Winston-Salem Business Magazine - April 2008 - (Page 14)

Smitty’s Notes Keeps it Real BY SCOTT CARPENTER Smitty’s Notes, with advertising as secondary. “I did a few things right when starting Smitty’s Notes, including drawing knowledge from a wonderful role model – Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist,” Smitty said. The input from Craig greatly contributed to the initial success of Smitty’s Notes, and he continues to be a great mentor for me.” Like Craigslist, Smitty’s Notes is Jeff “Smitty” Smith, Founder and editor of Smitty’s Notes one of the few online forums that survived the dot-com bust a few years site and monthly e-newsletter that began a little more than a decade ago with about a dozen subscribers and emerged as one of the most powerful information sources in the Triad. Smitty’s Notes now boasts more than 10,000 subscribers to the monthly newsletter, and while most media outlets are experiencing declines in readership, interest in Smitty’s Notes continues to climb. Smitty attributes much of the success of Smitty’s Notes to one thing: keeping it real. Many of the other online community calendars focused on selling advertising and often let the contents slide. Not Smitty. For him, news content always has been and always will be the driver behind back and continued to flourish. After publishing Smitty’s Notes for more than a decade, Smitty still likes to beat the mainstream media on occasion by breaking a big story in Smitty’s Notes. “I’m amazed by how far we have come in ten years with Internet technology, a social networking Web site and a community newsletter,” Smitty said. “In a relatively few years, online sources like Smitty’s Notes have become the norm for people looking to find out what’s going on in our community and even breaking news. I had no idea of where this would go when I began Smitty’s Notes for a small circle of friends in 1997.” With the enormous success of Smitty’s Notes, a few misperceptions Remember a few years ago when there was a dot-com everything. Long gone are Web failures such as Webvan.com, Pets.com and eToys.com. With a decent idea and a domain registration, it seemed that almost anyone could jump into the Web frenzy. During the dot-com start-up years, individuals and organizations in hundreds of communities across the country also started Web sites and enewsletters dedicated to informing people about community events. Good idea. But only a few survived, including Winston-Salem’s Smitty’s Notes. Jeff “Smitty” Smith is the founder and editor of Smitty’s Notes, a Web 14 APRIL 2008 http://webvan.com http://Pets.com http://eToys.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Winston-Salem Business Magazine - April 2008

Winston-Salem Business Magazine - April 2008 Contents Wake Forest University Smitty's Notes BBB Marketplace Ethics Awards Better Business Bureau A Winning Market Strategy ENFO Solutions Serving Winston-Salem for 80 Years Business Bites Money Matters Intelligent Communities Smart Marketing Local Business Calendar

Winston-Salem Business Magazine - April 2008

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