I upgraded the blog software this morning. Please let me know if you notice any issues.
This Is Part of What RealCrozetVA is Trying to Accomplish
Courtesy of Seth Godin:
Here’s how I would do it. Assume you’ve got six people in your office. Each person is responsible to do two things each day:
- Interview a local business, a local student or a local political activist. You can do it by phone, it can be very short and it might take you ten minutes.
- Get 20 households to ‘subscribe’ by giving you their email address and asking for a free subscription. You can use direct contact or flyers or speeches to get your list.
-
…..
Twice a week, send out the ‘newspaper’ by email. After one week, it will have more than 500 subscribers and contain more than 20 interesting short articles or quotes about people in the neighborhood. Within a month, (if it’s any good) every single person in town who matters will be reading it and forwarding it along to others.
It will cost you nothing. It will become your gift to the community. And it will be a long lasting asset that belongs to you, not to the competition. (And yes, you can do this if you’re a plumber or a chiropractor. And yes, you can do this if ‘local’ isn’t geographic for you, but vertical).
(I’m going without the print version, though)
New Commenting Plugin on RealCrozetVA
I have just installed the Intense Debate plugin here on RealCrozetVa – I’m hoping that the new comment interface isn’t too intimidating. Please let me know if you have any problems commenting.
Follow RealCrozetVA on Twitter
Have you heard of Twitter? I have long had a Twitter account for my main personality – Jim Duncan.
Create an account on Twitter and then follow alng there! (hint: it’s a good way to catch breaking news, too – like the fire last week)
What’s Twitter?
PS – You can also follow me on I’m now Tweeting at RealCrozetVA and RealWaynesboroVA but my primary account – @JimDuncan – is where I’d suggest you start..
Update – After this post and the subsequent comments on RealCentralVA, I’m changing my thinking. Follow RealCrozetVA if you’d like, but I think we’d all benefit more if you followed @JimDuncan.
Upgraded to WordPress 2.7
I’ve upgraded to the new version of WordPress. Please let me know if you notice any problems with the site. Thanks!
A Few Changes to RealCrozetVA
You may have noticed that I implemented a new theme last week. This week I’m changing things up a little bit more. I replaced the flickr sidebar with a large scrolling flickr slideshow with photos tagged with “Crozet.”
I’ve also added a widget in the sidebar that is a slightly more blatant announcement that I happen to be a Realtor. Since I started writing this blog in September of 2005, I’ve never hidden the fact that I make my living as a Realtor, but I don’t think I’ve every come out and said, “I’m a Realtor!” If you think that this detracts from the site, please let me know. It’s meant to be a passive, non-intrusive announcement that I do happen to have a job other than writing here.
If something doesn’t work or look right, please let me know. Thank you sincerely for reading.
As always, you can receive updates from RealCrozetVA by clicking here to sign up for email alerts or here to receive RSS notifications.
If you’re reading this in your RSS reader, please take a look at the new theme.
Comments Feed for RealCrozetVA
I’m still working on implementing this in the theme … by request –
Subscribe to RealCrozetVA by clicking here.
Don’t miss a comment – subscribe to comments by clicking here!
Three Years of RealCrozetVA
On 13 September 2005, I posted to RealCrozetVA for the first time. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.
The goal remains the same now as it did then – to provide a forum for Crozetians to learn about and discuss growth issues, cultural events, news … whatever the community dictates. A lot has changed, and a lot remains the same.
While this is a “hyper-local” blog and I’m sure I could do some things to get business from it (I happen to be a Realtor), getting business was never the goal.
The offer to the community remains – if you want to write for RealCrozetVA, please let me know. At the very least, I’d appreciate your telling your friends about this site.
Merge RealCrozetVA?
I wonder – might the day come when RealCrozetVA.com merges with a print paper?
A reminder to RealCrozetVA readers
In September, RealCrozetVA was opened to all writers and contributors, furthering the drive to create a community hub of discussion and debate. Tuesday’s elections provide a great opportunity for somebody to craft a summary of the results.
Will Crozetian Arin Sime, fresh off the News Virginian’s endorsement, pull out a victory in the 24th District race?
Will challenger Ann Mallek upend incumbent David Wyant?
Log in (it’s on the right, under “Meta”), write a story, save it as a draft, and then email me to let me know.