This was a very busy weekend at RiverheadLOCAL world headquarters.
We launched three (!) new features:
1. RiverheadLocal's Saturday morning Week in Review newsletter recapping the local news highlights of the week just ended.
We sent it out to our registered users as of Friday and it got rave reviews:
"The newsletter is wonderful way to keep in touch with all the events in the happening town of Riverhead!"
"It's a good idea done well."
"Wow! This is fantastic. Great idea!"
"RiverheadLocal is the best thing ever to happen to Riverhead."
I think this last one (quote from an actual voicemail message) is a bit over the top, but it was nice to hear anyway.
I thought about calling our newsletter "The News Reviewed" but then I figured no sense teeing off the folks out in Mattituck. There's a lot more of them than us, so we'd lose in a rumble. And have you seen Grant Parpan in person? (He's one of at least four former football players at that company. Enough said.)
If you want to sign up for the newsletter, you'll find a sign-up box on the bottom left-hand corner of every page.
2. We created a Public Notices section and succeeded in convincing the Town of Riverhead to let us publish them for free, as a public service. State law requires the town (the school district, fire district, and any government entity) to put the notices in a "newspaper of record" which is defined as a paper in general circulation in the town that's eligible for a US Postal Service second-class mail permit. There's only one of those, The News-Review. But the town can also publish its notices in other places (and it often does, in Newsday or The Community Journal) so why not do it digitally too? As we know, people today are online in ever-increasing numbers. Well, long story short, we got it done. But not before it was decided, after much deliberation, they needed a Town Board resolution to "accept donation of services" from RiverheadLocal. Holy cow. (Or as my kids would say, OMG LMAO.)
You will find the town's public notices (including RFPs and bid requests) in the NEWS menu on the top menu bar.
3. We have just launched a new classified ads section! This is something we've been trying to figure out for our site almost since we started it. Nothing worked well enough to even try it live — until now.
Heard about this system from the Independent Online News Publishers group we belong to. Funny coincidence: The publisher of this software is a guy I worked closely with a few years ago in my former life when we redesigned the newspapers.
I liked this software right away — it's intuitive and easy-to-use. I originally wanted to offer free classifieds, but we have to pay a monthly fee for this, so we need to cover our costs. However, we made the prices extremely affordable. We believe that local online advertising (classified or display) shouldn't cost local people and businesses an arm and a leg.
We made the section "live" yesterday and now we need beta testers to check it out. For a limited time, we're offering 30 days FREE. (Limit two ads per person or business.) We need people to submit ads and give us feedback on the new system. Give it a try and tell us what you think. Click here to begin.
Please note: You'll have to provide payment information (the software doesn't allow me to diable that) but your card isn't charged unless you keep your ad up beyond the first 30 days.
You will find the Classified section in the MARKETPLACE menu on the top menu bar.
And now, on to headier, more important things:
Giants or Pats? Who will emerge as Super Bowl XLVI Champions?
I'm no football expert — not by a long shot — but I think the Pats are going to beat Big Blue. They just looked more formindable. Pete says it's Giants all the way. What do you think?
Weigh in on this important question. Take the RiverheadLocal Poll.
A big THANK YOU to all the people who sent in their winter photos this weekend! Great stuff, everyone! If you haven't seen the slideshow, check it out.
Last but not least, thanks to everyone for all the well wishes for RiverheadLOCAL, which celebrated its second birthday Jan. 19. Thank you especially to Bob Castaldi for this really awesome surprise on Thursday:
