Last week, from July 20th to 26th, 2,786 unique visits were made to this Blog. This reflects the steady increase in readership ever since its launch last November.
It’s already got a very much bigger ‘circulation’ than any other UK GoldWing publication. For example Wingspan, GWOCGB’s magazine, might still be in second place but it’s only distributed monthly and its circulation has now fallen below 1,000 copies. And of course it has a month’s lead time for copy whereas this Blog can respond quickly – the Tram Sunday article and pictures were published the very next day.
The Blackpool Light Parade website gets similar numbers of hits too and that’s currently being updated almost daily, so it’s well worth a regular visit too. There are some very promising irons in the fire for the 2009 Light Parade and I hope to make an announcement about them within the next week.
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By the way the problem we had with the Police escort has been resolved satisfactorily; I had a phone call to say they are happy with what we are planning for this year, they will be delighted to help us get through the Squires Gate traffic lights and they are also looking at helping out at the Gynn Square roundabout too. There is no indication at all that they will beconcerned about about anyone lighting their GoldWing up as we ride the Lights, as we usually do. It’s going to be a great weekend!
Incidentally the Light Parade website has a GoldWing Info Section which includes an All Clubs Events Calendar, which is one of the most popular pages. If you haven’t seen it, you might want to visit. Next weekend is of course Pennine’s WingDing. Let’s hope the weather is as good as the forecast.
So a big thank you to those who have visited and especially to those who have contributed by providing articles or making comments. My aim continues to be providing interesting and readable news and information for the whole UK GoldWing Community. If you want the UK GoldWing Community as a whole to know about something, this Blog is becoming the place to tell them.
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As you will see from some of the recent articles, the Blog can provide a way of letting other Wingers across the Country and abroad know what you and your local Club has been up to within days rather than two months after the event. All you need to do is email whatever you want to say, preferably send some pictures too, and it will appear on the Blog as soon as practical.
You can also use the Blog to advertise and you may have noticed that some commercial advertising has also started to appear, for example AA Breakdowns. This was in response to a request from an advertising agency and while I have no intention of allowing the tail to start wagging the dog, a modest amount of advertising revenue will help to cover some of the IT costs of running the Blog. I have no plans to charge for non-commercial advertising, so any Winger or would-be Winger is still welcome to advertise free of charge. As with club and other activity reports, just email me with whatever you want to say and attach a few pictures, I will then do the rest.
You will hopefully have noticed that there has been no “politics” to speak of on the Blog for some time. I will continue to publish what’s happening on the UK GoldWing scene, including stuff about people or clubs which might prefer that I didn’t, if it’s newsworthy.
But I’m not remotely interested in old battles or hobby horses and I hope that those who are still tempted to indulge themselves, as recently happened on one club’s GoldWing Forum for example, will come to realise that no one else is much interested either.