Well, with the Studio Tour done and gone, winter creeping in and life slowing a bit, it seems a good time to sit down and reassess.
DixonDallies began as an attempt to showcase a little bit of the creativity that takes place here, in and around our little corner of the world. While it does this, it hasn't yet lived up to its full potential. The reasons for this are not entirely clear to me. It could be the cost associated with participation, it could be that the technical side of blogging is too taxing to fool with, or it could just be that blogging isn't something that most people feel compelled to do. In its initial outing, we had about 10 participants, with just 4 or 5 of us contributing to the blog and now it has sat mostly silent waiting for new material since late August. However, we still get visitors! Lots of them. Folks want to see what, if anything is going on. So before I close the curtain on the experiment, I want to shift the focus a bit and alter the way we locals interact with the site. Hopefully, these changes will liven things up a bit and in turn, allow the Dixon curious a better online view of the creative and commercial life here in the Embudo Valley.
So what will be different?
First of all, to pay for the site, we will feature sponsorships by local businesses, entrepreneurs and artists. We'll have a section specifically for local vacation rentals and possibly for long-term rental properties. The fees for these ads will start at $5 a month, with discounts for yearly subscriptions. Bloggers will get free access now. If you want to blog, but are intimidated by the process, we'll set up instructional classes if there's sufficient interest. We're also toying with the idea of doing an artist of the month type feature where we'll come around to your studio or workspace with a video camera to create a multimedia presentation to put up on the website. If you are interested in participating in this process (as a reporter, photographer or videographer) let us know!
What will remain the same?
The site will remain blog-centric, which means the creativity in our area will still be the focus of the daily posts. The idea is still to give curious outsiders a look at what is going on in town as well as to keep all of us abreast of what our neighbors are up to... creatively and commercially speaking.
If you are a business owner or a vacation rental owner, you'll be hearing from us within the next few days. If you want to advertise here on the Dallies, and you don't hear from us by Thanksgiving, click on the ADVERTISE ON THE DALLIES! link over on the side, fill out the form and we'll get you signed up.
Winter is certainly the best time to dally anyway, so let's see where this wind blows us. Happy Holidays,
Jeff
