Monday, June 21, 2010

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

Monday, June 14, 2010

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

Friday, June 11, 2010

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