Greetings, welcome to issue 48! First off, I’d like to comment on the incredible increase we’ve seen in visits to the site… About a year after I took over ownership of Kitelife, in August of ’04 we had roughly 31K… In August of ’05 we had roughly 43K… Now, in May of ’06 we’ve seen a stunning 90K+ visitors grace our pages, in one month alone!
Simply said, I’m tickled pink that we’re getting kiting in front of that many people – having literally grown up in this community, it’s the least I could hope to accomplish! In addition to the amazing visitorship we’ve had on the main site, we’ve also seen a separate 355,000 viewings on KiteVideo.net, which we use to host all of our video content… What else can I say, wow!
In this issue, we made a concerted effort to get “pre-event reports” from as many festivals and competitions as possible… Apparently unknown to much of the community, Kitelife happily publishes press releases and photos from coming events in an attempt to bring more exposure and attendance at our events nationwide.
As many of you know, we suffered a hefty set back on our recent trip to France and China when our lap top died… After putting out the word and soliciting donations, the kiting community stepped forward and showed their generosity with an incredible $2,200 in donations (through cash and auction items). This went entirely to Dell, when we obtained an excellent replacement that will actually enhance our ability to do things like video footage in some of our our daily updates, and much more… To all of you who contributed, and helped spread the word, my warmest and most heartfelt thank you.
I’m pleased to let you know that we are schedule to do our traditional Daily Updates during the whole week of WSIKF this August in Long Beach, WA, and during the entire week of AKA Grand Nationals which will be held in Des Moines, IA in October… Stay tuned for news and links for these updates!
Needless to say, we can always use the support of those who recognize our long term goal and want to help us keep expanding our attempts to preserve and promote kiting. Our subscribers are the front line – they’re entered into monthly prize drawings and expanded photo storage in the Kitelife Forum, they are also provided with exclusive access to festival collage videos and high definition sport kite competition videos… If you’d like to get on board, please subscribe today!
This has been an incredibly busy year, I look forward to more and more projects, and to meeting many of you at events around the country… Please never hesitate, say hello and let us know what we can do to improve Kitelife!
Cordially yours,
John Barresi
Publisher/Editor
Kitelife Magazine
