Merry Christmas from the Starts at Sixty Team

I can’t believe that the end of the year is here, already!  In just a few days, it’ll be 2014!

Where did the year go? 

I hope that 2013 has been a good one for you. And I hope that 2014 is going to be even better.   And more than anything else, I hope you aren’t lonely this Christmas.

At this time of the year I love to sit back and reflect on what has gone by.  I have to say how grateful we are to work for you, our beautiful community of over 60s and all the contributing writers who make our site what it is… fun, interesting, and incredibly diverse.  Thank-you!!!

I am endlessly grateful to our team here at Starts at Sixty who work day and night for the love of it to build a community that keeps everyone so entertained.  Kate and Jess make a big effort to be here through long hours, editing and entering content, managing Facebook and communicating with everyone who contacts us with care.

We’re only 9 months in to building this site, and it is now attracting more than 115,000 views per month and is, as far as we can tell, the largest social media community for baby boomers in Australia. And this is just the beginning.    It is also worth noting that our site has more commenting and active community spirit than many of the major news sites… It seems we’re all interested in what each other has to say, which thrills me to bits.

We all work tirelessly behind the scenes to make Starts at Sixty happen for you. And our wonderful writers are a constant source of inspiration. We thank everyone who contributes to Starts at Sixty for doing so, and hope you’ll continue to do so for a long time.  And if you have ever contemplated writing, blogging or being an active commentator on subjects, please consider writing articles for us occasionally.  A large number (more than 250) of our writers are over 60s volunteering their stories.

So as the year draws to a close, I want to say thank-you to everyone in and around the Starts at Sixty community.  You make us who we are and you are a joy to be here for.

Can you help us even more?  I want to ask you for a little helping hand to spread the word about the site in 2014.    Recent changes to Facebook means that we need you to click “Like”, “Share” and “Comment” on our articles otherwise they don’t reach many people; and for those of you who don’t use Facebook that often, sometimes we worry that you don’t know how important this is to our success.  We can no longer ask you to do it on Facebook as they call this “like baiting”… and punish us by making our page less visible on your walls, which we don’t ever want to tempt.  So please, remember how much we need your support in the form of likes, comments and shares to keep going.  We want to be your favourite source of 60s relevant information online.

Also, can you share your ideas with us more often? 

If you have ideas for us, we want you to share them with us regularly.  Column ideas, story ideas, or even section ideas are warmly welcomed.    Our community can be what you choose to make it.  You can even make it your home screen on your home computer, www.startsatsixty.com.

I’m excited that we have got to this point so quickly.  A few months after I started the site I remember ringing up a very important Government selected Seniors representative (I shall not name them) who said to me “Good Luck Rebecca, I don’t think you’ll find many of us on Facebook or looking round on the web”.  It was like waving a read flag at a bull.    About six months later, I am pleased we’ve found you and can’t wait for you to bring more of your friends to our little site with a big following.

And so I’ll stop my reflective waffle and wish you all a wonderful Christmas, and a terrific new year.

We at Starts at Sixty are trying to take a few days break (it has been a big year), but we’ll be publishing right through the period with some of our favourite articles from throughout the year in addition to a smaller selection of fresh daily content.

We’ll be back full throttle on January 13^th, so don’t go away and don’t stop chatting.   The community clearly enjoys your company!

Warmest Christmas wishes

Rebecca Wilson

Publisher

Starts at Sixty