ridertown.com
June 1, 2003
Ridertown Family Page
In late May, ridertown.com opened a new section providing a showcase for St. Marys family web sites. Not only may a St. Marys family with a site of their own have it listed (free of charge), but (for a fee) Ridertown will create a page for any family who doesn't have the know-how or the time to build their own. I listed my family page to start the ball rolling; you can find it by clicking | Family | on the ridertown.com bottom navigation bar.
We're Heading Into Summer
...and everybody is busy outdoors, at the ball park or boating on Lake St. Marys, catching some rays at the construction site, or (shudder) mowing the lawn. And it's probably considered healthy for people who are not us to get away from their computers for a while. But while you're outside during the summer, we're gearing up for fall, which is Ridertown's busiest time of the year in terms of visitors.
That's because The Spring Street Journal. (Auglaize County's Only Locally-Owned Newspaper) provides the first and best print coverage of Roughrider Football, online with complete write-ups and color game photos by Andrews Photography a couple of hours after each game. In 2002 more than 17,000 visitors came to Ridertown during the Roughrider football season.
We're getting ready for football season by offering game sponsorships again this year to all Ridertown.com sponsors. (Last year's articles are still viewable in the ridertown.com Archives section.) For a measly $10.00 per game, a Sponsor can have a banner link to his Ridertown Storefront Page (or existing web site) placed at the top of The Spring Street Journal. write-up of the game. A banner graphic is also applied to each game photo. If you sign up for all 10 regular-season games for $100 before the season starts, your game sponsorship will be continued through all playoff games at no additional charge!
Don't miss this chance to sponsor Ridertown's coverage of a St. Marys tradition. Deadline to sponsor individual games is July 15 - after that date, only full-season sponsorships will be available. Deadline for full-season sponsorships (including free sponsorship of any playoff games) is August 15 - the Chicken Bowl. Contact us today!
Life Is Good - Hit Me!
Unique Visitors to ridertown.com in May 2003 outnumbered those same month previous year 6321 to 5466 (a 15% increase), extending Ridertown's streak to 33 consecutive months bettering same month previous year numbers.
FYI, "Unique Visitors" is a conservative counting method, recording only one request per remote computer per day. Computer stations that are used by more than one person, such as at businesses, libraries, schools, etc. will still only be counted as one visitor each day. Beware of other website claims for "hits" (requests for all file transfers including individual graphics). For example; over a recent 12-month period (2002-2003) Ridertown received 61,000 "Unique Visitors," but more than 7,500,000 "hits."
Solid Advice for a Better Life:
Ridertown is updated at least once every day. "Refresh" your window often to see the latest updates ("Reload" in Netscape). Many browsers load previously visited web pages from a hard drive cache, and may not automatically check the web server for a new version.
Thanks for visiting ridertown.com!
Chris Botkin
This Issue | May 2003 | April 2003 | March 2003
Have Your Machine Talk To My Machine
ridertown.com is owned and operated by Chris Botkin, a fifth-generation St. Marian born and raised who is active in local service organizations and a heck of a nice feller despite a dearth of perspicacity, pulchritude and luck. Ably assisting is Dave Stilwell who is busy with family and volunteering beyond any reasonable bounds of human endurance. We both have day jobs, too. Our goal for Ridertown is world domination, but we'll settle for dragging St. Marys kicking and screaming into the Information Age. Are you going to come quietly, or do we have to use earplugs?
If you're not in Ridertown, you're virtually nowhere.
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Virtual St. Marys, Ohio,
Serving St. Marys since the 20th century.
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