Report for April, 2001

Happy May-Day, members. Here is the end-of-the-month state-of-the-union address for Dave's Garden's performance in April, 2001.

We had another strong month. Some interesting things I found this month were:

Our members are spending less time on the site as they did during the winter. They are probably outside in the garden most of the day, as I am. :)

We are getting lots of new visitors, usually finding us through search engines like Google and Yahoo. Every day we have between 400 and 600 visitors find us through Google.

The journals are alive and buzzing with new items, more entries, and uploaded images. 447 new items were created, 1,958 entries were logged, and 192 new images were uploaded.

The Plants database is quickly approaching 400 types of plants. 42 plants were added in April.

In all, you will find that this has been another month of strong growth for DG, and continues our momentum in an upward fashion. Here are some more numbers for you to crunch on:

Membership growth:

We have a total of 1,593 members
384 signed up in April.
This is up from 333 in March.

Historical Pageviews:

Historical Visitor Count:

Forums Activity:

There were 9,116 total messages posted in April.

Final Note:

DG is the great site that it is simply because of our members making it great. We are a large community of gardeners and farmers, sharing a common interest in the land and using DG to bring us into the same room. Friendships are formed and ideas and information are exchanged. I thank each and every member for helping make DG the world's best gardening community.

Best,
Dave Whitinger

BRAVO!

Woohoo! Dave and Trish - congrats. To paraphrase, you guys built it, and they're coming - in droves.

Many, many thanks to you for creating a warm, friendly environment for so many folks from around the world to meet and share their expertise and questions, and their triumphs and sorrows, both in and out of the garden.

Yep Yep Yep! (as the little martians on Sesame Street used to say)

Way to go, Dave and Trish!!!! Another great month!!!!!!

There are so many new names on the member list. Just image how many threads there would be if each new member started a new thread. Come on Newbies, don't be shy. We are a very friendly group of people. Stop by the chat room for coffee in the morning. We have a lot of laughs with our coffee. Great way to start the day!

Yipee!!!!
Sharon

Great report Dave - we seem to be going from strength to strength and it's all down to you, Trish and the wonderful people at Daves Garden.

A great bit of news to start my day with! Happy to be a member here! Everybody keep up the great work!

2000 is coming up in early June!!! Party time!

Right on Trish & Dave!!! 1600 + members! YES!

What a great report - I am so happy for you guys :)

[ Removed per member request. - Admin]

I hopes from the beginning that it would be useful to some poeple. I never expected that DG would become a community of folks, though. That happened accidentally, when I setup a little forum so the existing members (all 60 of them) could chat with each other about DG features.

We ended up creating new forums, new features, and the rest is history. People came in droves, attracted by the sweet scent of a friendly atmosphere for truly friendly gardeners.

We have lots of plans for DG, but foremost is to continue to nurture this community of gardeners and farmers. There is a lot that falls under that simple mission statement, but really is means: More forums, more information presented in journals and plants database listings. Seed saving information has become a priority as we try to serve those heirloom growers.

And, of course, the storefront. I want to sell my own seeds, and I want others to be able to sell seed via DG also. I work on the programming of the storefront almost every night for 2-3 hours, and Trish is hard at work setting up bank accounts, merchant services, working with our advisory board, and other details. We're moving forward at a consistent pace, and I think within 3 weeks we should be close to actually launching the store.

Dave

[ Removed per member request. - Admin]

Thanks. We're not going to be selling plants anytime in the foreseeable future, because of the heavy regulations that USDA has placed on plants. :(

Seeds are much easier, and will definitely be a cornerstone of the DG storefront.

Crafts will also be sold. That dept is headed up by Trish. We'll be launching the crafts store in about a month, and the seedstore should open a month after that.

We will have an application process, so that anybody who wants to sell some products can "apply" to be a seller. Then Trish and I will approve the seller to sell, and then they can start building their store (which will be, of course, automated).

We have a group of long-time DG members who are on an "advisory board", which will help us in making tough decisions that may affect the health of the storefront.

The closer we get, the more exciting it becomes. I can't wait to sell my own seeds - I'll should have approximately 100 different heirloom veggie seeds for sale, and Trish will have at least a hundred flower varieties. We also have other heirloom and flower growers lined up to sell seeds. Anyone else interested (and reading this) should E-mail me direct and let's chat.

Dave

AWESOME - simply awesome.....I love this site, and am very excited about all the new members, new forums and all that is in store for the future. I am looking forward to the storefront, keep us posted.
By the way, those figures are stunning.

Thanks Dave and Trish for making such a wonderful community come together.

LONG LIVE DAVE'S GARDEN!!!!!

Thanks Pebble. :-)