Can you believe that a year ago today we had our official launch of the crazy, new concept for a website that publishes only positive information about the people, organizations, and businesses of Valparaiso?
We shoul have been long dead by now by most established wisdom, though ValpoLife.com is rocking and rolling behind the momentum from all of our readers who embrace the whole concept behind the site, and get personally involved to make it better each and every day. The litany of doubters when we launched included those who suggested:
- Good news doesn't sell - folks just won't stay interested in positive only information. Car crashes, political corruption, crime, scandals, people complaining, and negative news sells papers as they say.
- Valpo is too small a market to launch a new media concept into. It is only 35,000 people. You won't have enough to cover.
- If your focus is only good news, you will run out of things to talk about. Not enough people are online, and folks are too set into their existing ways of getting information.
- I would love to hire you when you fail at this.
- Who are you to tell us what Life in Valpo is like? Why do we need something new?
Fifty-two weeks after our launch, we stand proud of the work we've accomplished, and honestly think we have just scratched the surface of all the good in this community. We could never have done this alone, and we have so many faithful and "Positively Passionate" ValpoLife readers to thank for building this whirling dervish of positive momentum.
They have made our website audience very attractive for all those smart, forward thinking, positive, community minded advertisers to show their support in. In the one year we've been running, ValpoLife.com has brought together:
- 150,000 visits
- 470,000 pages viewed
- 6,000 articles
- 2,600 events
- 500 contributors
- 400 videos produced
- 35,000 video plays
- 15,000 photos uploaded
- 360,000 photos viewed
- A Facebook following of more than 2,700 fans
- A Twitter group of over 1,000 followers
It's truly incredible to look back on this past year and think what a small and nimble team of four full-time and four part time employees can accomplish when we are all focused on positivity. Combine all that we've put up online over the past year with a steadily growing group of sponsors, advertisers, and partners, and we're totally jacked about what we know we can accomplish in the year ahead.
There are organizations that deserve recognition like
- Porter Health System
- Porter Starke
- Smiles by Arnold
- Cavanaugh Orthodontics
- Barney and Pendleton
- Air One Photo
- Prudential Executive
- Steindler Signs
- Culver's
- Schultz Floral
- Porter County Fair
that stepped up early, all believing in the power of positive media. These are folks who had faith when we were just one guy with a nutty idea working above his garage, with a few dedicated people that bought into that nutty idea enough to pour themselves into their work.
From my very first meeting with Bill Hanna and Lori Good who clearly got the idea right away and have always been big supporters, Mayor Costas and many of the city staff have helped in so many ways. The Parks Department and the Valparaiso Community Festivals and Events jumped in with us right away and we have been able to capture hours of video and thousands of photos of their great events. Jim Doane at the high school, and Stacey Schmidt on the elementary school level were a few of the early and active supporters and helped to get the word out about everything going on at our schools. Jon Groth, man of so many hats in town, has been one of our most ardent cheerleaders, and Bob Phelps, teacher to many of our young video crew, has been awesome. Olga Granat, Herb Hofer, Michelle Bush, Chris Fields, Sam Rasmussen, Joe Otis, Jeanette Gray, and so many others leading our kids each day have been an inspiration.
We reached out to all the non-profits, churches, community organizations, and everyone else that has good news to share, and those folks were smart as heck and realized what a good outlet ValpoLife was to help make others aware of their great effort. I could not name them all adequately, though the Boys and Girls Clubs, Kiwanis, Banta Feeds, Rebuilding Together, and the United Way got involved early and often with us.
Partners to see the vision of how we could help them spread their great efforts and content included the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, Biz Voice magazine, LakeShore Public TV and Radio, Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center, Chicago Street Theatre, and WVLP right here in Valpo.
There are hundreds of folks that just add their ray of sunshine to our world like Cathy Brown, Donna Flanagin, Sue Hoffman, Sherry Williams, Dan McGuire, Kathy Bledsoe, Marti Masterson, Mindy Reineke, Susan Antoszewski, Dustin Wunderlich, Miguel Rosario, and Virgil Sweet who have been our team in spirit early on.
So critical are the people who have worked beside me every day from the very beginning with Aaron, Kristel, David, Brandon, Tyler, Josiah, Leslie, Danielle, Michelle, and folks who helped along the way like Josh, Taylor, Austin, to our current crew of Brett, David, Kyle, Karin, Mark, Austin, Ryan, Maureen, Kole, Laura, and anyone else I am missing who has played some part. You have worked to accomplish what should not have been possible, and that happened because you each gave a *%^! as I like to say about what you were building and why. My wife Natalie and my family deserve more thanks than anyone for working beside me, encouraging me when it seemed like this was really a goofy idea, and for putting up with me and a "site launch crazy period" that has lasted for the past year.
So thanks to all of you. Whether you sent in photos of your mom's on Mothers' Day, emailed us your church bulletin, invited us to attend a class event, or let us know about a fund-raising effort you had going on in town. Everyone who interacts and encourages us on Facebook or Twitter, and to the hundreds who have come up to us on the street to say, "hey - you are one of those ValpoLife people, and I like what you are doing", inspires us. Those of you that wave when the ValpoLife truck goes by keep us doing what we are doing.
It seems like this positive thing is really catching on. It's all Good.