Customers are prompted to pick up the phone, send an email or even an occasional written note when they are either REALLY ANGRY about something or REALLY PLEASED… usually more of the former society-wide, but we’re grateful for the generous number of pleasant notes and thank-yous we do receive.

Here’s one we received lately with regard to our Turf Blog Aggregator Tuesday morning e-blast, which we launched last June. We select four or five pertinent posts from among TurfNet members’ personal blogs to share with the masses. Here goes:

“Two things:

• Can you stop sending the Turf Blog Aggregator? Because of you continuously sending me this e-mail every stinking week, I now have like 50+ (and counting) course blogs that I check at least a couple of times every week!! (obviously kidding – keep sending – I’m addicted now)

Because of you continuously sending me this e-mail every stinking week, I now have like 50+ (and counting) course blogs that I check at least a couple of times every week!!

• Did I read in one of the Turf Blog Aggregators that if I send you my blog info you would spruce it up for free?!?!?!?! If so let me know how to go about doing that please.

Great work!! This is without question my favorite e-mail every week. Keep up the good work!”

Thanks,

Owen Coulson, Golf Course Superintendent

Vestavia Country Club

The 2012 TurfNet Media Kit is ready and available for download.

New for 2011/12 are the main page Page Peel banner, the new main page Pushdown banner, and the Turf Blog Aggregator sponsorship.

Contact Jon Kiger or Peter McCormick with questions.

TurfNet is humming along with site traffic remaining strong. Google Analytics shows a 3.44% increase in overall traffic for the past twelve months compared to the previous twelve… including 1,272,520 site visits by 241,261 absolute unique visitors totaling 5,483,493 page views. Almost 5.5 million page views!

One of the surprises is how strong traffic continues on our GIS 2011 Orlando blog.  Total views are over 12,000 at this point, with about half of those coming in February, the month of the show. The busiest day was the Monday after the show with a total of  856 page views. Visits to the GIS blog continue to average over 1000 page views per month in April, May and June.  Thank you, Google, as you’re sending us most of the traffic!

Several new opportunities have been initiated this year, including the page peel banner in the upper left corner of our main page.  The page peel is sold by the month, and is exclusive/always on for the month.  A variety of creatives can be implemented and rotated.  It’s almost sold out for the year!

Also new is our Turf Blog Aggregator (TBA) weekly e-blast. Many superintendents are now hosting private blogs to better communicate with their golfers and/or members. Beyond local weather and course conditions, there is a great deal of information about projects, methodologies and techniques that would be of value to other superintendents — hence our Turf Blog Aggregator. As every blogger struggles occasionally with content, we also include posts intended to educate golfers about turf maintenance for superintendents to use as a template for their own blogs. Check out a sample here.  Banner opportunities are available with annual, monthly or short term durations for special promotions. Circulation is currently around 7000.

Overall, business is good!

The 2011 TurfNet Media Kit — The Power of TurfNet — is ready and available for download.

Site traffic at TurfNet.com continues strong and on an upward curve.  For the audited (Google Analytics) period of September 2009 through August 2010, TurfNet.com had an average of

• • 28,105  unique visitors per month
  • 103,879 site visits/month, and
  • 537,722 page views per month.

These figures represent an approximate 10% across-the-board increase in site traffic from the year earlier.

Speaking of the previous year, those who advertised on our very popular Employment pages garnered over 1,100,000 impressions for their annual investment!  A close second in exposure was Tier 3 (which is the footer on the main page but also partial run of site) with over 860,000 impressions per advertiser.

Many of the special features and sponsorships are sold already, but there is still opportunity in our various tiers as well as the used equipment section.  Contact Jon Kiger (jkiger@turfnet.com) to discuss various options available to you.

We’re not above tooting our own horn, but we also know when to give credit where credit is due. This week our tip of the cap goes to Frank S. Rossi, Ph.D. of Cornell University for quickly pulling together his latest TurfNet University Webinar, “2010: Summer of Stress and What’s Next.”

Rossi not only is an accomplished alpaca farmer, he also knows a thing or two about turfgrass, mainly how to keep it alive during times of stress. We’ve known that for years at TurfNet, but never was that more evident than this week.

With widespread turf loss attributed to hot, humid summer conditions throughout many parts of the country, nearly 400 people registered for Rossi’s Webinar, including professional turf managers from 40 states, five Canadian provinces and even a few people from Ireland. Although the number of people registered (396) and those who logged on to watch (about 180) both are the most ever for a TurfNet Webinar, the 200 or so who did not log in for one reason or another also is a large number.

If you missed Dr. Rossi’s Webinar, or would like to watch it again, the recorded version already is available on our archives page. The Webinar is free to members and non-members, and no coupon code is required to register.

Rossi came to us promoting his idea for this Webinar in response to the outpouring of requests he has received this summer from superintendents throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Rossi noted that requests for his consulting services were up three-fold this summer, and added that his colleagues at Rutgers University told him the school’s turf diagnostics lab set a record for soil specimens in July with more than 500 samples in some stage of decline.

Clearly, autumn cannot come soon enough.