FRONT PAGE — Dear readers, it was two years ago that QCostarica.com went online, with the very first post on October 9, 2012 (All Signs Point To Costa Rica).
Since then, there are 5.875 posts on QCostarica.com (as of this morning). Last month (September 2014), QCostarica.com recorded 13.450 sessions, 8.878 users and 24.705 pageviews (Google Analytics). That was our best month ever. This month, October will set another record for sure.
QCostarica.com started in 2012 as magazine following my sale of Inside Costa Rica in August of that year. The idea was to bring weekly magazine style “journal” entries rather than news. However, at the demand of visitors, QCostarica.com began adding news and by the beginning of 2013 daily posts were made. Since I’ve posted almost every day. I think I missed a several days in total, around Christmas and Easter time.
Today, the focus is news. And using the power of WordPress, QCostarica.com is not longer a static “publish it this morning and forget about it until tomorrow or the day after, well soon…“, it evolves around the happenings of the day and from anywhere I might be. Sometimes days there is little to add, other days posts are added morning, afternoon and evening, getting you the news as it happens.
QCostarica.com has also become the main website of the Q Media family of websites. Costa Rica Extra is the magazine that the Q was supposed to be; Today Costa Rica is a mirror of QCostarica, putting the news before style; Afterbizlife, is to help you unwind; my personal rants can be read at Tico Bull; and the satire of the Vatican Enquirer is meant lighten the mood. Newcomer Insidecostarica.net, posts the news from various sources, all in one location.
I have a number of other sites in the works, like a photo album to display the thousands of photos of Costa Rica I have taken over the last decade. There are also media partnerships of sharing of information, like with Vozdeguanacaste.com, bringing you news from La Pampa and the Costa Rican Times, each week to bring you an off the cuff “podcast” of the week’s news events, nothing planned, just a banter between Dan Stevens, editor of the CR Times and I.
What makes the QCostarica.com different? It’s really very simple: a combination of original articles, curated and aggregated content on Costa Rica, Central America and Latin America.
Original articles written by your truly, reader contributions, guest writers, OP-ED articles, and regular posts by a select group of bloggers. Since the Q is totally independent and my writing does not have to meet the editorial requirements of political or corporate (advertisers) interests, you get the stories and information that you can use in your daily life.
Think about a few decent-sized niches that comes to mind. Is there ONE site you can go to for ALL the major news or interesting articles about those niches? A curated news site acts like a good old fashion news stand. Bring everything together in one place, and people will begin stopping by to browse. Sites like the Huffington Post is a curator of content.
The curated content on QCostarica.com is mainly concise reports from the Costa Rica Spanish language media. This is not just a Google translator cut and paste, it is brief but inclusive translation, summing up a topic succinctly without elaboration or superfluous detail.
In my curated reports I try to use at all times the Spanish full name of important places and things, along with the English translation when possible. Items like the Ministerio de Hacienda, which is the Minstry of Finance. Hacienda is estate or farm in Spanish, but Finance ministry when “ministerio” is added. Then there are Costa Rican idioms, expressions that don’t necessarily have a definition but more of an understanding behind it, like “diajy” or “Tico/Tica”.
Part of the curation process is also using RSS feed, links posted on blogs, social media feeds, or an online news mashup like the ECDaily. There are no limits when it comes to the types of content either. Videos, articles, pictures, songs, or any piece of online digital content that can be shared can be curated. Many of us have been participating in content curation for years without even knowing it. Anyone with a Facebook feed or Twitter stream has seen content curation first hand.
QCostarica.com does not have a staff of reporters, writers, editors, producers, etc. It is me, myself and I and sometimes we get along.
Tbanks for stopping by. And in the words of my childhood hero, Jed Clampett, “Y’all come back now, y’hear?”
Enrico Cacciatore
Editor QCostarica.com
