New Site Update!!!

Listeners of the World,

Well I am here to update everyone on where we are with the new and improved OurTown.com! Our programming team has informed me that we are a little behind on the project and that hopefully you will be seeing something next week. We were hoping this week would be the week, but we have to wait due to some unexpected road blocks. Once we release the new site it will be incomplete for about a month. We are rolling it out in waves!

The first release will be of the main site. You will be able to see the new look and layout of the site including the Home, log on, sign up, search, and local portal. These pages will include most of the functionality along with them as well.

After the first release will come the second release which will include the new "AD Portal"!!! This release will open up the new ad system so that our local editors can start making more money! Along with this release will be our "facebook connect" and new "twitter integration".

Now remember with these releases we will have different bugs throughout the system that we will be fixing nonstop until they are gone! Also some pieces might be missing over a period of day due to different fixes or add - ons that our staff will have to do.

So please be patient and enjoy once we have everything up and running!!!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

The Month of May!

Listeners of the World,

It is now the great month of May, 2010! That means the new OurTown site with all of its helpful functionality is right around the corner. We were shooting for a "soft launch" at the end of April, but it seems that the team is behind due to unexpected road blocks that took just a little longer than expected to work out. Now that we have worked most of the problems out I can expect the "soft launch" of the site to happen very shorty!

The plan is to launch the site with most of the functionality working with some functions missing. We want all of our local editors to get a glimpse of all of our hard work that we have been doing since last December. There will only be a few things missing and unfortunately one of them will be the new ad system. The new ad system will be following the soft launch very shorty along with some minor features.

We hope that the new site will make it easier for the local editors to focus in on writing new stories, posting pictures, and events. While the set up of the page, input of the media, and obtaining of the ads will become very easy with the new set up. This will also make the site more attractive to the viewers as well hopefully helping the repeat visit rate for all of our local editors!

So all in all here is to hoping that the next post will be able the re-launch of OurTown.com!!

Your OurTown Super Hero,

Chris

New type of Ad!

Listeners of the World,

I have been informing all of my viewers about the new features coming to OurTown.com. One of those features was our new Ad-Portal and the new functionality that it brings to the site. Well I also wanted to take some time and focus in on a new "ad type" that we will also be able to offer our local editors which is a "vADz"! These new ad types will allow for our local editors to offer their advertisers not just banner ads, but video ads as well!

These new ads are know as a vADz and they are Revolutionary Targeted Video Advertising. These are ads that give the local editor best of both worlds - they give you the advantage of a video instead of a still ad, and they are very cost effective. A normal vADz will cost advertisers $19.95 if they go through vADz.com, but this will be something free offered to our local editors to use in obtaining new advertisers!

Now how a vAdz works is you upload your media which can be images, videos and sound to the site. Now these will be available to you once you go into the actual video editor. Once inside the editor you have the option of putting in different videos, images, sounds, music, and transitions. You will be able to simply drag and drop them, shorten them, or make anything longer! It is a simple and very cost effective way to create nice video ads for your company and more!

With the addition of vADz and the new Ad Portal we given our local editors two very helpful tools in obtaining and maintaining local advertisers. We hope that with this it will help boost our local editors into the next level!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris