Fun items from my trip to Boston

Many of you know that I've been in Boston this week, meeting with the parent company NameMedia. I was supposed to fly home tonight but the flight was canceled due to weather, so I'll be staying here for most of tomorrow, too.

It was an exciting trip and I met with almost everyone here that has anything to do with us, both in meetings and in personal meetings. I want to say again what a wonderful group of people NameMedia is, and it's a real treat to be working with such wonderful folks.

The basic agenda for my time here was to recap how the last 6 months have gone (it's hard to believe it's been 6 months since we joined up with them) and also to look ahead and what we're going to do over the next 6 months.

The message I received loud and clear was that NameMedia loves what we're doing at DG and they want us to continue to do exactly what we've been doing, and they've given us every resource we could want to continue to build the best gardening site in the world. In that vein, there are some fun projects that I'll be starting in the coming weeks that I'll be talking about later.

Also, we're finally going to get the resources to start a daily newsletter again (you may recall that we stopped mailing it out because of the huge hassle it was). NameMedia has newsletter technology that we can use for delivery, so I'm excited to get that started. We might even offer special weekly and monthly newsletters that have more "personal" content in them that might be fun for everyone to receive.

The Dave's Garden videos will be up on the site within a couple weeks. A bit later (maybe a couple months) we'll have the ability for members to upload videos of their own!! So those of you with camcorders will be able to take videos of whatever you want and upload them to DG, the same way you currently upload pictures.

I also have been given a budget to start two new sites, both built on the DG system. We think it'd be great to make full-blown websites modeled after DG for areas that are outside the gardening realm (like pets, recipes, aquaria, homesteading, etc).

There's much more great items to come from this, and I'm really excited about the positive direction we're headed here. I tell you, NameMedia really understands DG...

dave

Great news and thanks for keeping us all in the loop!

Dea

Sounds cool Dave! Guess you're going to be busy for quite a while! I think it's really exciting what you're able to do now with Name Media, very cool! I might have to run out and get a video camera just so I can upload some videos!

Dave, I am happy to hear you are excited and confident in your choice of a parent company, NameMedia for DG. And that they are willing to give you good resources to let you move ahead with all your great ideas. I am sorry I couldn't get to the RU in Framingham and meet you and the NE DGers ( I always try to put an "i" in it as we are dirty bunch). But I did have two visitors to my garden on Sunday and Monday and one is now a subscriber and one a member (ackthom and charlesb) so I did my duty to add a couple of passionate gardeners to the ranks. Patti

I can hardly wait to see what all comes our way in the next while. I'm very glad that you have gained such a valuable partnership with NameMedia :-)

--Ginny

That's all sounds wonderful!
Good for you,them & us.

MsC

It's good to hear your update, Dave! I spend entirely too much time watching videos at YouTube and other video sharing sites, so I'm excited about your adding video posting.

Wow! What a great report! Thanks, Dave!

Videos next? (Oy...I gotta somehow get off dial-up soon!)

I'm also looking forward to the new newsletter, especially a Monthly one with the more 'personal' aspect to it.

Ya done good, Dave!

Shoe

I always enjoyed newsletter so nice to know that..

Dave, I'm glad everything went well on your visit up north. Even though your flight got delayed.
It was nice to meet you Sunday at the RU. Next time dress warmly, lol.
Andy P

Sounds fabulous. Many new ideas are on the front burner it appears and our DG adventures continue to grow. I remember many years ago saying to you to let us know when we can start buying stock. Just let us know !!!

Great to hear about all the good vibes! Sounds like you've found a great partner!

Love the sound of things Dave and am pleased that things are working out so well for you but think you best find a way to clone yourself. Sounds like you're going to be staying way too busy and working way too hard. How do you find time to garden????? hahaha

Keep up the great work. I just love DG!!!!!!!!!

Patty

good morning, Patty!!!!!!!! Doesn't all of this news sound exciting...........back to sticking leaves..............

Stock? I'm ready when you are. Does NameMedia have stock on the exchange?

Bought Chipotle last year when others were naysaying. I DG is a sure bet.

Hey, I just ran across this article -- good writeup. They don't mention the great resource NameMedia has in our own Dave, but we all know whose behind Gardens.com and its future success. :)
http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2007/june.htm

Thanks for passing that on. Very interesting and I like the team attitude.

It really is a great team, and it's a privilege to be a part of this company.

dave

Ditto!!!!

I was impressed with the article and it was interesting reading the company and individuals' history.

I didn't read the whole article, but after trying to read part of it I just have to say thank you to Dave for not allowing all that flashing stuff going on at the sides of the pages of DG. Wow, that is distracting!

You're doing the right thing for the right reasons, Dave, and you'll get the right results, good results. Always think "out of the box" and note what the "people" want... You'll go far, young man! Enjoy!
Good Gardening
Good Housekeeping (? think that one is taken)
Good Teaching
Good Building
Good Childrearing
Good Entrepreneurialism ...
Fly! etc.
~Susie

Interesting reading. I am a bit confused though as to the actual business of this company. Are they buying and reselling domain names or buying and maintaining domains like this one.

I have heard that the trading of domain names is quite lucrative. Glad they are interesed in DG as well.

Thanks for the explanation Dave. I was a bit worried that they had bought you out to gain the name and would then turn around and resell it.

That is a relief! Thanks for setting my mind at ease. There are enough things to worry about in life without worrying about losing DG! Have a great day Dave!

I read the article and, yes, they have impressive credentials, but I feel that when they mentioned Gardens.com they owed you a name recognition..............

This acquisition they have made may turn out to be great for DG and their parent company, but they owe it to the world to give credit where credit is due.

Personally, I was shocked that they led everyone to believe that they had turned DG around to success...........really irritated me!!!!!! In the future they may be able to do a little bragging but NOT RIGHT NOW. We know who built this site into what it is today.

gessiegail--they were talking about the Gardens.com site, not DG. Before they let Dave loose on gardens.com several months ago, there wasn't anything there and now there is and lots of people are visiting it, so what they're saying is true. And since Dave works for NameMedia, they get to include that as something that the company has accomplished. I'm sure they appreciate everything Dave has done, but since gardens.com was a very small part of the story they probably couldn't spend too much time on details about it since the focus was on some of the other aspects of their business. And who knows, maybe the people from NameMedia talked more about Dave and DG but the reporter cut that part out because they were focusing on other things--I've had some personal experience with seeing what reporters do with info they get when they interview a company spokesperson. It doesn't always come out the same way the person said things, they'll pick and choose to make the story.

thanks, ecrane.........I (blushing) thought they were talking about DG.........thanks for letting me know..........i don't know anything about Gardens.com

You should check it out then! There are links to it at the bottom of most (all?) pages around here, or you can also get to it by clicking on the Go Gardening tab at the top. It's got links to local nurseries, botanical gardens, parks, etc as well as helpful articles and links to the beginner gardening forums (which you can also get to from DG)

my oh my..............where have I been???????? on the AV forum????????