InsideTopAlcohol.com to head in new direction in 2005

First off I would just like to thank everyone that reads and contributes here at InsideTopAlcohol.com, you truly are a part of why this site has become the top alcohol racing destination on the web.

Effective next week, InsideTopAlcohol.com will become a message board only site. To accomodate for the lack of the news section, there will be a news and press release section. I don't think it will lack anything the old site brought, but will actually speed up the flow of information. Teams will now be able to post their own press releases, cuting out the middle man (me). I will also create a photo forum, and develop a system to better suite that.

So why the change? One thing I learned in business school is you have to know who you are in your market niche. We simply do not have the resources or time to be a results site, that's something we never set out to do. Dragracecentral.com does a great job for that. Our main strong point has been this message board, so we will promote that first and bring along as many elements of the old site as possible into the new format.

All of us in the internet business are in a constant learning curve. Not only keeping up with the changing technology available, but in learning the uniqueness of the internet vs. traditional print publications. Print style formats are grained in our head and we must constantly rethink what works best for both the end user and our business partners. To truly grasp the potential of the net, we must think outside the box.

With that in mind, we are moving on to what I believe is a step in better utilizing what the internet has to offer. The message board format is so dynamic, and most of all, the end user can participate.

With the change may be some growing pains that we will try to work through as quickly as possible. Those of you that enter the site by typing in forums.insidetopalcohol.com have noticed the integration of ads into the board. Those of you that have been utilizing a bookmark straight to the board may not have noticed the advertising due to the way the ads are configured. With that in mind, when the change is made, you will have to create a new bookmark for the page.

We realize we currently have some sizing issues. Those of you with older monitors set on 800x640 res are the only ones that are having problems at the moment.

Please feel free to give any comments you may have good or bad; we want to develop the best possible product for you.

We hope each and every one of you have a happy new year, and a great racing season!

See ya at the track,
Will