The SoGlos.com Blog

SoGlos.com Gloucestershire widgets hit the headlines

Officially launched last week, SoGlos.com’s brand new what’s on in Gloucestershire widgets have gone down a treat with readers from across the county – having already been embedded on around 100 websites, blogs and social networking sites.

It’s also fantastic to see the news of the widgets – a first for regional media in the UK – being covered in some of the industry’s leading titles.

Journalism.co.uk kicked off proceedings with their piece SoGlos tackles copyright infringements with new widgets.

Press Gazette ran a story identifying Online widgets to boost Gloucestershire tourism.

While Hold the Front Page today published an article entitled Online magazine bids to reach wider audience.

And with widget-related queries coming in thick and fast from Gloucestershire webmasters and potential partners galore, we couldn’t have asked for a more successful launch.

Gloucestershire media sales professional wanted

SoGlos.com - The online magazine for Gloucestershire is expanding, and requires a full-time media sales professional to join its dynamic team. See the following link for more information: Join the team.

SoGlos.com unveils seven Gloucestershire widgets on the Clearspring platform

After six months of behind-the-scenes work at SoGlos.com towers, we’re delighted to announce today’s launch of a series of seven brand new interactive web widgets, allowing everyone in the county to celebrate local arts, entertainment and leisure like never before.

Each showing a calendar of upcoming events, widgets are now available for Gloucestershire as a whole, as well as for the county’s six main areas specifically – Cheltenham, the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean, Gloucester, Stroud and Tewkesbury – and can be embedded on your website, blog or favourite social media site including Facebook, Twitter and iGoogle.

Developed with support from Cheltenham Business Pride (cheltenham.gov.uk/businesspride), all of the widgets are completely free of charge, are simple to use, and are automatically updated by SoGlos.com’s journalists on a continual basis – offering a great way to celebrate all that Gloucestershire has to offer.

To find out more about, and take advantage of one of the new widgets, see SoGlos.com’s widgets page - while you can also see the Gloucestershire widget in action below...

SoGlos.com autumn and winter event guides now live

Halloween, Bonfire Night and the festive season are some of the busiest times on SoGlos.com – with reader numbers expected to tip the 70,000 per month mark this year – so we’re delighted to have the 2009 guides up and running. Without further ado, check out SoGlos.com’s guides to Halloween in Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire fireworks and bonfires and Christmas in Gloucestershire – all being updated with the latest information over the coming weeks. Enjoy!

SoGlos.com unveils venue auto-predict functionality

While SoGlos.com is home to Gloucestershire's most popular directory of county arts, entertainment and leisure venues - from Cheltenham restaurants, Cotswolds attractions, and Forest of Dean hotels to Gloucester museums, Stroud pubs and Tewkesbury live music venues - readers will now find the process of digging out venue details even easier, thanks to brand new auto-predict functionality introduced across the online magazine this week.

Simply visit the section of your choice, start typing the venue name in the search box, and SoGlos.com's bespoke system will cross-reference the carefully-researched and -written database before presenting possible options.

SoGlos.com unveils new dynamic events calendars

For the past four months the SoGlos.com team has been busy beavering away on some very new exciting developments for the online magazine, and it’s with great pleasure that this week we unveil brand new dynamic events calendars.

While SoGlos.com is already Gloucestershire’s most popular resource for discovering the best county events, we’ve now made things even easier for readers who can now quickly refine their selection to find exactly what they’re interested in.

Choose an area of the county, the type of event you’re looking for and over what dates, and the new system will do the hard work for you – presenting a range of event listing options which have all be carefully selected, and written, by SoGlos.com’s journalists. There’s even a special ‘So’ icon to represent editor’s choices where a full editorial preview can be found.

Check out the new home of Gloucestershire events, or use one of the quick links provided below (you can, of course, further refine your selection to see Cheltenham restaurants events specifically, for example):

Cheltenham events
Cotswolds events
Forest of Dean events
Gloucester events
Stroud events
Tewkesbury events

Gloucestershire restaurants events
Gloucestershire theatre and comedy events
Gloucestershire art and culture events
Gloucestershire children and family events
Gloucestershire music events
Gloucestershire nightclub events
Gloucestershire pub and bar events
Gloucestershire sport and outdoor events
Gloucestershire health and beauty events
Gloucestershire cinema and film events
Gloucestershire books events
Gloucestershire accommodation events

Happy second birthday, SoGlos.com

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!

Yes, it was two years ago today that SoGlos.com was officially launched as the UK’s first regional online magazine – covering Gloucestershire’s arts and entertainment, leisure and tourism scene like never before. It’s been an amazing couple of years for the team – with successes far beyond we could have ever have hoped for – and it’s with sincere thanks to SoGlos.com’s readers and advertisers.

While there’s a celebratory mood at SoGlos.com towers – despite the grey summer skies – the real celebration will come in just a few week’s time, when perhaps our most innovative development yet is revealed to one and all...

Gloucestershire Design Network launch

Following on from the fantastic Digitalks event which took place last month – where SoGlos.com’s deputy editor James Fryer had the pleasure of speaking – 16 July 2009 will see regional creatives descend on D-Fly once again, this time for the official launch of the Gloucestershire Design Network.

Promising an informal get together for anyone working in the design sector, for drinks and laid back discussion on all things design, the SoGlos.com team looks forward to being part of the brand new initiative to promote the region’s design talent.

SoGlos.com's copyright

SoGlos.com found itself in the headlines this week, with two trade titles picking up on an apology which appeared in the July 2009 issue of Cotswold Life magazine. Press Gazette’s story was entitled So sorry SoGlos.com, while Journalism.co.uk ran a piece with the headline Archant apologises for lifting copy from independent news site.

As part of the Journalism.co.uk piece, deputy editor James Fryer also shared in SoGlos.com’s wider experience of copyright infringement over the past two years. While such extensive infringement isn’t something the team would have ever predicted, we’re delighted to be represented by the UK’s finest media law firm – Wiggin of Cheltenham.

Sizzling start to the summer for SoGlos.com

It’s not just the recent Gloucestershire weather that’s put smiles on the SoGlos.com team’s faces, as May 2009 saw the online magazine’s busiest month yet in its two-year history – with a staggering count of just over 70,000 individual readers flocking to www.soglos.com.

 

The most popular article of the month was, unsurprisingly, SoGlos.com’s review of the Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling 2009, while news that Gok Wan was coming to Gloucester, the third La Vie en Blue event in Prescott near Cheltenham and The Shambles Victorian Museum auction in the Forest of Dean all racked up thousands of readers.

 

The burgeoning readership comes as SoGlos.com embarks on an exciting new project planned for release in the summer, further cementing its position over all other websites, newspapers, magazines and radio stations as Gloucestershire’s number one guide to making the most of the county.

 

A huge thank you to all of SoGlos.com readers and advertisers for making the independent online magazine the success it is today.