It's been a little over two years since Heartland RaceNews.com got started. The hits and visits continue to grow and I'm looking for an even bigger 2008. Last year saw over 2 million "hits" to the site - double the traffic of 2006.
Some plans for 2008 include
- FINALLY getting some stickers out. Last year with the hectic summer, the move to Omaha (and then back to Lincoln) kind of put a damper in that plan. This year I plan on getting stickers ready before the season. I MAY even think of having a third-party (such as cafepress.com) do HRN-related merchandise (tees, sweatshirts, etc).
- Ads - I'm going to start selling ad space on the website. The goal: pay a little bit of internet bills, fund some newer ideas I have for the site, and yeah - maybe a little gas money for some of the races. I haven't quite figured out pricing.
- More driver/owner/promoter/etc. interviews. At the very least, I may do a "10 questions with so-and-so email." Give each person the same 10 questions and see how they answer. I think it would be a fun way to get to know the people involved in racing. If you're interested in participating, let me know with an email
- Video? Maybe, but I'm not sure about how to implement that. Those who know me personally know I'm a huge photography buff and I'm partial to still photos. Plus, I'm not sure I'll have time to do much video editing. What I may do is shoot the victory lane interviews and post them to the site for starters. On the subject of of photos...
- Online photo ordering - no more emails/delivery at track/etc. I'm looking to set up with an online ordering system where the billing is handled externally and the pics are shipped to you. Continuing with photos...
- Shooting more candids/people shots - Action stuff is fun, and there will be plenty of it but I'd like to get more shots of people in the pits doing the things they do to keep the show going. There may have nights were the action stuff is thin and I may take the camera up to the pits/stands and do some shooting there. Drivers: you may see me wandering around your pit area a little more this year - but I'll keep out of your way!
- Changes to the look/feel of the site. These will be implemented slowly though. I MAY think about providing a "mobile" version of the site formatted for cell phone/PDA, if it can be done easily.
- Creating something along the lines of Chris Moses "Oval Operators." The plan is that anyone running a Heartland Race News sticker on their car would get a link to their driver home page/dirtdrivers driver page/and if the driver has neither, a brief "blog post about the driver" that would have a link on the "links" section of the website.
Of course, if you have ideas for things you want to see - let me know by sending me an email
And finally THANK YOU to the readers, the drivers and tracks for making this whole thing possible and one of the most enjoyable things I've done.
-Jason
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