Dear Readers,
If you notice a little downtime over the next few days, it is because
we are in the process of moving the SWLing Post (and all of
SWLing.com) to a new, upgraded server.
Over the years, readership has grown at an incredible rate, and I am
most grateful. Your encouraging comments and personal stories fuel
this blog in innumerable ways.
The upgrade is mainly in response to the increased traffic here on the
site, as well as to implement security measures that should help with
recent attacks from abusers in China who actually attempted to bring
our site down. (No kidding!)
This morning, I glanced at my Google Analytics statistics. In the past
thirty days–which has only been “average”–SWLing.com has had over
78,000 pageviews and over 15,000 unique visitors. Wow! These numbers
do not include the 200+ readers who view the SWLing Post via
Feedburner and other RSS readers. As many of you know, we also have an
active Kindle subscription base, whose numbers increase monthly.
So I’d simply like to say, Thank you! And thanks for your
patience. I would have never guessed back in 2008 when I
began this hobby site, that it would have such an interactive
readership. Going forward, I would like the site to become even more
interactive–so I welcome even more of your stories, your photos, your
recordings, and your thoughts on radio and international broadcasting.
Our new server is faster, provides more bandwidth, and even better
overall support. Though page loads have always been fairly quick,
they’ll be even quicker now. Our upgraded bandwidth gives us even more
room to grow–a necessity, based on the current upward trend.
In the near future, we will begin to invite sponsorship from selected
radio retailers and businesses. Ads from sponsors relevant to
the hobby will be chosen and appropriately placed. We promise,
however, that our site will never be cluttered with
irrelevant, obtrusive ads–no pop-ups, nothing gimmicky–just
industry-related and hobby-related business and services. Our goal is
to simply make enough to support The SWLing Post over the long-haul,
and to showcase businesses that invest in and support the wonderful
hobby of shortwave radio. We also welcome direct donations from
readers, who can support us in any amount here.
Again, thank you all for your incredible support–and, especially,
your considerate comments and emails. The radio listening hobby can
feel rather solitary at times, but you have built community around
this site, and it’s particularly inspiring to realize that this club
of listeners is growing.
Thank you,
Thomas