GetCalhoun.com Blog

Calhoun County Alabama News on GetCalhoun.com

Local news is back on the website of Calhoun County Alabama!

A followup on local news on GetCalhoun.com.

I have always felt that local news on GetCalhoun.com would be a good thing for the website and the community.

The questions I asked were:

• How to go about it? (I'm a one man crew here.)
• Would it be worth the effort to enhance the website.
• Would it be viewed by the local population?

Three months ago, subjective time, I set about to answer those questions and developed a news page to see how it would fare on Google.

The results are in. Not only are folks looking at my Calhoun County Alabama news page but Google has seen it favorably also.

Here's the deal. Since putting on my news hat to try and compete with The Anniston Star is impossible at this time, I lit on a not uncheap news gathering gizmonic that lets me quickly find articles of interest to me, and hopefully you from not only local sources, but from around the world as well.

Even so, editing the page takes about an hour each day. I think it is time well spent.

So, with all the news available, why should you take a peek at MY news page? Let me tell you.

The Calhoun County News is a collection of curated news. That is, it is a compilation of news from different sources. What you'll find is a collection of news snips. If you're interested in learning more, just click on them to go to the source. Each article is well attributed to the source, by the way. That's how curated content works.

What makes my Calhoun County Alabama News interesting, I think, is the articles that I choose to curate. Where else can you learn about what's going on in Anniston or Oxford Alabama as well as Siberia, Japan, and of course, North Korea, Cuba, Paris, and Rome to name a few places?

You'll find interesting, insightful, and often downright strange news to keep you captivated for at least 5 minutes a day. Videos too.

When you curate news the world is your news basket, and a particularly overflowing basket it is!

So, come by and see MY news picks when you think of it and if you have something to add, my contact information is on every other page.

And PS.... Mr. or Mrs. business advertiser... The banner space at the top is always available for you. My local community website called GetCalhoun.com since 2002 is a POWERFUL and CHEAP way to get your biz found and I can PROVE it. Just ask me.

Norm

Local news may be returning to GetCalhoun.com. Let me explain.

I am experimenting with my own version of what they call "curated" news. That is, placing little snips of news from various reporters all over the net on a page with links out to the full articles.

Most of the stories come from Google News which is in itself a huge news aggregation agent or curator. And most of those stories come from local sources, with the Anniston Star being a big one. The Star has always been a major historical source of news prep for just about every other news reporting place locally. The difference today and in years past elsewhere is that some of their material, (as well as many other reporting places) finds its way into my curated news through Google with full attribution and links back.

So, why not just go to the source to begin with? I have no good argument for that, except to say that you can get stories that I find interesting at a glance...and I mean at a glance. You find something you like, click and you're on the source site. That's news curation for you. It's so new that the spell checker doesn't even recognize the term.

Besides local and regional news, you'll find national and global articles. Also videos.

If you're a Drudge fan, you might see some similarity in my page format and his. It is not an accident. Talking about news curation! Drudge was doing it before it was cool! And he's one of the top breaking news sites on the net.

Of course, here at GC, there is just me. It's not like I have even a modest news room, and the temptation is always to be doing something else. Even curation takes a sizable amount of time. So, I'll see how it goes, and see how the page views go, then I'll see if it will continue or not. Personally, I think daily news, even the curated variety, adds spice and credibility to tiny little GC.

Bookmark the Calhoun County regional news page and pop by to see what's new each day. Try it out.

Norm

I'm getting ready for 2013 here at GetCalhoun.com with a new advertising outlook for my customers.

After much thought on the situation we find ourselves in locally, I have lowered my prices for 2013. During the Christmas holidays I visited with a couple of my clients. I explained that when GC started back in 2002 I established a price of $240 for a year of full page advertising. In the last couple of years I finally raised that to $330. Now I have lowered that.

The stated mission of GetCalhoun.com has been to provide affordable web advertising that sells for all, no matter the size of the business. I consider that the above prices are fair for me and thee.

However, due to circumstances out of our control, we find ourselves at the mercy of our own government in the form of higher taxes and lowered sales. It's a man made crisis, wholly fixable. Be that as it may, it's not fixed.

Therefore I decided to lower my charging threshold well below what I think it's worth to the both of us to earn new business. It is a FACT that every time I add an advertising page, it helps all other advertisers.

So, did I lower my price by $50? $100?

No, my page price for 2013 is $50. Same great service. Same great offer of not one, but two pages, plus space on the front (index) page, and all the rest. Everything is the same, except for the price. A full year with GC is now $50. That's 1/6th the price of last year!

Of course, I run the risk, at this price, of some potential customers thinking that at this price they're not paying enough. In other words, of not charging what the service is worth. However, this could not be further from the truth.

GC at my old prices is a tremendous value, but at the new price is a virtual no brainer. No matter if you already have a website, or spend the megabucks elsewhere, there are MANY reasons to take a page here with GC. I will only be too happy to explain why, if you'll just give me a chance.

Just contact me, Norm, the owner and editor of GetCalhoun.com since 2002. 256-405-9713 or GetCalhoun@GetCalhoun.com. You'll be surprised and delighted with what you'll learn about the benefits of coming on with us. Benefits far beyond what you'll pay.

Now, at the risk of going too low with my Anniston advertising prices, I'll see what comes of my new strategy. I require the help and support of you, the local business owner in Calhoun County and the surrounding areas of Jacksonville AL, Talladega AL, Heflin AL, and Randolph County AL to make a go of it. Working together, we can whip this man made disaster we're facing!

Norman Morrison
Owner/Editor GetCalhoun.com