Such an exciting week!

Whew - I cannot believe what a whirlwind this week has been. Honestly, I had no idea how huge the idea of DigiShopTalk.com would become. I knew it would be a lot of work and that I don't mind one bit. I didn't realize that everyone would want a gallery or that we would need a bigger and better messageboard or an upgraded server package. That was all a surprise but I welcomed it because it meant that this site would be an even bigger success then I had hoped. So that was the biggest surprise of all was that there would be a NEED for all of these things. I knew the digital community wanted to be able to post freely. I did not realize just how much it was NEEDED though. Designers and stores are benefitting by being allowed to freely promote their sales and products in our announcements section. Scrappers are benefitting because they no longer have to hunt all over the internet trying to find this store or that designer or this product. Everything is or will soon be at their fingertips.

Erick said it best when we were first discussing this idea. He said that information is and should be free to the people who want it. If the digital community truly is to stay close knit, successful and thriving - we need to be able to have the INFORMATION to what is out there. We rely on each other to know what is good because in the digital industry, refunds are not always guaranteed. It should not be difficult for a new scrapper to come in and find places to shop or products to buy. Why would we do that to people? We don't want to discourage anyone from enjoying this hobby by making it impossible for them to find the best products.

And what about designers? These hard-working artists are giving their all to making these gorgeous products and some of them have absolutely no outlet to share it outside of their own store. Digital scrapping is such an affordable hobby for the scrapper, with kits and element packs being priced fairly low considering the amount of time and effort that goes into making them. Designers deserve to be given an opportunity to promote so that they can generate more business. There are many sites that have open messageboards but few designers would feel comfortable going to someone else's site to promote their own products. DigiShopTalk.com is a neutral meeting ground where all designers, all stores and all scrappers can come to share that information. Scrappers want to know where to find the best products. Designers and stores want to be able to tell them. DigiShopTalk.com wants to provide that resource to the community.

To read more about what you can expect at DST, visit this thread there.

I am just overwhelmed by the immediate response we got from the community. 670 members and counting and we are barely a week old. AND that is including an opening weekend (weekends are generally slow on all messageboards on the internet), a holiday (Father's day) and a 24-hour period when we switched servers and a great number of people were unable to access the site. It is amazing that we already have this many members. Our DST Gold Member subscriber list is already growing like mad with orders coming in throughout the day (I think people are starting to realize what a phenomenal deal this is and yet they still haven't even seen the incredible line up of designers that I've scheduled! I cannot wait to reveal it!) We are getting amazing support from all corners of the digital community and I am beyond grateful. Designers and stores have been generously donating incentive prizes to register and to subscribe. So be sure to sign up because you never know if you'll be the lucky winner! There are just so many fun and exciting things that are happening behind the scenes with this site and I just shake my head in disbelief that exactly a week ago, I was talking myself out of this project because I thought no one would be interested. Then Erick came home from work and gave me this inspirational kick in the butt and by 2pm the next day, we had the messageboard up. And with that, the digital community broke down a barrier....