and 11 bloggers have contributed their work to donigreenberg.com/Food for Thought. Together we’ve published 247 local stories and opinion pieces, 29 recipes and received 1,971 reader comments.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for participating. Thank you for telling others. Food for Thought would be nothing without you.
The other night, as we wrapped up our work on the Web site for the next day (a process we affectionately refer to as “putting baby Webster to bed”), I asked Doni if she still enjoyed working on the Web site. She just laughed and said she’s having a ball. As her husband, I have to tell you, this project agrees with Doni. I’ve never seen her happier.
OK. Here are some more numbers.
You might recall that by Jan. 31 (the end of the last quarter) Food for Thought had:
- 4,262 unique visitors
- 34,724 visits
- 293,738 page views for the quarter
- 986,987 hits
Compare those numbers to our most current, April 30 (the end of this quarter), when Food for Thought had:
- 5,976 unique visitors (up 40 percent)
- 53,016 visits (up 53 percent)
- 379,272 page views (up 29 percent)
- 1,929,450 hits ( up 96 percent)
Another term I’ve learned this year is “stickiness” – which basically refers to how long a visitor stays at a Web site once he or she arrives. On average, Food for Thought readers view more than seven pages per visit. Since Food for Thought does not use gimmicks to artifically drive traffic to the Web site, readers who come to Food for Thought are people who want to be here. They stay awhile and look around. Speaking of readers who want to be here, 86% of the visitors to Food for Thought come directly to this site. They either type in the url or have it bookmarked.
If you’ve followed Food for Thought since its inception in November, you’ve watched the site steadily expand. Most recently, some of the new features include two top stories (instead of one); a Blogger’s Voices section, an Events section with a Community Calendar that allows you to enter your public events, a Movies section where you can see movie trailers, and improved access to archived stories.
Many new ideas remain under construction and will appear soon. Even so, we encourage you to drop us a note if you have an idea, or there is something you’d like to see on Food for Thought. Some of our best ideas, such as printable recipes, are reader-inspired.
On a personal note, I admit that in the past, I was skeptical of the Internet. Certainly, I recognized the good things about online, such as its value as an indespensible research tool.
But I am a people person. In a conversation I’ve always preferred as many senses engaged as possible. I like to look in people’s eyes, take note of their body language and hear the voice inflections. I’m always on the lookout for sarcasm or a sense of humor, to see how it all stacks up with what they’re saying.
I tell you this because I came to this blog/Web site idea with plenty of reservations. Six months into this business I am a total convert. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy a one-on-one conversation, but wow, it’s amazing to realize there are now almost 6,000 people engaged in a conversation here on donigreenberg/Food for Thought.
It’s developed into a think tank where we share ideas about our local and global community. It’s a place where we take turns passing the mic around. We discuss local news, things that we’ve learned and information others may find interesting. We talk about friends in our community; perhaps they’re doing interesting things and receive acclaim, or maybe they’re having a rough time and need a hand.
Food for Thought is a classroom of sorts where it’s safe to share ideas. We won’t always agree with each other, of course. But we can agree to disagree and learn from each other’s perspectives. Most of all, Food for Thought is a work in progress where we all benefit from the finished product.
We regularly hear from people outside the area who tell us how impressed they are that we are using the Internet so effectively as a community-building tool.
I tell them we’re just getting started.
