www.singlescenter.com

The Singles Courier

A Periodic Publication of The Singles Center

by Betty Van Volkenburg, Publisher
The Singles Courier and The Singles Center

Not only is the site on Page 1, it’s at Number 2, right after the big guys with the million dollar budgets. I’m sending a big Thank You to all the marketing gurus I’ve been learning from over the years, like Cory Rudl, Sam Robbins, Terry Dean, Cory Schreiber, Mike Campbell, Wes Blaylock, Jim Daniels, Declan Dunn, Ryan Deiss, and others I apologize to for inadvertently overlooking..  You'll be seeing more of their articles and links in our Business Wing. 

Of course, the next step is to turn that Yahoo! statistic into a profit making one. (I’m sure my gurus have a way, or maybe two or three, to do that). Then, our part time free lance writing staff can grow to a full time staff of researchers to add more and more benefits for singles.

My original intent for The Singles Center was to have a worthwhile site for singles that covered our full lives, not just dating, or our sexuality, and to do for the ‘singles market’ what was done for the ‘seniors market’ - get the attention of merchants who would tempt us with great offers and discounts. Take a peek at AARP’s site and their magazine and benefits and you’ll see where I’m aiming. My objective has been a little hampered by the lack of budget, and my decision to only build what I could pay for at the time. Seeing other sites fold up from overwhelming debt affirms my decision to build slowly, without going into debt.

Our Happy Vacations Club is finally activated and will be promoted and marketed to singles online and offline. Maybe now I can actually take advantage of the Club and take a holiday too. Group trips will be set up and announced in the next few weeks, like a Rafting trip in the Pocono Mountains, a cruise in the Caribbean, a walking/cruising tour of San Francisco, a musical trip to Branson MO, a trip to a safe ‘foreign’ country - my Canadian homeland, and on and on.

Our affiliate programs are STILL in process - but now I am reviewing new suppliers as the one I was going to use has dragged their heels too long on making customizing adjustments to the program. Members, or visitors, will be able to be an affiliate of  Our Galleria online store and be able to make, as well as save, money on gift buying. If that program works out, we’ll work on developing an affiliate program for The Singles Center.

• Networking events in Regional locations - the first will be in the Greater Rochester NY area.
         Singles will be able to meet and mingle offline as well as online. Our members come from  over 100 cities in the US and Canada, and we’ll try to set up rotating events in or near those locations - the Ultimate Singles Road Trip??!!
  
• Establishing a Foundation to give grants to single people volunteering in their community.
         Our Singles Role Model program will be expanded to be a grant making foundation. I’m working my way through a pile of research on this but The Foundation Center is an excellent resource, with information on their site, in books and on CD. The Foundation will be co-founded with my minister and mentor, Father Lance Robbins of the Episcopal Church of The Good Shepherd in Webster NY.  Can you guess how what my summer reading list is like and how I will be spending my summer?  The Singles Center singles networking events will be used to help fund our grant-giving but we’re also looking at obtaining sponsors, working with major corporations, and with online resources  like  www.sponsorship.com 
  
• Establishing a Cooperative Buying group for our members.
        Research has begun on this project but it’s too soon to announce details of how it will be set up. I envision having a retail buying club for every day needs, as well as necessities like insurance, investing, even home buying, and other important areas. Take a look at the article we had in our magazine on what some enterprising singles did in England with their ‘Single Snuggies’ (Super-Neighborly Urban Groups). We are limited only by our imaginations - first, we dream what we want, then we find a way to do it.

These are all big, and important tasks, and progress is slow when you are a one-woman- entrepreneur, but as Thomas Jefferson said "It’s wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing".  And I constantly remind myself of Al Williams book with the longest title I’ve ever seen - "All You Can Do Is All You Can Do, But ALL You CAN Do, Is Enough" and with God’s help I will get it done. He set me on this path with more ideas than one person could reasonably be expected to fulfill, but He also makes sure we have what we need to complete those tasks, so I wait with anticipation to see what He has in store. 

I always knew God loved us but it’s nice to know the editors at Yahoo! do too!

Sincerely,

Betty Van Volkenburg,
Publisher
Write to me.

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