World Cup

Listeners of the World,

Today I wanted to take a break from reporting about OurTown and spend some time on the World Cup. Most of the time the World Cup is ignored by many Americans due to the lack of interest overall in the sport. Well this year it seems a bit different, but why?

It could be due to the fact they we have a team that is acutally ranked within the top 15 in the world. Maybe it's because of all the attention that has been expanding around the World Cup the past decade. Or maybe it's because soccer is actually expanding in popularity in the US. I don't think you can choose just one of these to be the reason, but a combination of all.

No matter what the reason I think it's great that Americans are joining into the festivities. It is a great tournament with the best teams and players in the world competing for the respect of the world. The only thing that could turn off Americans now would be a very disappointing defeat today against a team that they should win.

So until next time......GO USA!!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

vADz on OurTown!

Listeners of the World,

We are still in middle of preparing the new OurTown site for its launch this summer and I wanted to talk today about one of the new features that will help make the new site GREAT! It's the addition of vADz on OurTown.

vADz is a new concept of video advertising for the small to mid-sized businesses that gives them the advertising quality of a top company. vADz is an easy to use video editor that allows advertisers to combine video, images, sound, transitions, and text into a video that will be able to been seen from a vADzLink or an embedded video on the page.

vADz also offers many options that you can add to your video. Once you are completed with your editing you will be able to add your own coupons, maps, attachments, and a click to buy option. This way your ad becomes more than just a video.....it becomes a sale!!

vADz.com doesn't stop with the video editing tool, or the great options; it continues with a great online ad campaign solution. So after you have finished creating your video ad, and adding all the options you want; you will be able to set up your ad campaign right on the same site!

Now all the local editors on OurTown will be able to use the video editor and the options to create great video ads for all their local businesses giving them an edge when obtaining local advertising!

Just remember this is just one of the great new features coming very soon! Please stay tuned for some other feature details.

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

Good Article.

Listeners of the World,

This is why OurTown will work, while others will fail!

http://mashable.com/2010/06/11/google-news-and-why-human-editors-still-matter/

We have been saying that you still need people living in the area to provide the best hyper local news stories.

Your OurTown SuperHero,

Chris

Site Update.

Listeners of the World,

Today at 2:30 PM EST there will be a newsletter going out to all of our local editors explaining what is going on with the new site. Well I am aware that not everyone who is interesting about the process of the new site is a local editor. This is way I am posting the contents of the newsletter on here so that everyone can be on the same page. Please see below for the contents of the OurTown newsletter:

We have been working on a brand new site for OurTown.com over the past 6 months with a goal of releasing it in May of 2010. Due to the complex nature of a building a site such as a new OurTown we have fallen behind and did not meet our mark. We are still working on the site and making sure that we have all the features that will be needed for our local editors and their viewers. We are going to send out a schedule next week after I meet with the programming team to have dates of when the new site will be up. I know that this a very disappointing news and I hope that you will not get discouraged about the new site for it is coming and very soon.Just to help explain why it is taking this long I wanted to include a description of what will be in the new site and what has been changed and added.

First things first when explaining the new site is that we did not build it off the old site, or just add features for we started from nothing and build it in a newer programming language that would offer better functionality. We have also contracted 2 companies to create a completely new theme to the site with web 2.0 graphics. This should present easier navigation of the site and a much more pleasing setup for your viewers. We have also redesigned and added another type of media for the site. We have built new photo galleries, with a new article management system that will not only help with entering in articles but to sort and manage them as well. Another major change will be our new ad portal which will allow companies to go in and ad their own ads to your sites without our local editors doing anything. It will also help with ad pricing and manage.

These are just some of the new features that we have in the new site. We have worked through most of the problems and will be hopefully releasing this site very soon. Please stay tuned for more updates and don't forget to follow our Blog, Twitter, and Facebook for updates, news stories, and just random fun!

Hopefully this will help explain the delay and give everyone something to look forward to!

Your OurTown Super hero,

Chris

OurTown Update!

Listeners of the World,

Last month was suppose to be the release of our new OurTown site into Beta..................well this did not happen due to unseen setbacks. We are in the process of fixing this setbacks and should have a working Beta site during these summer months. These setbacks are extremely painful to me for I had been looking forward to this launch for many months now. We will be updating everyone via our social media pages (facebook, twitter, etc), as well as sending out a newsletter to all of our local editors. This month I will be focusing on the good parts of the project and showing different page looks and functionality until the release of the new site. Please stay tuned for updates!!!!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris