Category: Blog

18 months. It has been 18 months since RealCrozetVA was founded.  RealCrozetVA was started in September of 2005 with a simple goal:

I am starting this blog somewhat on a whim, so as to provide a forum for Crozet to (hopefully) discuss their thoughts about Crozet’s growth.

My whimsical vision also sees this as a place to discuss Crozet’s goings-on, music and cultural events, local vineyards, etc. This will be a slow start, as my business and my blog and my life already consume so much of my time. Please be patient, and if anybody wants to help out, please let me know.

You may start here to learn a little bit about some of what has been happening in Crozet.

And it has grown slowly but surely. After a recent mailing to raise awareness of the blog, traffic has spiked. Hopefully we will be able to keep some of that traffic and interest. That it has been over 18 months since its inception is amazing; it feels like only yesterday that I got the bug to start it.

One thing differentiates realcrozetva from some of the other “hyper local” blogs that have been discussed in the re.net – it was started purely for the community, with no desire to gain profit (much like cvillenews.com, but even more localized). Only very recently have I added the “Search for Homes” tab, and I debated and struggled with that for quite some time; I do not want to detract from the site’s being for the Crozet community. One of the best features of the site is the Community Map, which shows many, although not yet all, businesses in Crozet.

I cannot yet attribute a single transaction to the site, and don’t really care; that was never the goal. The relationships I have had the opportunity to develop, the ways in which I have been able to give back to the community, primarily due to this blog, and even more importantly, emails such as this make it worthwhile –

Good morning… quick note on your blog.  … I’m a big fan of the RealCrozet blog. I’ve passed it along to many new friends I’ve made here.  It’s great … well done, and a wonderful way to pull the community together.  Thank you!

The goal remains the same – to give something to the Crozet community, to provide a forum that is used to connect and bring together Crozetians, new and old. Here’s to another 18 months.

* I have cross-posted this with RealCentralVA; it and RealCrozetVA have completely different audiences, and I think this post will be interesting to both.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, crozet

Taking the idea of a reader responding to the post asking for ideas on how to raise awareness of RealCrozetVA, I am doing a very limited mailing (it costs a lot of money!) to some of the Crozet neighborhoods. We have had some interesting discussions lately, on and off-line. Thank you.

The postcard is below – feel free to download it, print it out and give it to your friends and neighbors. As always, if you have a story idea or want to write one yourself, please contact me.

Technorati Tags: crozet

I thought I would share this recent email exchange with a reader:

No story here, just wanted to say that the site you have put together is great, and Crozet really needs this intimate type of discussion – my suggestion would be how can we get more people to know about this site – seems as though a lot of my neighbors haven’t heard of it and I’d like to see more people comment on these stories – there are too many “no comments” on really pertinent issues.
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Regarding awareness of the site – this is something that I am struggling with. Ideally, I would like to do a bit of advertising or even a mailing to the 22932 zip code, but frankly I don’t have the funds to do that. On the other side, I guess I could accept ads on the site, but I feel that that would detract from the perceived impartiality of the site.
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Thats a tough call re: ads – providing funds vs. detracting from the feel of the site.  I suppose local ads probably wouldn’t be too distractive, but even things like a posterboard sign at the 4-way stop with the website name could be pretty effective for people to get in their heads…either way, I’m sure word of the site will spread.

So … here’s my challenge to those of you who do read this site – email it to a friend who might be interested … mention it at your HOA meetings … tell your friends about it. This site was started to provide a forum for Crozetians new and old. If you are a business owner, post your business (after emailing me for the login) to the Crozet Community Map.

And as always, if you have a story idea, please let me know. If you have a story or opinion to share, write it. If you go to a local meeting, share your thoughts. I’ll post most anything so long as it’s reasonably well-written and pertinent to Crozet.

Technorati Tags: crozet