I am contemplating starting a new project in the next month or so. It will involve setting up a website to help gather together and disseminate a list of talks, events and walks that involve nature and natural history. The geographic scope will be northwestern suburbs of Boston. Cambridge, Arlington, Concord, and some others.
My intent is to serve as a bit of a clearing house for information. I have a lot of issues to work out to be able to make this a viable thing. I think some of my problems will be solved by using constant contact or some other email messaging service. I just looked around a bit and also found this: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/
They may be a better option than constant contact. Does anyone have any suggestions about a good newsletter service? Leave em in the comments.
Another challenge is going to be figuring out a good flow of information. People sending me stuff, getting it posted to a calendar and putting it into a newsletter to send out to my subscribers. It will be a chore if it catches on.
Another aspect of this is if there is any opportunity to recoup some of my time by being reimbursed. Is there a way to offer a subscription fee? Would five dollars to cover admin costs discourage my sign ups? I could alternatively charge a $5 fee for postings. The bad thing is it might discourage people sending me information.
All in all it should prove to be an interesting project. If I get the time, motivation and a little better idea about how this could all work I just may try to make a go of it.