Our Urban Times celebrates meeting initial goals and sets new ones

We at Our Urban Times are thrilled to be approaching 40,000 page views during more than 15,000 visits by regular and new people from 70 countries and territories since February, when we put analytics on our site. We have done no major promotion. So, thanks to each of you who have helped make those numbers possible.

When we began publishing the end of last December, our focus and goals were related to getting our site stable and filling it with substantial content. Though we offered the ability for people to sign up to receive regular emails, we have not mailed to that or any other list on a regular basis.

Now that we have met our stability and initial content goals and you can get to us from just about any device 24/7; we have new goals. They include making it easier for you, your friends, neighbors and colleagues to get to us quickly and regularly.

For those of you who have an RSS feed from our site or follow us on Twitter, you know when a story gets posted. Now our Facebook page will be updated more frequently too, thanks to a new intern who will be handling that task.

While the newspaper will be continually updated, we have decided to launch a twice-weekly email. It has gone through testing and we think that it is ready for prime time. It is simple. It has the headline and teaser for each story that has been posted since the previous email. So if you come to the site daily, you will probably only occasionally have missed a story. But for everyone else, we hope this will make it easier to get to the news and information that can enhance your quality of life and fun in our urban environment.

Aside from being on our email list, here are the ways you can get the most current news from Our Urban Times:

• Follow us on Twitter
• Make us one of your RSS feeds
• Friend us on Facebook

In addition to being a recipient of the information and news, please engage with us and your fellow readers. The intent of Our Urban Times is to be the place where community communicates. It is to be a place for connecting with friends and strangers, helping to strengthen our broader community of neighborhoods on the near northwest side of Chicago.

Let people know about you and the groups that you're involved with, put your events on the Calendar of Events. Do you have something to say or think we should be covering specific people, places, events or views? Let us know. We are always delighted to have new writers and people interested in other phases of publishing so just click here and send me an email telling me what you'd like to see or do!

Remember, clicking is a clean green thing to do so pass on links to Our Urban Times and the specific stories you think your friends would like or should know about! Thank you for your support.