GateWAy Blog

Congratulations to Jeannine Burren from Clare Downs Stud, her name was drawn to win the competition that was open to all business and community directory advertisers on Albany GateWAy for the Peel Back ad (very top right hand corner) in the top spot for advertising on Albany GateWAy!  You will see her ad up there soon.

The prize includes the artwork for the ad being designed by Kelly Jones from i4design.  Many thanks to Kelly for taking part in this promotion.

Thanks for the response from 125 business and community organisations who entered by replying “Enter me to win $400 worth of advertising” to their AGW newsletter.  Look out for more great winning opportunities in your monthly news.

The Team at Albany GateWAy.

Nine photographers shared in more than $1000 in prizes in the Great Southern People on the Go digital photography competition.

Golden Run

Prizes were presented this week to the winners of the competition, which was run
by the Great Southern Development Commission (GSDC) and Albany Gateway.

Tambellup farmer Debbie Cristinelli won the first prize of $400 for a bold and bright photo of her sons Devon and Flynn running through a canola crop.
Ms Cristinelli also won three of the ten encouragement awards for photos depicting her children and farming life.

Julie Holland won second prize of $200 for a well-timed photo of a motocross bike splashing through a muddy puddle. Ms Holland also won an encouragement
award.

Kelly Belfield took third prize of $100, along with one of the popular vote prizes, for a photo of a hang glider taking off at Shelley Beach.
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Bandwidth Limit Exceeded.   You may have seen this message recently when you logged onto www.albanygateway.com.au

As frustrating and annoying as this is, it also clearly demonstrates the increase in the number of visitors to the site in the last few months.  The photo competition has been hugely popular and of course uses up bandwidth.  What is really impressive is that our statistics show that people are staying on the site for an average of 6 ½ minutes per visit using the business directory, classified ads, calendar, blog and more.

So far in June (as at 11.45 on the 28th, so not far to go now) the site has received an average of 110,277 hits every day, and the best day was 161,755 hits on Monday the 21st June.   Compare this to the May average which was 107,336 hits per day, with the best day at 150,219 hits.  The most popular days to visit the site have been Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Our statistics are updated at the beginning of each month, to keep an eye on our statistics, click on this link

National Cyber Security Awareness Week 2010 is from 6 to 11 June.  It promotes six easy tips for better online security.

Take note of the following tips:

1. Install security software and update it regularly.
2. Turn on automatic updates so that all your software receives the latest fixes.
3. Get a stronger password and change it at least twice a year.
4. Stop and think before you click on links or attachments.
5. Stop and think before you share any personal or financial information?about yourself or your friends and family.
6. Know what your children are doing online. Make sure they know to stay safe and encourage them to report anything suspicious.

For more information, click on the following link;

http://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/news/news_articles/regular/national_cyber_security_week

"Great Southern at Work" Winning entry taken by Colin Richardson

In April last year, the Great Southern at Work photo competition was hosted on Albany GateWAy.  This competion was held in partnership with the Great Southern Development Commission.  Click here to see all winners; “Great Southern at Work”

“Great Southern People on the Go” is the theme of this year’s digital photo competition.

Keen photographers in the Great Southern have a new opportunity to showcase their work and win up to $400 from a prize pool of $1000. (more…)

This email was sent to our advertisers, however due to a technical hitch, it leaves the body of the email out.  The email reads as below;

**Please read for important information regarding updating your advertising**
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New Home Page Tab system

Thanks very much to all the people who attended the launch event for the new home page tab system we held last night at the Albany Business Centre.  I was so busy catching up with everyone, that I didnt get busy with the camera, so there are no pics to share.

The new tab system has been developed by Marcel from Z Networks to make it much easier to navigate through the many sections of the site, look for yourself, www.albanygateway.com.au

Feedback from our recent survey told us that many people had difficulties navigating the site, and did not realise how many different things could be done on the site.

Thanks again for all your support and feedback.  Let me remind you that this is your community web portal and you can be involved in being an active user of the site in many different ways.  Stay tuned for more soon.

Thank you to all the people who responded to the Albany Gateway – What is it?  Survey.

This survey was sent to business and community users of the site.  We received 209 responses and 190 entries in the competition to win $300 of advertising.

Congratulations to the winner, Six Triple Three Restaurant.

Wendy Burns from the Albany Business Centre drew the prize with Tracey Sands from Albany Gateway.

Come back soon and you will see more about this Denmark restaurant.

Whatever happened to Rob Daniel,  you might ask.   Rob, or Danny to his friends, was very active on Albany Gateway a few years ago inspiring local school students to write with the Albany Primary Telegraph, an online newspaper of students stories and events.  It was the most top hit page on Albany Gateway for at least 3 years during the time it was active.  Well he is now travelling the world presenting his workshops to school children from Australia to Latvia and many places in between.

I was fortunate to be invited to attend one in Mt Barker only recently.

Moved, touch and inspired is how I was left feeling after 2 hours along with over 120 children and teachers. (more…)