Review - have your say

Time to look at the map again, we have now produced a weekly edition of this newsletter for 3 months, the equivalent in volumes to over a year if it had been a monthly publication. Like many projects it has both grown and is taking up more time than expected.

We started out with a simple concept, produce a weekly newsletter that both educated and informed as it came out and built over time into a useful reference resource. Many parts are unique, containing original collections of information not available elsewhere, other parts are built from experience and some are filtered information from many sources to provide a convenient encapsulated view.

Previously we had produced an ad hock printed newsletter for clients only, and this had become monthly.  This was supplemented by an online news page updated throughout the month. We found this limiting, in that the page count was fixed, and as the circulation grew it all had to be printed, collated and posted. Logically the next step was to produce it on-line,  and we played with the idea of a monthly magazine with a weekly emailed newsletter, but decided more could be achieved with a weekly online newsletter.  We initially had an email reminder, but few saw the need for this with editions coming out every Friday, and with problems encountered in the email delivery with spam filters, we dropped this. We also merged the Camera Images Club into the newsletter project, which meant we had a very large amount of information on locations pre developed, enough we originally estimated to last near to 9 months, however we haven't used very much of this yet, as we soon discovered that many of the places featured shut down for the winter and there seemed little point in telling you about exciting locations, and then saying you couldn't actually visit them, so we have written and in many cases photographed most of the locations featured, as well as some ahead. We plan to increase the number of featured locations each week, so the location side grows rapidly and last week we had the first of a series where special weeks feature a specific topic or interest and we produce a lot more for this week, with supporting articles, we are well ahead on the development of some of these.

Some parts we have not developed as we might, others have developed faster. Some parts are developed but not implemented like the county index of locations to go to. To start, with only a handful of locations up, it would have been pointless to include it. Now we are getting to the point where it will be shortly introduced.

The web design was chosen to be easy to use and also to use older techniques that all browsers would be able to manage. It has some limitations and we will probably move away from this on the next revision, to a more modern looking approach, and one that is easier to go directly to pages within sections.

We have played with a number of ideas, looked at what we could do, and at what else is available.

Time now to look at where we have got to, and where we should be going, what are we doing right, what are we not, are we duplicating information available in some areas, and would we use our energies in a more valuable way if we specialised, or concentrated on some of the unique, if most time demanding side. Should it be weekly or monthly, should we include a correspondence style course, photographic experience days, or other events, should it be one publication or two (or more).

Our policy initially was not to have any advertisements, but we have been reviewing this especially in view of the large amount of time that is needed to produce it. To be able to achieve what we have with the newsletter some other projects have had to be delayed, and realistically if it is going to grow to use more time, we have to make it pay for at least a part of this time. We know no one likes the idea of subscriptions, so advertising seems the obvious solution.

We have had a lot of feedback, most from existing clients of the training side, either on the phone or in emails. We also sent out in December shortly after starting the newsletter, a questionnaire and stamped addressed envelope to return it, to all who had been receiving the printed newsletter. In addition when we have people here on training we often discuss the newsletter and what people have found helpful, as well as what they would like to see. We know its gaining in popularity and usage from the web statistics of load on our servers, although some of this will have been brought about by including a mention of it in advertisements in 14 national publications.

However before we decide on changes and some would be advantageous, we would like to invite you to have your say. We are not going to publish the response, so feel free to say what you feel. email us, or use the response form if you prefer available from the contact us page, but please do it this week, so we can consider your views before making any decision. If you have told us previously what you think, still please look again at what we have done to date and let us have your feedback now. We are expecting to make a decision and start implementing some changes within the next two weeks.

Our next planned review point after this is in a further 6 months.