Cheers and Gears for 2011

[Drew Dowdell]

Cheers and Gears for 2011

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December 31, 2010 - Drew Dowdell - Chief Editor CheersandGears.com<br>

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2010 was a year of steady growth for Cheers and Gears in terms of revenue and traffic. I am looking to accelerate that growth for 2011. I fell I should share with you our goals for 2011 and some of the plans in the works that will help us to reach them. <Br><br>

1. More unique content. As some of you may have seen, I am looking to hire out writing work. In the coming year we will be scaling back on the use of our NewFeeder bot and instead generating our own articles to post.
2. Partnerships with automobile dealerships. People who join the writing staff will also get a form letter and business cards to be able to interact with local dealerships. Quite frequently, the manufacturers can't get the newest vehicles to me for long term tests until well after they arrive on lots. In the age of the internet, months become years. By partnering with local dealers, we will offer "Quick Drive"reviews without having to fib our way into an extended test drive at a dealer. At the same time, the dealership will get free advertising by thanking them with a link in the article.
3. We will be adding the ability for direct buys of advertising on Cheers and Gears. This system was up and running as of yesterday and will be fully implemented over the next week. In the absence of direct buy advertising, our normal Google Adsense will be shown automatically. Direct buy advertising generally brings in a higher price than Adsense, but happens less frequently.
4. We will finally be opening our Cheers and Gears Wiki in first quarter 2011. One of our dedicated users is already working to build the basic framework of the Wiki. You should expect to hear something about it in late January to early February.
5. We will be offering unique merchandise not available anywhere else starting summer of 2011. Yes you'll be able to purchase a shirt with a C&G logo on it, but it will be even more than that too.
6. The software that runs the front page needs to be replaced. At the moment, the replacement is beyond my technical abilities, so a programmer might need to be hired. The replacement is needed because the company that built our front page portal appears to have gone defunct. I don't want to risk being left behind on IP.Board upgrades by being unable to upgrade the front page.
7. The Gallery software will be replaced in early January. Hopefully before Detroit NAIAS.This is important because the upload routine in the new software works much better over a poor connection...which is the case when I'm sitting in the Cobo Center in Detroit. I just have to wait for IP Soft to release the damn thing.
8. Hiring Promotional workers - this will be what's called "piecework" where the worker gets paid by the number of links you post. This will greatly generate traffic to Cheers and Gears.
9. New Skins. I have already hired someone to replace all of the skins on Cheers and Gears with new branded skins and colors. We will be rolling out those skins over the next 2 - 4 months.

<Br>As always I welcome your comments and suggestions.

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Happy and Prosperous New Year to all!<br>

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Drew