You're probably reading this in print format at the moment, though I suppose down the road this will be posted online, so you could be reading it there, in which case we're now talking about some kind of chicken/egg scenario, so I better stop thinking now or my head will explode. Anyway, my point is that, even though this is the space where I usually write about what's in the magazine, I want to take this month to expound upon the many virtues of our way cool website.
When we unveiled www.livedesignonline.com last year at LDI, the response was incredibly strong, and it's only continued to grow. We're currently getting over 200,000 page views per month. According to our new media project coordinator, Dean Muscio, who knows these kinds of things, those are staggering numbers, not only for our industry, but apparently other industries as well, as it's right up there with other top sites in the Prism Business Media family.
We've tried to make the site as visual as possible, and people are responding to that. Users also like the way we've divided the site into different market segments, from theatre to rental and staging to concerts to architainment, plus a hugely popular gear section. Our Design Gallery shows off work from some of the top designers around; look for this section to grow and allow up-and-coming designers to post their own work for the world to see. And our Resource Center, found on virtually every site page, is proving to be an invaluable source of info for designers and technicians.
Of course, what self-respecting website would be complete these days without a blog? Certainly not ours, as we unveiled our first blog at LDI last year and just completed another for the Live Design Master Classes in May, which you can still view online. Look for more of that in the months and years ahead.
Keeping the site running like a well-oiled machine is the responsibility of one person, our own editorial coordinator, Lauren Thompson. She makes sure we keep the content on our sites the freshest and most up-to-date in the industry and still finds the time to get our three e-newsletters out on time. Of course, that means she's had to move into her cubicle to get it all done, but what can you do in the never-ending world of new media?
So if you haven't done so, please log onto www.livedesignonline.com, take a look, and let us know what you think. We're always open to suggestions.
Oh, and for those Luddites who want nothing to do with the web, rest easy: as of July, you'll be able to find Live Design at Barnes and Noble magazine racks and other fine purveyors of periodicals around the country.