On a regular basis, calls and messages come in from across the country – and internationally as well – regarding some comment, idea, content, a question, thank you or critique.  We tend to get more high fives than pans in these messages, but let me stress that all are welcome and encouraged.  For a few moments, let me focus on the theme of being heard.

Any media, print, online, broadcast, etc., exists to serve some segment of the public.  How well it serves is determined in part by the numbers of readers, subscribers or those who tune in to listen. Another measure may be something like LinkedIn connections, my particular social networking tool of choice, without slighting successful Facebook in the least.  But another measure a trade journal such as ours has is the direct feedback given.  We all naturally tend to enjoy being told we did something well, our writers and MHMSM.com staff included.

That said, when a comment comes in that is a critique, we treat that seriously at www.MHMarketingSalesManagement also known as www.MHMSM.com.

Some comments are easy to deal with; some take more time or effort.  Needless to say, time and resources have to be considered.

Some website or email format changes we have made in the past are a direct result of comments from readers, sponsors or advertisers.  When you speak, we strive to listen.

People get into habits or patterns of reading and listening.  To properly appreciate the site as it is, please take a look at this video website tour. Also take a moment to tour our Disqus Comments system.

You may already be a listener to our exclusive Daily Business News and Market Reports; but if not, you can sign up free right here. Nowhere else online can you find this exclusive feature, for which Erin Patla does the daily podcast, and Eric Miller, Catherine Frenzel and more recently Matthew Silver provide and post every business day.

If you follow these stories, you will see modular, panelized, manufactured and other forms of factory building news – no one else covers the array of the factory built housing industry like we do – all here for you.  Perhaps that is why Google reports our sign up (registration) pages as consistently being in the top ten of all those 800-1000 pages accessed on our site monthly.

Knowledge is power!  Information is often a key to making good business decisions.

While we are pro-industry, we do not sugarcoat the news in our news department.  If stocks or shipments are down, we say so. Here on The Masthead blog or on Industry Voices, INspirations, Words of Wisdom or the The Cutting Edge of Online Marketing, you may get a mix of facts, motivation, call to action and opinion.  But the Daily Business News and Market Reports blog are the facts as we get them!   If you are not yet signed up for podcasts of the News at Noon and Feature Articles, or Eric Miller’s Industry In Focus reports, here are the links below:

• click here to sign up for twice-weekly emailed newsletters
• click here to sign up for Erin Patla’s podcasts of News at Noon and podcasts of our Monthly Feature articles, as well as Eric Miller’s Industry In Focus reports

So, we have a lot we offer you right now at MHMSM.com.  Thousands of professionals like you come here, as these graphics below attest:

So, you are not alone here; even at 2 or 3 a.m., our logs reveal that people are reading or downloading for listening!

It is with deep appreciation to you, to our team of writers and MHMSM.com associates that I can say, we are the largest and most popular resource of its kind in the history of the factory built housing industry.  No resource, print or web based, serves more people than MHMSM.com does.

So, while we know we are not perfect, we know we have room to improve, and we want to keep improving.  We also don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water.  Our strong Search Engine results, for example, are due in part to many elements we have built into the site.  Some suggestions we receive can’t be implemented for practical reasons, such as negative impact on SEO, or they would cause broken links, etc.

Some say, we need a more memorable name.

Well, we have already reserved a number of them.

One that is active is www.MHProNews.com.  Go ahead and test it.  (It takes you right to our current Home page.) As an MH Pro who wants News and views you can use, you can remember MHProNews.com very easily!  Thanks to Bob Stovall’s fine IT and WebTech work, this name has been integrated into our system with no loss of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) value.

I would have to ask our IT Manager, Bob Stovall, for an exact count of how many pages we have online, but I can tell you that Google Analytics routinely reports to me that we have had 800-1000 pages access on our main site in any 30-day period in recent months, plus the dozens of additional pages accessed on our blogs.  We will achieve another record this month.

All that said, we have had on our drawing board for some time now the plan to simplify navigation and enhance the site search tool.  If you have suggestions, please do take the video site tour (to make sure that what you want to suggest is not already found here).  Then, please feel free to share your comments and suggestions via email.  Please use MHMSM.com Site Suggestions in the subject line, to make sure it is spotted – thanks.

Regarding content or suggestions:  We like having comments posted, but also get many, many more via email or phone.  My email system suggests there are 150-200 emails (not spam, real email messages) in and out daily in my email box.  Lots of that is contact with or for clients, prospective clients, writers, MHMSM.com team members, news tips and related, advertisers, etc., but there are comments from readers and listeners in that mix, too.

Your views are important to us.  You have a place to sound off here and be heard.

We routinely say: on public posts, be respectful, explain your point clearly, do not make readers guess your meaning.  But so long as you are not spamming us to promote something selfishly (our system is set to spot spam), so long as you are not just trashing someone for some personal reason, or making free-floating criticism so generalized it can’t be addressed, we believe in the free exchange of well-expressed ideas.  Such free exchange is important and of value to the Industry.  If you want to write an Industry Voices guest blog post, just read the About Us page for information, and feel free to email it into associate editor Catherine Frenzel at catherine@mhmsm.com and/or myself at tony@mhmsm.com with Guest Blog or Guest Article in the subject line.

It is our daily effort to provide Innovation, Inspiration and Information to Industry professionals.  You are a key part of that process; we are here serve you.

In closing, as one of the kind thank you notes that came in this past week said: thank you for advancing the professionalism of the industry.  To us, professionalism also means serving through you and associations those millions who own or should own a factory built home!  While our target audience is business to business, professionals like you, I always remember our industry’s ultimate customers; and true professionals in for the long haul do the same.

With your help and the support of professionals and advertisers, we plan to do a new publication designed to engage the home-buying public and public media at large.  We believe we need that as an industry, but we also need pros who act like professionals.  So send a link to MHMSM.com or forward an email to your friends, colleagues and yes, to your competitors!  We are all in this together. We may have some difference in focus or perspective, but it is by becoming ever more informed and professional in the best sense that we will see the new Renaissance for manufactured housing in the days ahead.

We hope to see you at the MHI Congress and in Tulsa, where we will be for the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show!