409industries
01-05-2009, 01:43 PM
The DirtyImpreza.com Year End Report - 2008
Thank you for supporting DirtyImpreza.com through 2008! It was a big year for us with a lot of growth in registered members, exposure, and overall visits to the website. With the launch of the DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team (DIRT), we have further established ourselves as being committed to rallying in the US. Also, the Project Rally RS build has gained a lot of momentum through the year as some major components (roll cage fabrication, motor / transmission swap) were completed. Here are some highlights from this year:
Website Traffic
Overall traffic to the website (unique visits per day) was up 40% since January 1st, 2007. This huge increase in traffic is directly related to an increased amount of user registration in our discussion forums. We beat our goal of 2000 registered members way before the end of the year which was fantastic surprise. This increased traffic directly benefits our existing vendors and especially our advertisers.
Our international audience, albeit a small percentage of our member base, is expanding too! We have had several people register from Japan, Sweden, Eastern Europe, and even Chile! Most of these people are looking for information about lifting Imprezas for off-roading, but we hope that they will continue to spread the word further around the globe.
Project Rally RS
Like any competition car build, it’s a long road of both periods of furious progression, and then sometimes lulls of downtime. This is mostly dictated by cash flow. Fortunately, the end of 2008 saw a surge of progress. Most of the year showed steady work on the car, but the majority of the labor was just getting the vehicle ready for cage and seam welding (complete strip down, sound dampening removal, seam scraping / prep). Kyle at Jackson Rally would be the only person welding on the car, aside from my weekly 2 hour drive out to the shop, so I was happy with the consistent work that was going into getting the cage installed through the autumn months.
The car was off to paint in December, and before we knew it the entire inside of the car was painted white and ready for assembly. This included the engine compartment, cabin, and trunk areas. This protective coating keeps the newly welded metal from the elements and rusting.
Only recently, the car received its donor motor and transmission and drove out of the shop under its own power. A small brigade of dedicated DI members helped make this possible before the year ended. We worked frantically to get the car completely reassembled and now the car sits back at DI headquarters fully caged, painted, closer to action that ever before. Some small projects still need to be completed before we are stage ready, but we are closer than we have ever been before. There are plans to shakedown the new rally car at the March 7th, 2009 Glen Helen rally cross (part of the California Rally Series and Formula Rally X series).
The realistic goal for this car is to have it ready to run for Prescott Rally in Arizona in October of 2009. There are still quite a bit of things that need to fall into place to make this happen, but I am confident we will be racing in 2009. Thank you for all your support thus far.
DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team
The DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team (DIRT) made is debut at the Gorman Ridge Rally this year with two cars. Keith Jackson piloted the Jackson Rally STi with co-driver Jon Burke, and Eli Gilbert was running the Tommy Gun Rally WRX with his co-driver Mindy DeLodder. A large amount of DirtyImpreza.com members made the appearance at this event to help with service crew duties which was amazing, they really showed their support! Gorman ended with both cars finishing, Keith 6th overall, and 3rd in class. Eli and Mindy showed true rally spirit by crossing the finish line despite serious transmission problems.
The team made its second appearance in Prescott, AZ for the 21st running of the Prescott Rally. A handful of loyal DI enthusiasts made it out to crew for the two blue Subarus. The weather conditions played more of a factor this time around with periods of rain during the rally. Keith, with the help of co-driver Jon Burke, was able to keep up with many of the other more experienced Open class drivers in the rally and finished 6th in the class of 9 and 7th out of 25 total finishers. Putting full faith into co-driver Mindy’s pace notes after the 4 night stages of Day 1, Eli pushed hard late in the rally despite the rainy conditions on the last day's stages 7 and 8. After catching a car on stage 7 which caused the team to lose about a minute, they were able to break into the top 10 overall stage times on the slippery last stage.
Overall it was a very confidence building year for DIRT, even with only 2 events being run. We are looking forward to working with both of our driver / co-driver teams next year!
Sponsored Apparel Sales
We sold completely out of DI apparel early in the year. The resources weren't available to make another run of shirts and hooded sweatshirts for most of the year, until the masses spoke and demanded more apparel. I was very proud to hear that our members craved sweatshirts and T-shirts to wear at their events to represent DirtyImpreza.com. After swapping numerous emails and phone calls with various supporters, the capital was raised to get decent sized run produced. These have since arrived and have been selling extremely well. I have plans to submit another re-fill order to patch up our inventory in mid to late January. For our vendors who have supported the apparel efforts, your contribution will be paid back with the exposure these shirts and hoodies will provide throughout 2009! Thank you again!
YouTube Video Traffic
The DirtyImpreza.com original videos have continued to draw people to the site. The most obvious evidence of this is the release of Ken Block's Gymkhana practice video filmed at an airfield in southern California. We had produced a very short, very informal video of this same car almost 8 months prior. Since this was posted as a video response to the DC video, there have been over 250,000 views of our video! This is huge for DI, as our logos are all over this video. Viewers are still checking out our rally cross videos in addition to the Project Rally RS shorts, as these are commented on frequently. A new Project Rally RS episode is scheduled to be released in early 2009.
Moving forward into 2009
Website Redesign
The discussion forums drive the majority of the traffic to DirtyImpreza.com. In mid-2009 I have plans to revamp the website with some new features that will encourage visitors to navigate to other areas of the site. Some of the features that I have planned are:
· DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team (DIRT) specific pages with team bios, car specifications, competition results, galleries, and video.
· More banner ad space for increased visibility / additional impressions.
· Bringing some DirtyImpreza.com Original Videos in house and providing them in near HD quality viewing.
· More comprehensive coverage of the Project Rally RS build.
· Dirtiest Impreza of the Month feature gallery.
· RSS feed functionality.
· News Feeds to import press releases from our favorite rally teams onto DirtyImpreza.com.
· Many more small feature upgrades to enhance our visitors web experience.
Project Rally RS Completion
The progress of the Project Rally RS (PRRS) has been steady, but I will be the first to admit it had been slow year. We made some major progress on our 2001 Impreza that will be competing in Production GT near the end of 2009. Our goal is to debut the rally car at the 22nd Annual Prescott Rally in Prescott, Arizona. Since the car is up and running and is just awaiting seats, we are on target to reach our goal of rallying in 2009. We will be shaking the car down at one of the local rally cross events in the upcoming weeks. I simply can't wait to get this car out in the dirt!
One thing is for certain, the PRRS is our most popular discussion thread in the forums with over 25,000 views. If you haven't been keeping track of our progress on the rally car, you can always find the latest news about it here: http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/index.php/projectrs/
DIOTM prizes bigger in 09
Many vendors have already come on board with our popular Dirtiest Impreza of the Month (DIOTM) contest. We have had a very positive response from the companies I have contacted regarding prizes for the 12 contests this year, as Americas / Discount Tire Company, RallyArmor Mudflaps, Grimmspeed Performance, Redline Rally Vinyl, Custom Import Heads, and Millennium Motorsports have already agreed to support these contests. The prize packs are modest, but they really get people excited to submit pictures of their cars covered in mud, or filthy from their recent off road experiences. It's not too late for you to get involved also! We are looking for promotional items such as key chains, stickers, lanyards, or anything else that you might have that could be donated. All our participating vendors will have their names and website addresses linked to ALL of the DIOTM contests throughout 2009.
DirtyImpreza.com Original Videos
We have plans to continue our Project Rally RS (PRRS) series, as another chapter has finally ended with the roll cage completion. I made sure that video was shot throughout various stages of the build so it should be the best episode yet. Also with the pending motor swap there should be several additional videos posted through out the year. With the DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team traveling to several destinations, there should be some event coverage videos as well. Be sure to keep an eye out for many DirtyImpreza.com originals in 2009!
Final Thoughts:
2009 is going to be a very big year for DirtyImpreza.com. In January, we will have passed our 2nd full year of operation and it feels like we have survived the infancy stages of a new website. Many sites may falter and fail within the first 2 years, and we've done nothing but grow and expand our influence in the rally / Subaru community. We are excited to again be a part of several big events (Subiefest, SubieExtravaganza, West Coast Subaru Show, Wicked Big Meet, and Subie Invasion) this year, and will be pushing harder than ever to get our name out there as the "go-to" place for Impreza off-road and rally related news and information. Now that the Rally RS is mobile, we have been negotiating with groups about appearing at car shows and large media events. This car, decaled up with your sponsor logos is going to generate more and more exposure. Above all, I want to thank all of our sponsors, vendors, and advertisers for really keeping DirtyImpreza.com going during these difficult first few years. Here's to another prosperous year, we'll see you out in the dirt!
Sincerely,
Aaron Ekinaka
Founder, DirtyImpreza.com
ekinaka@dirtyimpreza.com
http://www.dirtyimpreza.com (http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/../)
Thank you for supporting DirtyImpreza.com through 2008! It was a big year for us with a lot of growth in registered members, exposure, and overall visits to the website. With the launch of the DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team (DIRT), we have further established ourselves as being committed to rallying in the US. Also, the Project Rally RS build has gained a lot of momentum through the year as some major components (roll cage fabrication, motor / transmission swap) were completed. Here are some highlights from this year:
Website Traffic
Overall traffic to the website (unique visits per day) was up 40% since January 1st, 2007. This huge increase in traffic is directly related to an increased amount of user registration in our discussion forums. We beat our goal of 2000 registered members way before the end of the year which was fantastic surprise. This increased traffic directly benefits our existing vendors and especially our advertisers.
Our international audience, albeit a small percentage of our member base, is expanding too! We have had several people register from Japan, Sweden, Eastern Europe, and even Chile! Most of these people are looking for information about lifting Imprezas for off-roading, but we hope that they will continue to spread the word further around the globe.
Project Rally RS
Like any competition car build, it’s a long road of both periods of furious progression, and then sometimes lulls of downtime. This is mostly dictated by cash flow. Fortunately, the end of 2008 saw a surge of progress. Most of the year showed steady work on the car, but the majority of the labor was just getting the vehicle ready for cage and seam welding (complete strip down, sound dampening removal, seam scraping / prep). Kyle at Jackson Rally would be the only person welding on the car, aside from my weekly 2 hour drive out to the shop, so I was happy with the consistent work that was going into getting the cage installed through the autumn months.
The car was off to paint in December, and before we knew it the entire inside of the car was painted white and ready for assembly. This included the engine compartment, cabin, and trunk areas. This protective coating keeps the newly welded metal from the elements and rusting.
Only recently, the car received its donor motor and transmission and drove out of the shop under its own power. A small brigade of dedicated DI members helped make this possible before the year ended. We worked frantically to get the car completely reassembled and now the car sits back at DI headquarters fully caged, painted, closer to action that ever before. Some small projects still need to be completed before we are stage ready, but we are closer than we have ever been before. There are plans to shakedown the new rally car at the March 7th, 2009 Glen Helen rally cross (part of the California Rally Series and Formula Rally X series).
The realistic goal for this car is to have it ready to run for Prescott Rally in Arizona in October of 2009. There are still quite a bit of things that need to fall into place to make this happen, but I am confident we will be racing in 2009. Thank you for all your support thus far.
DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team
The DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team (DIRT) made is debut at the Gorman Ridge Rally this year with two cars. Keith Jackson piloted the Jackson Rally STi with co-driver Jon Burke, and Eli Gilbert was running the Tommy Gun Rally WRX with his co-driver Mindy DeLodder. A large amount of DirtyImpreza.com members made the appearance at this event to help with service crew duties which was amazing, they really showed their support! Gorman ended with both cars finishing, Keith 6th overall, and 3rd in class. Eli and Mindy showed true rally spirit by crossing the finish line despite serious transmission problems.
The team made its second appearance in Prescott, AZ for the 21st running of the Prescott Rally. A handful of loyal DI enthusiasts made it out to crew for the two blue Subarus. The weather conditions played more of a factor this time around with periods of rain during the rally. Keith, with the help of co-driver Jon Burke, was able to keep up with many of the other more experienced Open class drivers in the rally and finished 6th in the class of 9 and 7th out of 25 total finishers. Putting full faith into co-driver Mindy’s pace notes after the 4 night stages of Day 1, Eli pushed hard late in the rally despite the rainy conditions on the last day's stages 7 and 8. After catching a car on stage 7 which caused the team to lose about a minute, they were able to break into the top 10 overall stage times on the slippery last stage.
Overall it was a very confidence building year for DIRT, even with only 2 events being run. We are looking forward to working with both of our driver / co-driver teams next year!
Sponsored Apparel Sales
We sold completely out of DI apparel early in the year. The resources weren't available to make another run of shirts and hooded sweatshirts for most of the year, until the masses spoke and demanded more apparel. I was very proud to hear that our members craved sweatshirts and T-shirts to wear at their events to represent DirtyImpreza.com. After swapping numerous emails and phone calls with various supporters, the capital was raised to get decent sized run produced. These have since arrived and have been selling extremely well. I have plans to submit another re-fill order to patch up our inventory in mid to late January. For our vendors who have supported the apparel efforts, your contribution will be paid back with the exposure these shirts and hoodies will provide throughout 2009! Thank you again!
YouTube Video Traffic
The DirtyImpreza.com original videos have continued to draw people to the site. The most obvious evidence of this is the release of Ken Block's Gymkhana practice video filmed at an airfield in southern California. We had produced a very short, very informal video of this same car almost 8 months prior. Since this was posted as a video response to the DC video, there have been over 250,000 views of our video! This is huge for DI, as our logos are all over this video. Viewers are still checking out our rally cross videos in addition to the Project Rally RS shorts, as these are commented on frequently. A new Project Rally RS episode is scheduled to be released in early 2009.
Moving forward into 2009
Website Redesign
The discussion forums drive the majority of the traffic to DirtyImpreza.com. In mid-2009 I have plans to revamp the website with some new features that will encourage visitors to navigate to other areas of the site. Some of the features that I have planned are:
· DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team (DIRT) specific pages with team bios, car specifications, competition results, galleries, and video.
· More banner ad space for increased visibility / additional impressions.
· Bringing some DirtyImpreza.com Original Videos in house and providing them in near HD quality viewing.
· More comprehensive coverage of the Project Rally RS build.
· Dirtiest Impreza of the Month feature gallery.
· RSS feed functionality.
· News Feeds to import press releases from our favorite rally teams onto DirtyImpreza.com.
· Many more small feature upgrades to enhance our visitors web experience.
Project Rally RS Completion
The progress of the Project Rally RS (PRRS) has been steady, but I will be the first to admit it had been slow year. We made some major progress on our 2001 Impreza that will be competing in Production GT near the end of 2009. Our goal is to debut the rally car at the 22nd Annual Prescott Rally in Prescott, Arizona. Since the car is up and running and is just awaiting seats, we are on target to reach our goal of rallying in 2009. We will be shaking the car down at one of the local rally cross events in the upcoming weeks. I simply can't wait to get this car out in the dirt!
One thing is for certain, the PRRS is our most popular discussion thread in the forums with over 25,000 views. If you haven't been keeping track of our progress on the rally car, you can always find the latest news about it here: http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/index.php/projectrs/
DIOTM prizes bigger in 09
Many vendors have already come on board with our popular Dirtiest Impreza of the Month (DIOTM) contest. We have had a very positive response from the companies I have contacted regarding prizes for the 12 contests this year, as Americas / Discount Tire Company, RallyArmor Mudflaps, Grimmspeed Performance, Redline Rally Vinyl, Custom Import Heads, and Millennium Motorsports have already agreed to support these contests. The prize packs are modest, but they really get people excited to submit pictures of their cars covered in mud, or filthy from their recent off road experiences. It's not too late for you to get involved also! We are looking for promotional items such as key chains, stickers, lanyards, or anything else that you might have that could be donated. All our participating vendors will have their names and website addresses linked to ALL of the DIOTM contests throughout 2009.
DirtyImpreza.com Original Videos
We have plans to continue our Project Rally RS (PRRS) series, as another chapter has finally ended with the roll cage completion. I made sure that video was shot throughout various stages of the build so it should be the best episode yet. Also with the pending motor swap there should be several additional videos posted through out the year. With the DirtyImpreza.com Rally Team traveling to several destinations, there should be some event coverage videos as well. Be sure to keep an eye out for many DirtyImpreza.com originals in 2009!
Final Thoughts:
2009 is going to be a very big year for DirtyImpreza.com. In January, we will have passed our 2nd full year of operation and it feels like we have survived the infancy stages of a new website. Many sites may falter and fail within the first 2 years, and we've done nothing but grow and expand our influence in the rally / Subaru community. We are excited to again be a part of several big events (Subiefest, SubieExtravaganza, West Coast Subaru Show, Wicked Big Meet, and Subie Invasion) this year, and will be pushing harder than ever to get our name out there as the "go-to" place for Impreza off-road and rally related news and information. Now that the Rally RS is mobile, we have been negotiating with groups about appearing at car shows and large media events. This car, decaled up with your sponsor logos is going to generate more and more exposure. Above all, I want to thank all of our sponsors, vendors, and advertisers for really keeping DirtyImpreza.com going during these difficult first few years. Here's to another prosperous year, we'll see you out in the dirt!
Sincerely,
Aaron Ekinaka
Founder, DirtyImpreza.com
ekinaka@dirtyimpreza.com
http://www.dirtyimpreza.com (http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/../)