2009 Resolutions

I'm not real big on New Year's Resolutions, but it is as good a time as any to reflect and to look ahead.

The Past.

NewsOverCoffee launched on March 28, 2006 in its current form. I had first tried to launch one in July of 2005, but it didn't work out as planned. Through word of mouth and a few local controversies (the Borough Government Center and Teacher's Contract), more people found out about the site as 2006 went on and have stayed with it since then, telling friends and neighbors and helping it to grow.

The Present.

This past year has been nothing short of remarkable when it comes to readership. The site had over 100,000 visitors (109,378 to be exact) and even more page views with over 22,000 unique visitors. The average visit lasted one minute and forty one seconds.

80% of the visitors came more than once and a remarkable 31% visited 100 or more times (with 20% at 200+)!

What still surprises me the most is that NewsOverCoffee is the top search result on Google when you type "Nazareth News".

The Future.

Looking forward, I hope to continue to keep the site updated, find new ways to promote the community through the site, and have more people engage in contributing to the content.

If you have ideas or features you'd like to see added, please let me know either in comments or by email - editor@newsovercoffee.com

If you are interested in writing about the community, updating us on meetings you go to or events you attend, let me know - everyone would appreciate the information.

The Hope.

Undoubtedly 2009 is going to be a tough year. We are fortunate to have a community with a lot of people who give their time to serve us from the employees of the boroughs and townships, to the volunteers at our churches, foodbank, library, organizations, associations, and schools.

Most of all in this coming year I hope this site can be a place where all of their good work can be recognized and awareness of their work helps each group to have enough support and resources to be successful at a time we most need them to be.