Unique visitors? Stupendous visitors!

You are a Food for Thought unique visitor.

I mean that with love and appreciation. (Pause for a virtual hug.)

I also mean that in the most technical online world terminology: A unique visitor is not someone who flits accidentally to a Web site and never returns, like a dazed tourist who wanders into a weird souvenir shop and never darkens its doorway again.

A unique visitor is someone who returns to the same site over and over. You return because you like it. You return because you feel comfortable here or find something of value here.

And each time you return, our site’s counter program recognizes your IP address. Your IP address is different from your email address. Without getting too creepy, your IP address is like your online fingerprint.

But here’s the deal. Sometimes multiple unique visitors share one IP address. For example, although Bruce and I are two readers, we share one computer, and thus we’re considered one IP address and are counted as one unique visitor when we visit sites we both enjoy, such as Pink Hollyhock or Philbertosophy.

I’m going somewhere with this.

In the eight months since Food for Thought’s birth, we have gone from 2,145 unique visitors in November to 10,635 unique visitors in June.

Let’s not get bogged down in numbers, shall we? I’ll leave that to Bruce Greenberg, my husband and Food for Thought’s business guy. (See below.)

Chances are, you 10,635 unique visitors are really more like 15,000 or even 20,000.

Pretty impressive, don’t you think?

I credit Food for Thought’s success to you, my dear unique visitor. You have helped feed and grow this site; some of you since the first few days.

The more verbal among you have weighed in and offered suggestions. But even the quiet ones have spoken through the numbers of views on stories, which tells us loud and clear what you like and what you’re not so wild about.

Consider yourself Food for Thought’s godparents of sorts. Without you, we wouldn’t be here.

I hope you’ve read all the way to this sentence because I have a special announcement.

Next month I will share something with you I’m excited about.

First, Food for Thought will have another new look (yes, again). It will be prettier and have a more news-magaziney look. We will also unveil some new features, which I’ll tell you more about later.

Best of all, we will present a surprise addition that will take Food for Thought to a whole new level.

Right now it’s a secret. But I think you’ll love it.

Hang onto your hat. It’s going to be great. I can hardly contain myself.

Stay tuned. You don’t want to miss a thing.

(p.s. the beautiful baby above is May Bartimioli, my twin’s granddaughter.)

Your numbers keep climbing: by Bruce Greenberg

Have you ever noticed that, generally speaking, the world is divided into those who do words and those who do numbers?

When I present Doni with numbers, statistics, charts or any math in general, after a fleeting glance of what appears to be a bewildered look, Doni usually asks me to turn up the air conditioner, the room is getting warm.

But I digress.

There are so many ways to look at and interpret numbers. There are so many numbers related to Food for Thought, and I could go on and on about them.

The important thing to know is that all Food for Thought numbers point in the same direction: straight up.

Here is a snapshot of Food for Thought’s progress during its first eight months.

These numbers provide a backdrop to where the real action is: being a good neighbor and resource to help us all build a better community.

Doni’s recipes were featured in Edible Shasta-Butte magazine’s 2008 spring and summer issues.

Enjoy California Living magazine’s July edition includes a very generous story about how we built our house.

Food for Thought is proud to co-sponsor the upcoming Second Saturday Art Hop event, which will kick off July 12 in downtown Redding (see the sidebar ad for more information).

Also on that day, Doni will participate in Dancing with the Stars — Shasta County Style, a benefit event for Shasta County Women’s Refuge and Shasta Family YMCA’s youth programs.

These last eight months represent the start of a new chapter. For 10 years, Doni was a newspaper journalist. In that capacity she spent a significant amount of time as a community volunteer for worthwhile events. Now that the child Food for Thought is walking and talking, the opportunities to do good work are greater than ever.

Thanks for believing in us. Thanks for joining us.