I was talking with my assistant on Monday and she had some very good news for me. The new website (www.FloridaDevelopmentNews.com) we informally launched two weeks ago had 40 unique hits last week and the average time spent on the site was over 20 minutes per visitor. I have to say, I am aiming for much larger numbers in the future but for right now I am pleased as punch thank you very much.
We plan to formally launch the website next week and many more "unique visitors" I hope will find the site and value the content. The newsletter is not doing to shabby either with over 200 subscribers added in the last month. If you would like to subscribe, email editor@FloridaDevelopmentNews.com and put subscribe in the subject line.
I am working with a new group of authors/writers for our next publishing date on October 1st. I have to say the topics and depth of knowledge of the writers is truly outstanding and I think readers will be very pleased. As always, we are also on the hunt for new ideas both for the website and newsletter. Topic ideas from our readers are also valued and sought. The new site has every article published in the newsletter and links to development specific articles in papers around Florida and the New York Times. We also have an article originally published in an Urban Land Institute magazine on the future trends of the development industry. There is a link on the front page and I encourage you to check it out.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Florida Land Development Newsletter
I was driving to a meeting about two months ago and I was thinking about some of the issues that face the development community today. As I started to research Senate Bill 360 and new water quality rules being considered by FDEP I found very little in term of news I could use. Then I thought "I wish there was a source for the development community to turn when it wanted to know more about a certain issue". About 30 seconds later it hit me - I should call on my developer friends, bankers, consultants and planners to see if I could pull together a handful of articles that would be informative and useful. So I emailed and called a few friends with specific industry knowledge and asked them to write something.
The end result is the new Florida Land Development Newsletter. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform, not to sell anything or anyone. My original intent was to publish it about once per year or as issues presented themselves. We put out a press release informing the public of the newsletter and I was just about run over with requests to send out copies. I was equally surprised when several professionals asked if they could submit content on issues they were dealing with in their work. It was not to much after the emails started pouring in that I thought maybe we needed a website to support the newsletter and publish headlines from around the state on a regular basis.
The new website is www.FloridaDevelopmentNews.com and we are still working on the content and structure. Our goal is to have enough writers/contributors that we can publish at least one new 800 word article per week. Since a decent article may take a week or two to research and develop copy it will take a while before we can publish at that rate. Regardless, I keep an eye out for headlines around the state that impact development and we plan to keep those fresh every other day or so.
It has taken a lot of work to get from that idea on my way to a meeting to a tangible newsletter and website. If you would like to subscribe, have an idea or want to know more a topic, email me at editor@FloridaDevelopmentNews.com and I will see what we can do. If you would like to download a copy of this quarter's newsletter, just go to the website and there is a link in the center of the page.
I was driving to a meeting about two months ago and I was thinking about some of the issues that face the development community today. As I started to research Senate Bill 360 and new water quality rules being considered by FDEP I found very little in term of news I could use. Then I thought "I wish there was a source for the development community to turn when it wanted to know more about a certain issue". About 30 seconds later it hit me - I should call on my developer friends, bankers, consultants and planners to see if I could pull together a handful of articles that would be informative and useful. So I emailed and called a few friends with specific industry knowledge and asked them to write something.
The end result is the new Florida Land Development Newsletter. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform, not to sell anything or anyone. My original intent was to publish it about once per year or as issues presented themselves. We put out a press release informing the public of the newsletter and I was just about run over with requests to send out copies. I was equally surprised when several professionals asked if they could submit content on issues they were dealing with in their work. It was not to much after the emails started pouring in that I thought maybe we needed a website to support the newsletter and publish headlines from around the state on a regular basis.
The new website is www.FloridaDevelopmentNews.com and we are still working on the content and structure. Our goal is to have enough writers/contributors that we can publish at least one new 800 word article per week. Since a decent article may take a week or two to research and develop copy it will take a while before we can publish at that rate. Regardless, I keep an eye out for headlines around the state that impact development and we plan to keep those fresh every other day or so.
It has taken a lot of work to get from that idea on my way to a meeting to a tangible newsletter and website. If you would like to subscribe, have an idea or want to know more a topic, email me at editor@FloridaDevelopmentNews.com and I will see what we can do. If you would like to download a copy of this quarter's newsletter, just go to the website and there is a link in the center of the page.
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