Miss604 Ad Space: VancouverVibe.ca

Comments 5 by Rebecca Bollwitt

As stated when I first started making my site open for advertisements, I will always disclose when a blog post is a part of a paid advertisement. As I choose my advertisers probably as carefully as they choose me, I make sure to proudly support local business.

vancouvervibe.png

My latest advertiser has opted in for a blog post writeup so here’s a brief interview I had with Na’im of VancouverVibe.ca.

1) What is your site?
VancouverVibe.ca

2) How long has it been around?
We officially launched just over two weeks ago.

3) What is your role/involvement (developer, owner, blogger etc.)?
My partner, Kerry Liu and I, are the founders and administrators of the website. We don’t really consider this a start-up but instead as a pet project, so we scraped together some extra cash and hired and worked with some great developers to create the web-site. Now we’re focusing a lot of our attention on marketing it as a significant local news portal.

4) What does your site do/what is it about?
VancouverVibe.ca is a social news web-site, very similar to Digg, but specific to Vancouver-related content. Users can post stories from their own blogs or other Vancouver-based bloggers that they think are news worthy and deserve more attention. They can also link to web-pages that promote a certain event, or promote a recent job-opening or news release. Basically, VancouverVibe.ca allows users to bookmark interesting content from around the web that relates to the many different aspects of this city. Users who visit VancouverVibe.ca regularly can vote for stories they think deserve more attention, comment on user-postings and get to know other members of the community to create a discussion around all of this great content.

5) Why/how would people be use your site?
Despite the sheer number of social news websites out there, they’re all pretty thin when it comes to regularly updated local content. We found that a lots of people actively seek destinations online to learn more about their city and discuss their views with other locals. Especially when it comes to information and perspectives you don’t typically find in traditional news sources. We happen to think VancouverVibe.ca would be the best news portal in this respect, especially when most of the content linked to are from bloggers, who I’ve always thought add a really interesting perspective on this city.

6) What is the ultimate goal for your site, how would you like to see it grow?
Eventually, we’d like to see the site grow to become a pre-eminent local news (and opinion) portal. But more importantly, at this stage, if VancouverVibe.ca can direct more traffic, attention and regular subscribers to an up-and-coming blogger who posts their stories on our website – we’ve reached our goal. If an event promoter can find a few more people to show up to their events because they posted a link to an event on our site – we consider that a success. Or if a local tech company gets a few more qualified candidates for a job opening they posted about on our job board – that’s a success too. So we feel that its when those smaller achievements become regular achievements, we can say we’ve reached our end goal with this website.

7) How can people find out more?
People can find out more by visiting our website: www.vancouvervibe.ca or subscribing to our blog at www.vancouvervibe.ca/blog. You can also find a page dedicated to VancouverVibe.ca on Facebook. We’ll also be at the Blogger Meetup on Jan 30 and Northern Voice on Feb 23.

If you’re interested in advertising on Miss604.com please contact me for more information.

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5 Comments  —  Comments Are Closed

  1. TodTuesday, February 5th, 2008 — 4:12pm PST

    Great interview and nice work on the disclosure. I like vancouvervibe.ca 🙂

  2. Chris TackettTuesday, February 5th, 2008 — 4:37pm PST

    I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.

    Chris Tackett

  3. RaulTuesday, February 5th, 2008 — 4:49pm PST

    I *heart* VancouverVibe. A few of my own posts have been ‘vibed’ there 🙂

    Na’im was at the Vancouver Blogger Meetup that I liveblogged as well. Really nice guy, and very easy to talk to.

  4. Amanda NicoleTuesday, February 5th, 2008 — 5:17pm PST

    I tend to submit my own blog posts to VancouverVibe if I think they’ll be relevant for others in the city, and I find it brings in some readers who normally would never have heard of my blog.

    I think it’s a fantastic idea, and can definitely see it bringing local users together!

  5. DarrenWednesday, February 6th, 2008 — 3:07am PST

    I certainly don’t mind sponsored posts when they’re this relevant.

    Feature request to VancouverVibe.ca: Nice site, but I’d suggest one small change. Replicate the way Digg links to the original post from the item title. It took me a long time to find the miniscule, grey, right-aligned URLs that allow me to access the original post. There’s very little value in my clicking through from your home page to an individual item’s page. If I’m clicking, I almost certainly want to see the original item in its original context.

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