Revisions

We've been trying to get some of the local bloggers to take note of YourPanorama to help us promote it and to add some fresh new content to the site. One blogger, Steve from House of Warwick, had suggested that we need to take a closer look at our terms of service. He indicated they made it sound as if we were going to steal ideas and materials from members then market them as our own. Not at all what we want to do. YourPanorama is a community journalism site where we celebrate the ideas of others.

Anyway, I took a look at the terms with a new eye and discovered that Steve was right! The language sounded awful and made us look like devious people. So I changed it today - all of it. Took out four pages worth of repetitive legalese and poorly stated objectives. I'll leave it up to you to see if what is left clearly defines how we treat copyrighted content and what we do not want posted to the site. Our revised terms are here. And I wrote a brief article to include on YourPanorama describing the events that led to the revisions.

Christmas Cheer

If you had no other way to tell what time of year it was, you could nearly pinpoint the date simply by observing Springfield traffic. An alternative method would be to visit the mall or any of the large box stores in town. In either case, the most accurate determination of time would be to have established a reference point a few weeks ago, then make a more recent observation for comparison.

Traffic has thickened significantly, no debate about that. I have a forty mile commute to Springfield and pass a growing line of headlights each evening as I head home. No doubt they are the automobiles of Christmas shoppers making yet another trek to the city's shopping meccas because they still haven't found that one "wow" gift or because Aunt Mable FedEx'd something unexpected so they are obliged by the rules of return giving to find something that Aunt Mable needs even though she did not originally make the cut for the shopping list.

It's not so much the growth in traffic that indicates the season as it is the courtesy level of the drivers involved. Just today I saw someone stop short of an intersection to allow two cars to pull out - one going to the right, the other to the left. Neither driver as much as served up the flash of a palm to say "thanks." Instead they seemed to act as though they were merely collecting on a debt already owed. People are always shifting lanes, cutting others off or generally behaving rudely on the road, but this time of year sure heightens the activity. Lip read a few drivers today and you'll understand what I mean.

It's the same in stores. I used to be a Christmas Eve panic shopper, but have become one of those very organized types that has everything purchased and wrapped before the second week of December. I was in Target a few weeks ago and everyone was friendly. I was checking out the DVD's near the checkouts when a lady offered the unsolicited advice that the same movie cost $2 more at K-Mart and that Target had the best priced DVD around. Later, another lady waiting in the checkout line next to me asked about the merchandise I was holding and I sold her on buying the same thing (if you're reading this, Target, I'll take the standard 15% commission).

Today, it's not like that. I was in Target just a few days ago (not Christmas shopping) and it was like warfare. Wild eyed and frenzied, people bulldozed their carts into aisles without stopping, plowing ahead like tanks ignoring anyone in their paths. Few people spoke except to stammer out the next item on the list or argue about what color sweater to get for dear old Aunt Mable, whose dearness quotient had fallen off considerably since the FedEx guy was at your house. Shaken, battle-weary veterans of Christmas wars, they are. Unable to accept defeat, they push ahead with their mission, refusing to accept the inevitable purchase of Simon gift cards to close out their lists, and for which they will pay dearly with their time as they reach the gift card conclusion only after everyone else has done the same thing and they all find themselves waiting ... waiting ... in the same long checkout lines they have had to endure for days.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but shoppers take note. All this will grow worse before it gets better. The lines will get longer. The fuses will get shorter. The nervousness will grow. But the silver lining is that come Christmas morning, the only thing that will matter is the look on the faces of loved ones when the paper is torn away and the gift illuminates their smiles. It's too bad that it only takes about 15 minutes to tear open what it took about 3000 minutes to buy and wrap. But, chances are, we'll do it all over again next December.

Whose Woods Are These

Actually, I do know whose woods these are and his house isn't in the village, it's on the property. This is where I've gone deer hunting every year for the past fourteen seasons. It's comprised of a couple hundred or so acres with a large pasture, lots of woods, pond, creeks, springs and plenty of deer habitat. Not that I see deer every year or even fill my tag every year. That's not the point. I really enjoy venison, but getting a deer is just a bonus. The real pleasure is derived from witnessing the woods' reawakening after a night's slumber.

I arrive well before first light so I can wrestle my climbing tree stand into position and set it up for the morning - haul up my backpack filled with binoculars, snacks, lunch, a thermos of coffee, extra hat and gloves should the weather turn nasty, and my camera.

Then I wait. Silence. And watch. A hoot owl in the distance momentarily breaks the silence. Quiet again. The gentle crunch of a deer hoof on snow. Silence. A snort. Just checking, testing. I answer. Silence. Then a reply as she snorts back. The gentle crunch continues. The deer I spoke to but could not see ambles off, content. Slowly, cautiously, dawn steps on stage and the flutter of bird wings in flight hushes through the departing silence. The juncos and chickadees begin to sound and take flight. Soon the grey squirrels ramble about, looking for breakfast. They find a nut, sit back and admire it in their hands like some precious gem before taking a bite or burying the prize where they'll never find it again. More birds arrive - bluebirds, cardinals, downy woodpeckers. The air fills with activity. Everyone's hungry and in search of an easy meal. I pour a cup of coffee and munch on some fig bars. Finally, the fox squirrels arise - late as usual - almost yawning as they they scurry up and down trees.

Every year it's the same, yet every year brings something different, too. Sometimes it may be a flock of geese or ducks, or a red fox upset because he detected my scent but did not consider looking up to find me in my stand, or dozens of raccoons perched in trees until wandering off at the crack of dawn.

This year, it was a couple inches of wet snow covering the ground during the second rifle season. That made tracks easy to spot and there were lots of them. All sizes, too, from fawns to buck prints four inches long. Sign was easy to spot and so were deer, at least the few that arrived.

I got my bonus this year, but I am most thankful for being there several mornings this fall as the woods woke up to a rhythm set in motion long before my arrival and destined to repeat itself well after my departure.

Where Are All The People?

We've built a great web site, although it does need some tweaking now that we have the initial site running, but we just aren't seeing the level of traffic or participation we had hoped for at this point in time. We are currently looking at new ways to draw attention to the site and to increase visitor's length of stay. Tried Google AdWords, but with little success even after refining our key words. The books all tell us to focus on articles, news releases and viral marketing techniques so we are in the process of implementing our plans in those areas.

Most disappointing has been the lack of solid revenue growth. And, of course, we do have bills and salaries to pay so revenues are very important. We have been running affiliate program links on each page but they require three things to happen: 1) need visitors 2) visitors have to be compelled to click through 3) visitors have to buy something from the spot they click to. I think it may be time to try Google AdSense. That eliminates the third criteria noted above. We have used AdSense with some success on other sites we own so it may be worth implementing here.

I have not given up entirely on affiliate programs, but I do think they would be more successful with significantly higher levels of page views. We downloaded a free piece of php software that allows us to deliver ads in almost any manner we choose including by keywords from articles and other content on the site. That would work similar to AdSense delivery, so it is still on the table as a consideration.

I am convinced that no matter which revenue stream we choose to pursue, it will work. We just need to make a strong effort to drive traffic in order to produce the results we need to see.

Winter Storm

A big winter storm hit the area on Thursday sending temperatures into the teens and dumping anywhere from a trace to our south to 17 inches of snow and ice to our north. We got about two inches of ice and sleet here plus about five inches of snow on top of that. These are a couple shots taken Friday morning after the storm passed. There are a few more photos at YourPanorama.com. Just click on the Photo gallery link on the left sidebar.

Driving was hazardous and, since I live about 35 miles from my office, I decided to work from home rather than risk a wreck. The snow alone would have been all right since my truck is a 4-wheel drive but that won't help in icy conditions. But I did get some work done including a press release announcing the new web site - you can read the release here. I also polished up a few articles that I'll be posting at several article clearinghouse sites hoping that other webmasters will find them, post them on their own sites and link back to YourPanorama.com.