Well I’ve put it off long enough, I’ve decided to do some much-needed updates to NorthumberlandView.ca… I’ll be giving updates as it progresses.

8:48 – Uploading the new files and I’m now getting an error on my site. This was expected.

9:00 – Uploading complete and it’s gone startlingly well… waiting for the other shoe to drop.

9:44 – Looks like it’s working properly. Just rebuilding the menus and we’ll see what happens.

10:10 – Oh my… IT WORKED!

I created a video that I hope will answer the question “What is NorthumberlandView.ca?”

I was originally going to do a voiceover but I decided that a simpler approach would probably work just as well, if not better.

I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. Enjoy…

I received this e-mail from a reader about an article that was posted recently about Lyme Disease. The gentleman’s name is Chris and he’s in B.C. so it’s nice to know that not only are people reading the articles, but they’re also using the information.

Thank you so much for your article bringing awareness about ticks and possible lyme disease to your readers.

Just an additional note that the bulls eye rash is seen in less than 50 percent of cases by doctors who actually treat people with lyme disease.

And yes, the consequences of not being diagosed and treated with immediate antibiotics is devastating. Just ask my daughter who is 17 with lyme not diagnosed in Canada. She has a 1 minute short term memory, horrific pain and is in a wheelchair due to lack of awareness and flawed testing of lyme disease. She is improving on long term antibiotics thankfully but has a long road ahead of her. Her future career choice: a doctor.

He has a blog where he and his daughter talk about the ups and downs of dealing with Lyme Disease which I found to be a great resource. The blog is located at http://bitemeback.blogspot.com.

As an aside… Northumberland Today put out a promotional video last week where they talked about their traffic. In that video, they say they have 32,000 unique visitors and over 200,000 page views monthly. I looked into my traffic and in June, NorthumberlandView.ca had 47,058 unique visitors and 1,405,074 page views. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

My goodness, NorthumberlandView.ca just keeps getting more and more popular. The biggest problem with the site’s popularity seems to be the fact that I have to keep updating the Advertising Rate Card to show how many people are visiting the site.

On an average day, about 850 different people are visiting NorthumberlandView.ca (or, over 25,000 per month). Now this can be a bit tricky, as the number of visitors is determined by the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the visitor. Your IP address is the digital equivalent to your home address. The problem with this, in one home, on one IP address, you could have multiple computers, all visiting the site. So for example, you could have Grandma playing the brand new Crossword puzzle on one computer, little Johnny checking out what happened at Brighton Speedway over the weekend and Mom looking to see what’s happening this week with NorthumberlandView.ca’s Events Calendar, but because they’re all using the same Wi Fi in their house, it only shows up as one visitor.

A better indication of NorthumberlandView.ca’s popularity is the number of Page Views. On average, 8,395.83 Page Views are registered each and every day, this amounts to over 251,000 Page Views every month. A Page View is simply that, the number of pages on the site that are seen each day. Visiting the Home Page counts as one page view, if you click on one of the articles, that counts as another page view.

Probably the least reliable indicator for a site’s popularity is the number of hits. Some people will say, “Yeah, my website’s getting 5,000 hits a day” (NorthumberlandView.ca’s getting about 17,000 hits per day, or over half a million hits per month). Well that’s nice, but the problem with hits is the fact that every time your website shows up in a search, that counts as a hit. So for example, if someone goes to their favourite search engine, does a search for, let’s say, “Head Cheese” (simply because there has been a recall recently and it just popped into my head), NorthumberlandView.ca will show up in the search results. They may not click on the article that was posted at the site but it will still count as a hit because it showed up in the results.

I’m always fascinated by how people get to NorthumberlandView.ca. While most come from bookmarks, search engines, links on local websites or social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc), sometimes there are links to the site in the most unexpected places. I was looking through the traffic statistics and in June, for some reason, I got about 400 page views from a website called Nigeria Master Web, a portal website in Nigeria.

Another interesting bit of information that you can get from your statistics (which, if you have a website, I would highly recommend you review on a semi-regular basis) is keywords and key phrases that are used to find your site. Checking my stats, it seems that a lot of people arrived at NorthumberlandView.ca by searching for Ontario Savings Bonds, Tim Hudak, the Northumberland Hills Hospital, CDCI East, the Cobourg Highland Games and the recent Tornado in Midland.

Finally, I just wanted to mention the fact that because it’s online, NorthumberlandView.ca has a global reach. While the vast majority of visitors are from Canada (mostly in Ontario), visitors come to the site from all over the world. Americans are the second most frequent visitor, followed by the British, Germans and Russians. Here’s one way to look at it. If you’re from Northumberland County and you’ve moved away, you’d still like to know what’s going on in your old stomping grounds, right? Or, if you’re a tourist and you’re looking for some information on where you’re going to take your next vacation, where better to look?

Personally, I would consider my first attempt at fundraising with NorthumberlandView.ca a success. A total of about $1,800 was raised for local charities, I raised the profile of NorthumberlandView.ca in the area , I got a haircut and I still get to give blood. Even though I didn’t reach any of my goals (which frankly were just pulled out of the air) I went through with most of the “deeds”.

About $650 was raised for Hospice Northumberland Lakeshore and I got my head shaved at the Buskerfest in Cobourg. I did it in the middle of King Street, on a stage set up by a dance school. While there were a few people wondering what I was up to, after I explained it, they were all very supportive. My biggest problem was the fact that I hadn’t thought to bring a broom to sweep up the newly-cut hair. The owners of the Dollar Store on King were kind enough to let me borrow their broom and I managed to get most of the hair before it all blew away.

I raised another $650 for the Northumberland Humane Society and about $350 for Northumberland Services for Women and as a result, I got my legs sugared and my chest waxed at Pet Palooza at Global Pet Foods. One of the volunteers from the Shelter of Hope was kind enough to video tape pretty much the entire ordeal (the whole thing took about 45 minutes and the video was about 35 minutes). Angela Johns and Rachel Walsh from Angela’s Body Sugaring and Day Spa were kind enough to donate their time and materials to make this happen. They could have probably completed the waxing and sugaring in less time but they were both laughing so much that it took a bit longer. I got both my legs and chest done at the same time so I really can’t say which hurt more. Just to be a bit cruel, every once in a while, I would hear “1, 2, 3″ and both Angela and Rachel would rip out some more hair at the same time. Needless to say I was either called brave, stupid or crazy a few times that day.

I was supposed to get either one or both of my nipples pierced during the Waterfront Festival but because I only raised $150 for the Fare Share Food Bank, I didn’t go through with it. The reason for this is fairly simple, if I had gotten the piercing done, I wouldn’t be able to give blood for 6 months. Giving blood is very important to me and I wanted to make sure that if I was going to get it done, I wanted to make sure I raised as much as possible.

I make no excuses for not reaching the goals. However, I can think of a few reasons why I might not have succeeded.

1. Exposure: I promoted the Big Hairy Challenge almost exclusively online, using Twitter and Facebook. I had contacted other local media outlets on a number of occasions to help get the word out. Unfortunately, the only media coverage I got was a single article in Northumberland Today and several reports from MyFM in Brighton.
2. Other Fundraising Activities: Northumberland Services for Women was running their Walk a Mile in Her Shoes fundraiser during the time of the Challenge. Also, the Fare Share Food Bank was broken into during the Challenge and there was an outpouring of support from the community. A number of donations were made because of the break-in, including a $5000 donation from Rotary.
3. Fundraising Fatigue: People are being approached every day to support a variety of charities and most people have a set budget for donations and are unable to give any more.
4. Number of Challenges: I was told by several people that I was being a bit ambitious and spreading myself too thin by doing 4 separate fundraisers. Had I done a single fundraiser I would have been more likely to reach the goal.
5. Donation Method: I used CanadaHelps.org to accept donations and while it’s a secure website that is used by most not-for-profits as a way of accepting donations, some people are still leery about giving out their credit card number online.

As far as next year goes, I haven’t quite decided yet. I might do a single fundraiser for 1 charity. It could include piercing, or it could include getting a tattoo. We’ll see.

You can still view all the videos from the Big Hairy Challenge at www.northumberlandview.ca/hairy. I’ll keep it up for a while.

I decided that a change was needed at NorthumberlandView.ca. All of the content is the same, just the look is new. I was never really happy with the way the site looked after I switched to the new theme (I think it was the green). I like the new one a whole lot better. This is the fourth incarnation of the site (or regeneration if you’d prefer, if we were going by Doctor Who, this would be the Tom Baker version, the one with the scarf. Or if you would prefer going by James Bond [I wouldn't] this would be the Timothy Dalton version).

It’s a cleaner look, (as my sister put it, “less bitmappy”) and I’ve added the bar at the top of the page which gives a few shortcuts to important information about NorthumberlandView.ca (About Us, Contact Us and most importantly, how to Advertise with NorthumberlandView.ca). You can also make NorthumberlandView.ca your home page with the click of a mouse.

I’ve checked and re-checked the layout in the most popular browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari) and it’s nice and consistent. There are other browsers out there and I hope that if there are any problems, you’ll let me know.

Another neat little change is the fact that the Leaderboard ad ($100 a month) now appears at the end of the article, rather than at the bottom of the page, which makes it a lot more visible (and desirable, think of how much more room you can have with a Leaderboard ad, 728×90 pixels over 468×60 pixels with the Banner ad [also $100 a month]).

I’m working with the guys over at Zikula to figure out how to import articles from my current (incredibly outdated, yet awesome) news module to one that will allow me to update the rest of the site. I have also reinstalled the software that I use for my banner ads so the statistics are working again (and I’m apparently no longer risking suspension by my web host for hogging all the resources).

NorthumberlandView.ca is always looking for Advertisers and you can check out our Advertising Rate Card by visiting http://www.northumberlandview.ca/Advertising_Rate_Card.pdf. I’ll be updating the Rate Card in the next few days as well, with explanations of some of the specials that are running as well as introducing the “Full View” which consists of one of each ad for $300 a month (you get a Button, Banner, Skyskraper and Leaderboard, usual price $375 a month).

I’m also always on the lookout for new content and features. I’m keeping an eye on the Zikula extension database to see if anything could be of interest. I recently removed the Classifieds and the Discussion Forum from NorthumberlandView.ca, simply because they weren’t being used. I might bring them back at some point.

Here’s a media release that I sent out a couple of days ago…

Chris Pelletier, the owner and operator of NorthumberlandView.ca has offered up his body for charity. NorthumberlandView.ca has launched “The Big Hairy Challenge” to benefit four local charities.

Until June 1st, Pelletier will be raising money for Hospice Northumberland Lakeshore, the Northumberland Humane Society, Northumberland Services for Women and the Fare Share Food Bank in four separate fundraisers. Each fundraiser will attempt to raise at least $1,000 for each charity. If successful, Pelletier will have the following done:

If $1,000 is raised for Hospice, Pelletier will have his head shaved to the skin, including shaving cream and razor.

If $1,000 is raised for the Northumberland Humane Society, Pelletier will have his chest waxed.

If $1,000 is raised for Northumberland Services for Women, Pelletier will have his legs sugared at “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” on June 12th. Sugaring is a process similar to waxing that, hopefully, is less painful.

If $500 is raised for the Fare Share Food Bank, Pelletier will have one of his nipples pierced, if $1,000 is raised, he will have both done.

Donations are being handled by CanadaHelps.org. Tax reciepts will be issued once payments are received.

The culmination of each fundraiser will take place at events for the charities.

To make a donation and for more information, please visit http://www.northumberlandview.ca/hairy 

I haven’t heard from the other local media yet to do any interviews about the Challenge, or my mental state but it is still early. The Challenge ends June 1st so there is still a month. I did get a chance to talk about the Challenge on the most recent edition of Municipal Matters on Cogeco Cable 10. It was suggested that if I double all of my goals, that I could do everything on the same day. Somehow, I don’t think that it’s going to happen. I think I’ll need a couple of days to heal in between having my chest waxed and my nipple(s) pierced.

The response has been pretty good so far. The donations are coming in slowly but I know that most people are going to wait until the last minute.

I am seriously thinking about taking down the Classifieds and Discussion Forum at NorthumberlandView.ca. No one is using them, in spite of the fact that most people said that they would be posting.

Any of the items that had been added to the classifieds had been added by myself. Same thing with any of the posts in the Discussion Forum. I had the Forum open for a while so anyone could post without having to register and most of the posts were spam, so I put the password back on.

I think the problem with the Classifieds is the fact that places like Kijiji and Craigslist are also available for free. I wanted to make free classifieds for Northumberland available. If you look at Kijiji, there is Oshawa, Belleville and Peterborough, but not Northumberland. With Craigslist (not counting the fact that it’s a scammer’s paradise) there’s Peterborough, Toronto and Kingston.

For the Discussion Forum, some local websites have discussions, but they tend to focus on specific topics, others allow you to comment but only on specific articles. There are sites like Rabble.ca which have extensive discussions but they’re mostly national.

I was thinking about putting a Dating component on the site but I’m having doubts that anyone will use it.

I’m going to give it another week and if the number of submissions hasn’t increased, I’ll be taking them down. It’s unfortunate, but if they’re not getting used…

I’ll keep them on the server and I might try again later on so we’ll see what happens.

An Internet presence has become part of doing business. Engaging current and potential customers online has become an integral part of any successful marketing campaign.

Terry O’Reilly, host of CBC Radio’s “The Age of Persuasion”, wrote the following regarding online advertising in his book “The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture“

Click Click = Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching

The success of an online idea is measured, in part, by the number of clicks a website gets. While that number can easily go into the millions, most advertisers are interested in “unique visitors.” These are determined by counting each visitor only once, which reveals a site’s true audience size. While this isn’t an exact science (some computers are shared by two or more users), it’s a fairly good estimate ofthe reach of an ad or website. Other research refines the profiles of users and the way they interact with each site by identifying the amount of time spent on each web page, the pages within a website that get the most traffic, and where the traffic is coming from. No matter what the statistics reveal, however, the is one overriding benefit related to online marketing clicks: the consumer has sought the website out. They may even have made quite an effort to find it. Because interaction with a website is not passive exposure (like TV ads, for instance), a marketer is much more likely to make an impact through advertising online than through other media.

An advertisement at NorthumberlandView.ca drives traffic to websites and increases exposure for businesses.

NorthumberlandView.ca also offers a generous referral program. Micro sites are also available for businesses without a web site and advertisement creation is available.

NorthumberlandView.ca is a News and Information Website for Northumberland County. NorthumberlandView.ca is non-partisan, independent locally owned and operated and allows members of the public to share information with residents, visitors and others interested in what’s happening in Northumberland County.

Launched in September 2007, NorthumberlandView.ca has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds with content coming from more and more sources. More and more people are discovering NorthumberlandView.ca as an excellent source of news, events and information in Northumberland County.

On average, NorthumberlandView.ca has about 750 unique visitors per day, almost 15,000 hits per day and over 6,500 page views per day.

Northumberland County has a population of 80,963* and with 79% of Canadians use the Internet to visit news & information sites**, advertising with NorthumberlandView.ca is a practical and affordable option.

Potential advertisers have a variety of options for sponsorship available to them. For more information or to arrange a meeting to discuss advertising opportunities, E-Mail sales@northumberlandview.ca or Phone (905) 375-7306.

*Statistics Canada
** ComScore Media Metrix

Once again, NorthumberlandView.ca’s Blog is back. I’ll just give you a bit of background as to what happened…

NorthumberlandView.ca became too popular for our original web host and because of that, the site was using too many resources on their servers. The network administrators decided to shut off the site, rather than slow down every other site on the server. Because of this, I decided to move to a new web host.

The transfer started on Friday, January 15th at about 5:00 pm and the site was moved and back up at about 6:00 am on Sunday, January 17th.

Everything is back up and running at NorthumberlandView.ca and I’ve brought back the Discussion Forum. I have also added Search to the site.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their patience with the move and for their good wishes.