***WoodCentral is Eight Years Old!***
Ellis Walentine
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 It was eight years ago this past Monday that WoodCentral opened its virtual doors to the woodworking community. Looking back on opening day, I can't believe I was still in my 40s, we had exactly one page, and nobody knew about us except Jim Cummins and me. It didn't take long to catch on, though. I wish I had a graph of how our pages and traffic have increased in the past eight years. It's been fantastic, and very gratifying to me and to all our dedicated volunteers who have helped grow and maintain this unique island in the sea of Internet woodworking sites. Today, WoodCentral has grown to more than 3,000 web pages, including 698 articles (and more on the way), 801 shop shots, 175+ book reviews, 1,411 links (and hundreds more awaiting upload), 47 bi-monthly "News & Views" columns in Woodworker West magazine, the Badger Pond Article archive, and a host of other features. Oh, and I almost forgot: 564,991 posted messages on our nine messageboards! WoodCentral attracts between 120,000 and 150,000 unique visitors per month, sometimes as many as 15,000 per day, and delivers close to 3 million page impressions per month. All this was founded on my eternal belief in and respect for you, our visitors. WoodCentral is and always has been, by and for you. Thanks so much for being part of our success story. I'm looking forward to many happy returns in the coming months and years. Best regards, |
