Another CDP Update

I drove to Ithaca yesterday to have a meeting with Jed (his office is really hard to find!). It was a great meeting. Some of the things we discussed:

It didn’t take long for Jed to convince me that instituting one collective blog (that Katie and I would both post to) would actually be more effective (than the two that we originally planned on doing). The blog that we are creating is being set up for the long term. If there is one blog the authors can change, then if there is one author whom doesn’t “participate” as much—it doesn’t jeopardize the integrity of the blog. Jed made it a requirement and I see why now. Katie and I will still post just as much as if we were still doing two separate blogs. But, it will be better for the future of the Cortland Downtown Partnership website.

The first phase to this blog, as we discussed, is trust. In order for us to gain the trust of the people in Cortland it would be most beneficial for Katie and I to go to the local businesses and ask them if we can blog on an upcoming event that they would like to promote. This way we would be able to allow these businesses to see the upside to our blog. Then, eventually, when it comes time to expand on the website they will be more willing to be used as a sponsor. Everything that we are doing right now is going to be to help establish trust in our project with the community. This will also help Katie and I with the content aspect of this project.

The next step is to create a Blogger account for this project. A temporary blog that will be up until next year. Jed is going to create a sexy link to this blog on the CDP website which will be our foundation for the future. It is on this blog that Katie and I will do our posting for the class project. We are trying to think of a witty headline or title for this blog… any ideas? [Side Note: we had spoken with Lloyd about the opportunities of naming our blog The Blue Frog Blog initially. After further thought, and some advice from Jed, I realize that this is not the best idea—because we don’t want to highlight any one business which would isolate others.

Jed and I also spoke about promoting this blog. In order to bring more readers to our cause we’ve decided that to do some promoting. I will be making fliers to hang up all around downtown Cortland, and on campus. Hopefully this will help us gain more readers.

After creating the blog, the next step will be to set up another meeting with Lloyd. Hopefully the blog will be up and running as of tomorrow. This is where we are at right now, as far as the Cortland Downtown Project goes. Katie and I also have another meeting with Jed—the weekend after Thanksgiving—and this time he’ll be coming to Cortland to take a walk through Main St. with us.

As you can see things are FINALLY starting to come together. I’m going to go create this Blogger account now. I’ll keep you folks updated! Cheers.