The first dedicated independent newsletter for industry professionals
Well, if you've been wondering why it's been a bit quiet here lately, it's because, I can now reveal, I have been furiously organising and putting together the first issue of ePerformance News - the industry's first dedicated newsletter which goes out to over 12,700 members of the Home Inspector Forum (HIF)...
...well, I say over 12,700 now - it will probably be fewer once we've sieved out all of the bounced email addresses!
Ryan (the HIF's owner) and I have been discussing and planning this since around February, believe it or not! You'd think it would be a simple task but fitting it around our busy executive lifestyles - and wanting to get it "right" - has been a challenge.
Getting it right
Part of getting it "right" meant building a completely separate website - with all that entails - and coming up with a design and site architecture that sets a foundation we can build on for the future - start as we mean to go on has been our mantra.
Hit send already!
Having said that, there's still a lot more work to do but we felt it was time to hit send now, and refine as we go along, else it would be 2009 before anything happened.
Besides, if you don't set sail you'll never find the leaks, and that's what the first issue is about.
So if you haven't received it today (and you're a member of HIF), check your spam settings and/or make sure your HIF account has your correct address.
If you have received it but don't want to, make sure you unsubscribe.
About time
I know from writing this blog, doing the podcasts, moderating the HIF and talking to a multitude of people out there, that demand for a more formal independent medium for disseminating industry news, gossip and information has been missing.
The HIF is clearly the ideal hub to initiate it simply because its member-base encompasses virtually the entire industry.
No pressure then.
Foreword to no word
I did write to the then Housing Minister, Caroline Flint, to ask if she would write a foreword in our first issue to address the very industry tasked with implementing her department's regulations. That was last month - still no reply and now she's scarpered to another department!
A single platform - a single soapbox!
But having a single medium like ePerformance makes it possible for such initiatives to happen now; ie., a means for everyone - well virtually everyone - to hear directly from the movers, shakers and opinion-makers, instead of having to actively look for something (or, more often than not, not hearing anything at all because there was no where to say it).
The HIF is a fantastic resource for the industry (including Govt. - hello!), but sometimes you just wanna be able to say and read something without it being drowned out by the noise.
Advertising
ePerformance News will also take advertising too: again, probably the only ultra-targeted medium available for companies to get their message across to the right audience - not having this kind of platform has been a handicap for some businesses with perhaps something good to offer, but without a channel to tell everyone.
Best practice
I don't know how well the newsletter will be received in reality, but if it finds traction, we really want it to reflect what the industry is thinking, doing, learning, and above all, raise awareness on best practice.
Invitation
We are inviting guest articles so if you have something to say, please do, no matter if you're a DEA, CEA, politician or chief exec, we really want to hear about what you're doing; how you are doing it; what you have learnt; what you are not learning!
Tell you what, I don't think I've ever written so much since first looking at this industry - It's funny how the chips fall, innit?
What have I done!
Tags: eperformance-news
