Looking back on the last date that we updated the Announcement Board and sent a Newsletter, I see it’s been about a year. With all the recent developments in Cuba and here at the Havana Journal, we plan to update this Announcement Board more often and will be kicking off a monthly newsletter. 

1.  Features Recently Added or Updated

2.  Happy Birthday

 

3.  Expansion Plans

 

4.  Newsletter

 

5.  Summary

 

6.  Current State of HavanaJournal.com 

 

1. Features Recently Added or Updated

About Us: We have completely rewritten our About Us page. We added descriptions about the links on the navigation bar at the top of every page, wrote about our expansion plans, management background, benefits of membership and instructions to visitors who wish to write for the Havana Journal. We also added to our privacy policy and glossary.

We are proud to announce that Christopher P. Baker, author of the Cuba travel guide by MOON handbooks, Mi Moto Fidel and Cuba Classics has agreed to come aboard as an Advisor to the Havana Journal.

Website Owner Categories: In the spirit of MySpace.com and the bigger “Web 2.0” experience, we have developed a proprietary blogging feature called Website Owner Categories or WOC. In these new categories, you will find experts providing Cuba niche information for Havana Journal readers.

We are proud to announce that international travel author Christopher P. Baker will soon be writing travel and cultural articles for his WOC – Chris Baker space in our Travel Section while Cuban art collector Clyde Hensley will be writing about Cuban art for his WOC – CubanArt.org space in our Culture Section.

Events Calendar:  Recently launched to list all upcoming events in Cuba and Cuba related events outside of Cuba. Also, contains links to information about famous dates in Cuban history. We need more events. Send us your events or historic dates and information and we will post them in our Events Calendar.

Castro Watch: Still in development but our Castro Watch features news and blog articles about Fidel Castro and Raul Castro, updated every hour automatically.

Search: We have refined our Search page to be more productive while searching more pages.

Home Page: Our HavanaJournal.com home page design has been updated so internal pages are easier to find.

RSS Feeds: Not only do we offer a general RSS news feed but we provide direct links that enable visitors to add our RSS Feed to their AOL, Bloglines, Google, MSN and Yahoo home pages. Now you can enjoy the most current news and information from the Havana Journal. 
 

 

2. Happy Birthday

The Havana Journal was launched in March of 2003 so we’re now in our fifth year publishing Cuba Business, Culture, Politics, Travel and Hispanics news and information in twenty six categories along with forums, directories, a photo gallery, retail marketplace, Castro Watch page, Events Calendar and Cuban cigars information page. And…we’re just getting started.
 

 

3. Expansion Plans - The Havana Journal Media Network

We have recently launched 39 more Cuba related websites which are the charter sites in our new Havana Journal Media Network. Most sites features their own unique niche content and business model. You can read more about our expansion plans and see the list of sites in our About Us page. Also, we own over 1600 more Cuba domains and have a development goal to launch a total of 100 unique websites in 2007. We may ultimately try to develop ONE THOUSAND unique websites each featuring its own unique Cuba niche content.

We are currently talking with potential Angel investors about providing us with the resources necessary that will enable us to reach our near term and longer term goals.

So, we are excited about the growth of the HavanaJournal.com, the Havana Journal Media Network and the prospect of better US Cuba relations as well as the possibility of a more open Cuba. We intend to be the premier media network and information source for people seeking cultural, travel and business information about Cuba.

4. Newsletter

We seeking and developing unique content for our new monthly “Havana Good Time” Newsletter. We may also send Breaking News Alerts that Cuba watchers will want to read.

If you would like to receive the Newsletter, simply register as a Member and you’ll be added to the list. There is no cost or obligation to members or newsletter subscribers at this time and we never give out your information. Read our Privacy Policy on our About Us page.
 

5. Summary

We have spent lots of time and money aggressively ramping up HavanaJournal.com and launching the Havana Journal Media Network. If you have a Cuba related web site and business development or marketing ideas, let’s talk about them. If you are an expert on Cuba in general or have a lots of knowledge about particular Cuba niches, let’s have a conversation to see how we can work together. We want to build the premiere Cuba media network so we need business partners, marketing relationships and content providers. Let’s work together for the common good of Cuba and those of us who have a personal and professional interest in Cuba.

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Find any bugs in the Havana Journal?

Let us know by posting a reply to this Announcement Board Forum post.

6. Current Status of HavanaJournal.com

Current Article Count: 4075

Current Member Count: 1284

Forum Stats: 272 topics featuring 1089 posts

Pages in Google that contain HavanaJournal.com: 15,200

Google count of sites linking to HavanaJournal.com: 178

Pages in Yahoo that contain HavanaJournal.com: 21,314

Yahoo count of sites linking to HavanaJournal.com: 7,711

MARCH 14 2007 UPDATE

NEWSLETTER: We sent out our first “Havana Good Time” Newsletter to Members and friends on our Cuba related contact list. We sent emails to more than 3000 people. We exceeded our email sending limits with our host but that has been corrected now. We want to be able to send out a bulk mailing should there be some MAJOR news event in Cuba or Washington DC that we think our Members and Friends would like to know about.

Out of that 3000+ mailing we had about 500 bounces, mainly because we have not sent out a bulk mailing for over a year and the email addresses became obsolete. We are happy to report that we only had a small handful of people asking to unsubscribe from the list. So, I think we have successfully tested our internal email system and are happy with its ability.

ENDORSEMENT OF CHRISTIAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT: This is Oswaldo Paya’s Cuban dissident organization in Cuba. Perhaps you have heard about his Varela Project?

You can read our endorsement at this Havana Journal page. We do not believe that this humanitarian organization has any ties to Cuban exiles in Miami nor does it accept any funding from USAID.

CALL FOR ADVISORS, WRITERS, ADVERTISERS AND ANGEL INVESTOR: As you have read above, we are actively expanding HavanaJournal.com and the Havana Journal Media Network. We would like to talk with potential Advisors, writers, website owners seeking their own category here as well as advertisers and Section sponsors. We are also talking with qualified individuals that might come aboard as an Angel investor that will provide the funding that will allow us to execute our expansion plans.

HAVE CUBA DOMAINS FOR SALE?: We have been aggressively buying Cuba related domains. If you have Cuba related domains for sale, please send us the list using the PM link to the left, with prices if possible.

March 20, 2007

NEWEST WEBSITE OWNER CATEGORY - WOC

Today we launched the newest Website Owner Category, WOC - Todos Cubanos, featuring the Todos Cubanos newsletter from Oswaldo Paya and the NationalDialogueCuba.org site.

We were asked to provide space on the Havana Journal for this cause and are happy to give them space and exposure.