Hello my friends, and welcome to our super duper update post.  Yayyyyy!  I have some cool new goodies up my sleeve for IndieNorth in the coming weeks, so grab a coffee, tea or something stronger, and check out what’s in store!

First:  I’m working on what I hope will be an awesome new layout.  Here’s what it will offer:

• It will be a bit more magazine-y than the current layout, with some nifty features that will keep the people I feature on the front page a bit longer…it will look cool, AND it will offer better exposure.  Score!
• The new layout will also place my ridiculously long blogroll up higher on the page, so more of the blogs will be visible at one time.  Since I’m an obsessive blog reader, I like that a lot.
• The Rockstar Sponsor Ad will be much, much more prominent than it is now. More on that shortly…
• The Sponsors will still be changed up in random order for each visit, but more of them will be visible “above the fold”.
• The graphics will be easier to change, allowing me to change the theme of the site more often.  Change is good, and I think this will be fun.

So far I have the new layout set to go live on October 1st.  I don’t anticipate any trouble with it, but just in case, be warned that there may be a tiny speed wobble while the switchover is happening.

Second:  I’ve been trying to figure out a new format for the monthly Rockstar Sponsor, and I think I have it figured out.  The new layout will allow for a 468 x 60 pixel ad near the top of the site. Not overwhelming, but definitely eye-catching.

Third:  I’ll be doing more editorial type things, offering fun ways to rock your business, your life and yourself.  I had totally planned on these articles from the beginning, and they never materialized.  I do think there’s some really useful info there, so I’m gonna share it.

Fourth:  The Newsletter.  Yup…that one.  I’m going to get it going again.  I know a lot of you have signed up for it, and I haven’t sent out newsletters in a long time.  I’m planning to change that.

And now, a bit of badish news:

I think I’m going to do away with the contests for awhile.  The truth is, I get so many wonderful people donating absolutely awesome prizes to be raffled off, but for some reason, we just don’t get a lot of entrants.  I’m not sure if people here are just not into contests, or maybe I’m just not marketing them to the right people, but I’d like the contests to provide bigger exposure for the sponsors than we’re getting now.  I need to rethink the format a bit.  I’ll probably still do monthly draws for ad-space though, in the meantime.

Coming up in October:

IndieNorth is doing it up for Halloween!  Please hit me with your Halloweenie Stuff to be featured throughout October.  it’s my favourite time of the year, so let’s make it big!

Thanks again to all the Sponsors and Readers of IndieNorth.  You’re really the coolest bunch of folks a blogger could ever meet!

Please, feel free to add comments, suggestions, criticisms (be gentle) below.  I love to hear from you!