Chicken and egg

Over the last week, it has been hectic hence the lack of entries on the blog. It has also been one of those weeks with a real chicken and egg issue. We want to get more businesses on the directories but they want to see us taking an active promotion before they make up their minds.

Which do we do first. Get the businesses on the directory or do we advertise to the general public. Well, the outcome has been a bit of both. This week alone, we are introducing around 20 businesses in the directory. An starting in the beginning of march, we are giving out 50,000 bookmarks advertising the site.

We also have a number of other promotions starting in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for them. Due to all of this activity, this next week is a very busy one. Major updates are taking place to the site to include over 500 new pages of information. We also have our new "What's on" and Resources sections coming online as well.

Full steam ahead

Yesterday was a turning point for us. When you are planning something big, there comes a point where there is no turning back. This is what happened yesterday. We placed the order for 50,000 publicity hand outs to be printed.

Up to this point we could of pulled out and carried on the way we were but we have gone through with it and now looking ahead.

Looking ahead is looking great. More businesses are becoming interested in what we are doing and we are putting the plans in place for our next big project with the web site. The marketing article is coming along very nicely which is thanks to those who are helping us out towards it.

Don't forget that this will be available from March 2nd from the web site.

That's it tonight as I'm off to Croydon Hilton for a bit of a do!

Planning a busy week ahead

All ready, next week is already looking very busy. We have a number of appointments with some local businesses to attend which we are looking forward too. We are completing the updates on the site which includes lots more information than before.

Over the last 24 hours, we have started to put together an major article for the web site for all businesses in Croydon. The whole piece is on the subject of marketing your business on the internet. Plus we have asked a number of key people within the area to help out.

Great news is, all of them have agreed which is great. The finished article will be published in the business section of the website on Friday 2nd March.

Contributers include - Dotmailer (E-mail Marketing), Mel Simms, MD of Frank Comms, Ian Carter of Croydon Advertiser plus a few more.

A good day

Apart from having to get up at the crack of dawn (think it was even before that!) today has been one of those days which has been great. The morning started off with breakfast at Tiger Tiger in Croydon.

This was a Croydon Business do before anyone comes up with any comments but this led into two workshops on the environment and how businesses need to get their act together.

It was also great to see so many people there.

We have also set a date for our big push. Infact, it's not just one date but the whole of March. Look out for our new bookmarks and other advertising across the area.

That's it today - early night!

It's nearly there!

After weeks of gathering up lots of info, we are nearly ready to press the "Upload" button and add all the new information within the community section. It is taking much longer than we originally thought due to the fact it is taking up ages to actually find out some of the information.

If you would like a sneak preview at what we are doing and what the information will include in all the areas, we have now uploaded a few pages. These can be found at Addington Village

Any feedback would be great and also if you could think of anything else, this two would be great.

An Update

Over the last month, we have been busy putting together updates for the web site. Many of these are now up and running but the biggest one is on it's way. The community section of the site is huge and we are making sure everything goes right from the start.

As we are updating the layout, the navigation and the contents, we are also adding lots more information hence why it is a long task. We hope to have this completed in the next couple of weeks.

Don't forget it is free to add a charity or non-profit organsiation to the site. So if you have not already added your group or organisation, now is the time to do so.

Calling all chocolate lovers

As said in a previous post, All about Croydon are supporting the STOP THE TRAFFIK campaign which is pushing to stop people trafficking and highlighting the issues. With this in mind, we are calling on all chocolate lovers.

Why, you may ask, well next time you open a bar of chocolate, keep this in mind. Nearly half of the coco comes from one area and it is estimates around 12,000 children are trafficked to work on the farms.

STOP THE TRAFFIK are pushing for all UK chocolate providers to publicly announce that their Chocolate does NOT come from these places. If they do, then they must make changes.

Please show your support by visiting www.stopthetraffik.org

Stats and results

As the first day of a new month, we have a full report on the stats for the web site and all I can say is a massive "Thank you"

We thought we were doing well when in Oct/Nov we received around 3500 page views but January has smashed through our expectations. Our target for Jan was 6000 unique visitors and 10,000 page views. We actually got just over 8,000 unique visitors and just over 13,000 page views which is great.

We are also climbing rapidly up search engine result pages as well which is great. Our target figures were set last September and we have always gone over what we have expected. For info, our estimated figures for next December is 25,000 unique visitors and 100,000 page views!

Once again, thanks to all of those who have visited and for over 45% of you who keep coming back.