The Journey of BIZ Magazine’s Website
You might be wondering, “What’s been happening with the BIZ Magazine website?” It’s a fair question, given the recent challenges we’ve faced. Let me share the backstory with you.
Shortly after Christmas, we gathered to discuss the future of our digital presence, including the BIZ Magazine website – what’s working, what needs improvement, and how we can better serve our audience online. While our website has long been a trusted resource for business news and insights, we recognized the need to modernize and adapt to meet the changing expectations of our readers.
Coincidentally, we found ourselves grappling with a similar issue to that of the Minden Press-Herald website – a surge of malicious bot traffic inundating our servers. Like our sister publication, we encountered difficulties in addressing this issue, despite our best efforts and consultations with experts.
After exploring various solutions and enduring setbacks, we turned to Cloudflare, a third-party partner, for assistance. Their proposed strategy involved rerouting website traffic to mitigate the bot influx, similar to the approach taken with the Minden Press-Herald site. While effective to some extent, it wasn’t without its challenges.
As a result of these difficulties, we implemented a “human verification” step on our website, a temporary measure aimed at filtering out bot traffic. While this solution helped alleviate the immediate issue, it’s also presented its own set of challenges, such as disruptions to our social media and email outreach efforts.
Despite these setbacks, we’re committed to improving the BIZ Magazine website and providing our readers with more and better content than ever before. We recognize the importance of our digital presence in today’s landscape and are dedicated to delivering a top-notch online experience.
Moving forward, you can expect to see upgrades and enhancements to the BIZ Magazine website, along with a renewed commitment to serving our audience with timely, insightful content. While these challenges have tested us, they’ve also spurred us on to innovate and improve, ensuring that we remain a valuable resource for our readers for years to come.
I want to extend my sincere gratitude to our readers for their patience and understanding during this time. Your support means everything to us as we navigate these challenges and strive to deliver excellence in all that we do.
David A. Specht Jr. is publisher and editor of BIZ. and President of Specht Newspapers, Inc.