Beaufort County Now completes its second full year | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Beaufort County Now completes its second full year, in current existence, and is pleased to announce a continuance in traffic increases. 2011 was a building year for Beaufort County Now (BCN), our prototype of our proprietary Symbiotic Publisher CMS (Content Management System).

   We spent a good bit of time refining the technology, or script, and then honing the look (design) and navigation of BCN. Twice during 2011, we reloaded the BCN data into an updated variation of the Symbiotic Publisher script, the last instance in late December - the consequence - Beaufort County Now is one of the best functioning informational platforms in the world.

   The key to Beaufort County Now, and it took me over a year to completely figure this out, is that BCN is first and foremost an informational platform. This is how the business model will perform best, it is how the information model will be of a better service to the public.

   What is an informational platform?

   Think facebook as the most popular and best known informational platform. It is a great model for what it does, keeping folks in touch with one another, but how much real constructive information is there on that platform, that is not diluted by more insignificant information that one must sift through. And there is the question of quality control, and theme based / geocentric exchange of data.

   At Beaufort County Now, which is the informational model for the prospective County NOW franchise, it is all about control - from the technology, to the design, navigation, and format, to what is published and what is not - it is all about the control.

   Having said that, our informational model allows for a discussion of all ideas, community events, and up to date news and information, which should broaden the perspective of a good many folks. We do this by requesting information from everyone on every issue; however, we reserve the right to edit based on a variety of factors, chief among them: Pertinence of said information to the betterment of the local community, and since it is the world wide web, the betterment of society as a whole. Decisions by the publisher are made in a purely subjective manner, so a word of advice: We don't publish known lies, porn, or abject stupidity (unless it proves a point that we are interested in). Other than that we publish every issue in an almost immediate manner.

   One might ask: Really, why would anyone care about publishing with BCN?

    For a variety of reasons, but chief among them: Format (1st) - our script allows us to construct a logical, navigable category in a timely manner, which allows us to publish usually within 24 hours after receiving content. Just as importantly, since BCN is a magazine format (the only one in this region), accordingly, we can make your information look good, which aids to its reception with our readers. Quality control (2nd) - We segregate information, by this elaborate and responsive category system, for better navigation, and most importantly, and this is a hands on issue, we strive to remain consistent in our information delivery. Traffic (3rd) - This may be the most important - our traffic is consistently ascending in such a manner, we have few peers in this region. People should want to be read if they are determined to write, create.

   To make this point on traffic, I include our traffic numbers, here below, for 2011.

   It may look just a jumble of big numbers, which thankfully it actually is, so to make this interpretation more simple, I reduced these larger numbers to daily totals, shown below, from February, 2011 through December, 2011:

      Unique visits -         697 per day
         (unique IP addresses logged on)
      Page views -          4,284 per day
      Files accessed -   93,324 per day
      Hits -                     96,913 per day

   Below, we offer the statistic sheet for December. Notice how we had a significant uptrend at the end of December. I hope this is a sustainable trend into the new year. So far in the first two recordable days of January the trend is intact.

   Publisher's note: In our next frank discussion of our various business models, we will talk about advertisement plans, and how we can aid you in marketing your product.