Welcome to the Detroit Gospel.com Web Log or "Blog." Blogging has become a website trend and is simply a log of thoughts or ramblings or whatever. The Detroit Gospel.com Blog is a chronicle of the editor's thoughts and observations during the production of this website.

Monday, May 22, 2006
Memory Loss
I am convinced that my memory is shot. I can't remember anything anymore. Ok, maybe that's an overstatement, but I am forgetting a lot more things that I used to. I get emails from Detroit Gospel.com writers way too often asking me if there was something wrong with the article they submitted weeks ago. I sheepishly email them back with a lame excuse about getting close to 200 emails a day (which is true) and how if I don't handle an incoming email the minute I see it, it gets pushed 3 or 4 pages back into email pergatory and you know, 'out of sight, out of mind.' The truth of the matter is I'm more than a little overextended. To all you wonderful people out there that I owe phone calls to, I'm really not a bad person, I just can't seem to squeeze everything that I need to get done into a day and still see my children.

Why is this blog left unattended for two months? Yes, on many many (many) days I forget that I even have a blog and on the days that I do remember, it just doesn't make it to the top of the "To Do" list. And, just when I've convinced myself that no on even reads the blog anyway, something happens to remind me that even if I've forgotten what I wrote a year ago, an all too flippant statement can lodge itself securely in the memory of others.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Chicago Gospel.com
If someone were to ask me, "When is the last time you blogged?" I'm sure my answer would be, "A couple of weeks ago at most." Then I look in my blog and I see it's been almost seven weeks. Where does the time go?

So, it's finally launched. Visit www.ChicagoGospel.com for Chicago gospel news and information. Now, we've just got to let Chicago folks know about it. While I believe the site is more visually appealing than DetroitGospel.com, one of the things that you won't find on it is a blog. If I can't blog in 7 weeks and I'm sitting right in the midst of Detroit's gospel scene, there is no way I'll be able to blog long-distance. Next on the list after Chicago is NewYork. We're pulling the content together for New York right now. In the meantime still trying to manage Detroit. In a word, "busy."

Thursday, February 2, 2006
No Dumb Questions?
Someone recently asked me, "What's the toughest interview you've had?" I can honestly say that none of the interviews we've done have been difficult. Some have been long (hours), some have been lost ("I could have sworn I turned on that recorder!"), and some have been really fast, but none have been difficult. Setting them up, however, is a whole 'nother story. With artists' hectic schedules we often run into scheduling snafus, missed interview times, and just plain confusion. One of the things we've learned through all of this is to always ask, "What time zone?" A few of the questions that we consistently ask include, "Who are your musical influences?," and "What advice do you have for up-and-coming artists?" We always get insight into the artist and what they've had to overcome to get where they are today.

Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Joy Bells Keep Ringing...
At Detroit Gospel.com we get lots of phone calls and emails. Calls and emails from people asking about music on the site, calls about advertising, calls about promotions, interviews, collaborations, subscribing, unsubscribing, sales, jobs, site updates, corrections, calls, calls, calls, emails, emails, emails. My inbox has 1840 messages in it, and that's not including the approx. 5000 saved messages in the 39 folders I have. I used to periodically go through my inbox to clear out old messages, now I just don't have the time. I pull all of my emails into Yahoo because they give you 2 Gig of space (which they say you'll never run out of - hah). Well, I'm already up to 47% full. That's almost a Gig of messages! In my heart I would like to personally answer and respond to every email and call that I receive, but it's just not humanly possible. So, if I owe you a call or an email right now, please forgive me! You're on my list and one day I will get to you...just not today.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Happy 2nd Anniversary Detroit Gospel.com
Detroit Gospel.com marks its second anniversary today. Two years ago we launched a bare-bones site of about 10 pages and 100 email contacts out into cyberspace. I didn't record the exact number of visitors we received that day, but it was probably less than 50. Today the site is well over 100 pages, we've got close to 10,000 email contacts, and on a good day we receive over 1000 visitors from all over the world. Just look at God! Our pastor preached out of Nehemiah yesterday and he said one of his seminary professors had once told him that, like Nehemiah, we ought to pray as if it's all up to God, and work as if it's all up to us. Well, it's taken a lot of prayer and a whole lot of work by everyone involved with Detroit Gospel.com to get where we are, but in the end..."God did it!"

Sunday, January 29, 2006
Super Bowl Gospel Celebration
Detroit has spent the last year actively preparing for the arrival of the Super Bowl and now it's less than a week a way. The Super Bowl frenzy is definitely building. The hype is now hitting over-drive. The Detroit Gospel.com office is in The Masonic Temple where the Super Bowl Gospel Celebration is taking place. This Friday, hometown gospel royalty, The Winans and The Clark Sisters, will share the stage with Hezekiah Walker, Mary Mary, and Patti LaBelle. Throughout this morning's Rhythm and Praise radio show with Pastor Marvin Winans, listeners were treated to the songs of all those who will be here on Friday. Detroit Gospel.com will have 2 reporters and 2 photographers covering the event. Security has been beefing up all over the city and at the Masonic we've already had to get security passes to even enter the building to come to work on Friday. Over the past several weeks we've seen what appear to have been Federal agents and bomb sniffing dogs checking out the place. So, Detroit, ready or not, it's "Show Time!"

Friday, January 27, 2006
What's Playing In My Kids' CD Player
One of the reasons there are so many gaps in my blogging (other than just being incredibly busy) is that I often run out of things to write about. Actually, I run out of things that I can write about without stirring up too much controversy. Trust me, a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes of the music business is better left behind the scenes. Jesus said, "blessed are the peacemakers..." So, as every parent knows, since one's kids are always a ready source of new material, today's blog is dedicated to 4-year old Faith and 6-year old Seth and what's playing in their CD player. At home, they've been grooving to The Ambassador since our interview with him at the end of the year. Prior to that, L'il Rufus was their disk of choice. In my car, my daughter and son both ask me to play Take 6's "Wade In The Water" from their "Beautiful World" CD over and over again. Then when my daughter wants her own turn, she asks for Israel's "Again I Say Rejoice." Seth and Faith's other favorites include Sonnie Day's "You Visit Me Not," and Kurt Carr's "In The Sanctuary."

Thursday, January 26, 2006
Gospel History Lesson
My husband was talking with Dr. Dorgan Needom, the legendary minister of music over at Unity Baptist Church in Detroit. Dr. Needom is a storehouse of information on the history of gospel music. One of the things he commented on was working with the late great Rev. James Cleveland many years ago and the way the industry worked back then. He noted that gospel musicians just took it for granted that they would not make any money on record sales--that all went to the record companies. The only way to make a real living at doing gospel music was to do concert tours. I wonder how much, if any, this has changed.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Fred Says Good-bye to the 313
Anyone that knows me knows that I have a special place in my heart for Fred Hammond's music ministry. Before I even really knew what gospel music was, I knew about Commissioned and how they were among the first to make gospel music more accessible to a younger audience. Having Fred, The Winans Family, The Clark Sisters, and all the other over-the-top talented gospel artists in and around Detroit has helped to make this city the vibrant gospel hub that it is. Fred will be missed around the D, but that just gives us one more reason to launch www.DallasFtWorthGospel.com - Comin' atcha soon!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Gospel Industry
Anybody that has any remote interest in gospel music and an email box has probably received an email concerning Tonex's recent blog posting and his retirement from the gospel music industry. While reading the blog posting I could feel the pain of his struggles through his words and my heart and prayers go out to him. Anybody with even a remote connection to the gospel industry could probably attest to the dark truth behind what Tonex is bringing to light. It begs the question, "Where is the love?" Now, more than ever, "fans" of gospel artists need to be lifting these artists up in prayer. While it may look like they've got it all together, many are struggling with the same things that Tonex writes about in his blog. In a concert last year, Fred Hammond spoke to those in the crowd that were aspiring to be gospel artists. He said, that many of them wanted what he has, but they don't know what he had to give up to get there.

Monday, January 23, 2006
Stellar Awards
Picked up the cameras from Renee' this morning. She said they had a blast at the Stellars and from the pictures she brought back I can believe it. Nashville was a little different from Houston last year, but it was all good. Got the pics from the digital camera on the site, still waiting for the 35mm's to be developed. I've been checking out the other gospel sites and it looks like we're one of the first to get our coverage out there. Next big event to cover is the Super Bowl Gospel Celebration. We'll have four people there (it's a lot easier when it's happening in Detroit). One of the things Renee' noted about the Stellars was that Chicago was out in full force. Think this is a good time to get ChicagoGospel.com up and running...we're close. Still shooting for the end of the month, which I just realized is when DetroitGospel.com launched two years ago. Further confirmation.

Friday, January 20, 2006
TAKE 6
Went to see Take 6 in concert this past Monday in Ann Arbor. In a word, "phenomenal." I've been a Take 6 fan from the beginning. I went to U of M with a brother (Brandon Dent - a gifted singer in his own right) of one of the members (Cedric Dent from Detroit) who hipped me to the group just before they made it big. I've purchased every CD they've released, with the exception of the greatest hits CD's (because if you already have all the CD's and love all of the songs, what good is the greatest hits?). We were contacted by "their people" to do an interview with David Thomas from the group because they are about to release their first CD on their own label, Take 6 Records. The CD is due out March 21, but I was fortunate enough to receive a promo copy. I have not stopped listening to it since I got it. We'll have a full write up on our interview with David and the concert before the end of the month. Would love to get it out sooner, but we're trying to launch ChicagoGospel.com, cover the Stellar Awards in Nashville this week, automate the news feed on the site, get ready for the Super Bowl Gospel Celebration, raise two children, keep all our New Years resolutions going, make it to choir rehearsal on time, make it to church on time, yada, yada, yada.. Maybe that's why I haven't blogged since last year...

Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Really good response from the Tom Joyner Mistletoe Jam Contest. Over 200 entries came in over the weekend. Also got some feedback with regard to mixing secular and gospel music. While Detroit Gospel.com has no affiliation with the Mistletoe Jam concert, other than as a paid advertiser, we do appreciate the need to reach a lost and dying world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's a time for "preaching to the choir" and a time for reaching outside of the church and spreading the good news to those who may not otherwise hear it.

Friday, December 2, 2005
Last night I had the pleasure of fellowshipping with 15 other black women. The table at Buca di Beppo in Birmingham was overflowing with beauty, graciousness, intelligence, wisdom, and love. As somewhat of an outsider to this dynamic group of women, I marveled at their accomplishments and was encouraged and inspired to reach for even higher heights in my own journey. There were several entrepreneurs, others were excelling in the fields of marketing and PR, and two had published books. There was a radio show personality, a TV show host, a retiree, and another who was reported to be the first black female game show host on a nationally syndicated game show. What a blessing to see what God is doing in the lives of black women everywhere. Mother Rosa would be proud.

Wednesday, November 2, 2005
I've been watching the homegoing service for Rosa Parks today. All of us owe her a debt of gratitude for her courageous stand that changed the face and the future of this country. As a mother, I appreciate her sacrifices even more because while we may be able to endure much, it is almost more than we can bear to see our children suffer. Because of Mrs. Parks' role in the struggle for civil rights, my children aren't even aware of the injustices that their grandparents suffered daily. While we still have a long way to go to equality and total color-blindness in America, we are so much further than even when I was a child.

Watching the long list of dignitaries pay tribute and homage to this icon illustrates so vividly that one person can make a difference.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005
What's playing in my car CD changer? One of the perks of doing Detroit Gospel.com is receiving new releases even before they hit the street. We get so many submissions from established and new artists that it is difficult to listen to them all...but we still try. I've found the best time for me to listen to a new release is in my car. I've got a 6-CD changer that allows to me to swap CD's in and out on the fly. Before we started Detroit Gospel.com, I might keep the same 6 CD's in the changer for 6 months to a year, sort of like my own "Desert Island Picks." Now, they move in and out pretty quickly. Here's what's playing now:
1) Darwin Hobbs, "Worshipper" - I absolutely love this CD. I'm already a big Darwin Hobbs fan, and his newest release is nothing short of amazing. Every cut is a hit, and with Darwin's voice and Israel's production, this CD is hot!
2) Martha Munizzi, "The Best Is Yet To Come" - This one's been spinning around in my CD player off and on for over a year now and I still love listening to it. Again, every cut is a hit, and with Martha's voice and Israel's production...well, you know the rest.
3) Myron Butler, "Set Me Free" (release date 11-08-05) - Myron used to sing with God's Property and from the high-energy music on his first solo release, you can hear the connection. Hot!
4) Straight Gate Mass Choir, "Expectations: I'll Praise" - Motor City gospel all the way, with Fred Hammond kicking off the 1st track of the CD in glorious high praise.
5) John P. Kee, "Lil Rufus and the Melody Train" - OK, I've got a four and a six-year old, so something has to be playing for them. Although, they like just about the same music that I do. In fact, my daughter (4-year old Faith) asks me to play Israel Houghton and New Breed's "Rejoice" over and over again when it's in the car and joyously sings along with it.
6) Richard Smallwood and Vision, "Persuaded: Live in D.C." - This was one of the CD's that took us to and from Albuquerque, N.M. when we took our family road trip a couple of years ago (we've actually got an 8-CD changer in the van we drove). My kids love the orchestral prelude that starts the CD ("Procession of the Levites").

Sunday, October 23, 2005
Gospel music really is a fascinating genre. On the one hand it is ministry, and on the other, it is business...big business. Not being an artist myself, I can't even begin to imagine the struggle it must be to truly keep the ministry in the music. I often pray for artists as they come to my mind because I know that they need to be lifted up in prayer. We get a lot of inquiries as to how to become a gospel artist. They usually start off the same, "I am anointed to sing..." I have no doubt that many have been called to sing the gospel, but not everyone is called to be a mega-gospel star. Some have been called to minister in their church or in their conference, etc. I once heard Fred Hammond say that if people knew what it cost him to be where he is, they wouldn't be praying so hard to get there.

Thursday, October 20, 2005
Our vision has always been to promote gospel music across the globe. One of the recommendations that industry experts make to gospel artists looking to grow their ministries is to max out their home market first. Start with those who know and love you, hone your craft, and then expand from your homebase. Well, we at Detroit Gospel.com have taken that advice to heart. We've been serving the metropolitan Detroit gospel community for almost two years now and we've learned a lot during that time. We've also made a lot of contacts throughout the world and we think we're ready to expand to other markets. Our first market will be Chicago. We are working feverishly on the new ChicagoGospel.com website and hope to launch it before the end of this month. We pray that it will be received in the spirit that it is intended, as a service to the Chicago and worldwide gospel community.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Getting ready to roll out a new logo for the site. Actually, hoping to change the entire look of the site soon. We noticed that some of the national gospel sites are changing their look as well. While the vision is for an "extreme makeover," I think we'll have to settle for a "touch-up" for now.

Friday, July 15, 2005
We get a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of requests for assistance. While we are always happy to help our brothers and sisters whenever we can, it is always a blessing for the phone to ring or to receive an email that offers us some help and support (and the Lord always knows what we need and when we need it most).

Support for our efforts here at Detroit Gospel.com has come from many places. I just want to take the time to thank many of those who have supported us from the very beginning with their encouragement, time, talent, and finances:

(In no particular order - just as the Holy Spirit brings them to my remembrance)
Dr. Deborah Smith Pollard
Lavell Baldridge
Staffy Butler-Blakely
Carl B. Phillips
Renee'
Karen Hunt Barker
Wanda Edwards
Pastor Eric Moore
June Green
Anthony Howard
Conway Norwood, III
Larry and David Whitfield
PAJAM (J Moss, Walter Kearney, Paul Allen)
Keisha Allen
Byron Cage
Larry Robinson
Leon Jones
Marc and Pam Perry
David Nathan
Mary Atkinson
Pastor Carol Ervin
Veda Brown
Brenda Underwood
Jeff Cross
Felicia & James Williams
Oak Grove Church
Charles Curry
Patricia Butler
Jere B
Patricia Snider
And a host of family and friends who are praying for the success of Detroit Gospel.com.

Lord knows I'm probably leaving someone out, but I'll just keeping adding to the list over time.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005
We're adding a new page to the website today, "Chocolate Pages," sponsored by Ministry Marketing Solutions. The page features Christian authors and books that visitors to Detroit Gospel.com may be interested in. Soon to be added is a page for Teens that our intern, Patricia, has been diligently working on. Believe it or not, we're up to almost 100 pages on the Detroit Gospel.com website. Trust me when I say that it's starting to get a little unwieldy. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to provide this free resource for the worldwide Christian community.

Monday, May 9, 2005
We were contacted for a quote regarding the cancellation of this year's PraiseFest in Hart Plaza. The story ran in the Detroit Free Press on Saturday. It was disappointing to hear of the cancellation. Reportedly the biggest free outdoor gospel festival in the world is going to be no more. With the difficult economy, the financing for the event just isn't there. I'm sure if everyone involved in the gospel industry here in Detroit were to come together we could make some things happen. The "come together" is the tricky part. There are so many individual efforts there is little time (or energy) for corporate or communal efforts. Perhaps the PraiseFest's time has simply passed and it's time for another event to take its place, such as "One in Worship" at Ford Field.

Tuesday, April 5, 2005
We're welcoming a new intern on-board today, Patricia Snider, from University Prep Academy. Look for Patricia to add some youthful flava to Detroit Gospel.com in the coming weeks.

Friday, April 1, 2005
We broke the 10,000 visits per month mark in March! Going through the new subscribers to the e-newsletter we've added folks from Germany, Ghana, and across the country to our growing list of visitors. Welcome to you all!

Saturday, March 26, 2005
Well, it hasn't been easy, but the move to the historic Masonic Temple is just about complete. After about a week of being without DSL it's been a tough climb getting back up to speed. We've got a great view of the downtown skyline from our 12th floor window and we get to marvel at the architectural gem that is the Masonic Temple daily. Things are busy as we near the end of March. The phone rings consistently with promoters and artists looking for help breaking into, what we've been told is the tough-to-break-into, Detroit market. The calendar page is FILLED with gospel events going on in and around the city. With so much going on and so many artists coming out with new projects, it's no wonder that it's hard to break out of the crowd. As with all things, I guess it's God's favor and anointing that allows those whose season it is to rise above.

Monday, February 28, 2005
As of March 1, DG.com moves into new digs in the Masonic Temple. As DG.com photographer and owner of Elyon Productions, Karen Hunt-Barker, put it, 'to a deluxe office in the sky!' We'll be sharing space with Motor City Praise Records and look forward to the synergies that working along side another gospel entity can provide. We've also hired a new office manager, Felicia Williams, who'll be helping us to respond to the massive quantities of email we receive every day. We're also working with a graphic artist to update our logo and website. February 1 marked our 1 year anniversary and our prayer is that, "our latter will be greater than our past."

Friday, January 28, 2005
OK, so I finally get a newsletter out, and the overwhelming response blows our bandwidth out of the water and shuts down the site! We think we're cruising along, as we get our biggest numbers to date (almost 1000 visitors yesterday alone), and then bam, we're down to 17 visitors today because our bandwidth limit for the month was exceeded. Thankfully, we host our own site, so as soon as we became aware of the problem we doubled our bandwidth and now we're back in the game. The unfortunate part was that we didn't discover our dilemma until this afternoon when we returned from a business meeting. We missed out on almost an entire day of visitors! Tough lesson learned...WON'T happen again! :-)

Thursday, January 20, 2005
The ladies had a great time at the Stellars and made quite a name for themselves (and Detroit Gospel.com) as the ones who "took over" the photo room (smile). Renee' assured me that it was all in love and that attending the Stellars was a wonderful experience. She said it was like one big family. This was one award show where no fights broke out!

Streamlining the home page. It's always been way too busy, but just haven't had the time to set it straight. Want to do a whole site makeover, but I think we'll have to take "baby steps" rather than one major overhaul.

STILL working on getting out a newsletter...it's coming...

Thursday, January 13, 2005
Happy New Year, and yes, I'm embarrassed that this is the first blog post this year. I'm also embarrassed that we haven't gotten out a newsletter in over a month, but that will all change soon, along with the look and function of the entire site. Yes, it's on to bigger and better in 2005.

The Stellar Awards are this weekend in Houston, TX and Detroit Gospel.com is on the case. Three of our staff (Renee', Karen Hunt-Barker, and Brenda Underwood) left for Houston this morning and they reported back that it was a gospel star- studded flight down. Their flight included none other than J. Moss and Paul D. Allen (of P.A.J.A.M.), Lowell Pye from Men of Standard, and Black Gospel Promo's Veda Brown. And yes, once again I was embarrassed when Renee' reported back that Veda mentioned she hadn't seen any newsletters from us in awhile:-)

Although she was not on that particular flight, Detroit's own Deborah Smith Pollard (WJLB FM98 "Strong Inspirations" radio host) has been named "Gospel Announcer of the Year" for the 20th Annual Stellar Awards. Other home grown nominees include Fred Hammond (with 6
nominations), Karen Clark-Sheard, God's Little Soldiers, Straight Gate Mass Choir, Deitrick Haddon, CeCe Winans, P.A.J.A.M., and Men of Standard. For details on Detroit's nominees, check out the "Gospel In The News" section of Detroit Gospel.com
(http://www.detroitgospel.com/#News).

Look for LOTS of pictures and interviews with gospel music's finest from the Stellar Awards coming soon to the site...and a newsletter.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004
The staff of Detroit Gospel.com got together last night for a Christmas Fellowship. We spent the evening at a Chinese Buffet restaurant and reminisced over the past year of operation. The Lord has brought us a mighty long way and we thank Him for all He has done, is doing, and will do.

Last Friday night had a chance to go to Fred Hammond's concert that was really more like a praise and worship service. When Fred took the stage, it was obvious he was home. There was an excitement and connection that you could feel throughout the sanctuary. He spent 2 hours ministering through music and yet the time just flew by. At the end of the evening he asked, "What do you want to hear now?" Since he had sung almost EVERY hit, it was hard to think of a song he hadn't already done.

Songs from "Somethin' 'Bout Love" were interspersed with the classics and the audience just sang right along with everything. On several of the songs Fred would have the audience sing most of it and he just kind of led us like a praise team leader. On a few congregational hymns, it really was "call and response" singing with the audience. Even Fred admitted that there were probably better singers in the audience than he was. At times it just sounded like a 4000-strong mass choir. It was awesome praise and worship.

Monday, November 15, 2004
Excuse me while I go on a mini-tyrade...Could anyone out there stomach the "American Music Awards" last night? I could only watch so much of it before I just turned away in dismay. There's not even a "Gospel Music" category on the show. Not that any gospel artist would risk diluting their witness by appearing with the parade of scantily clad women and crotch-grabbing men that did much more shimmying and shaking than actual singing. OK, I admit it, I'm about to turn 40 this week so maybe I'm just out of touch with today's music, but if that show is representative of "American Music," then America's in more trouble than I thought.

In fairness, there was a "Contemporary Inspirational" category with nominees Steven Curtis Chapman, MercyMe (Winner) and Third Day, but again, no "Gospel" category. Gospel music accounts for almost $1 billion annually in U.S. sales alone (Recording Industry Association of America). Gospel album sales have grown 10% from 42 million units in 1998 to over 47 million units in 2003 compared to a 10% decline in overall music sales for the same five-year period (Nielsen SoundScan). Gospel sales, representing 7% of all albums sold in 2003, outsold Soundtracks (4.97%), Latin (4.18%), and Jazz and Classical combined (3.51% and 2.87%, respectively) (Nielsen SoundScan).

And while I'm on my mini-tyrade, might I add that in Detroit, one of the biggest gospel cities in the country, the Stellar Awards are typically broadcast at 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday night! Now, most people who watch the Stellar Awards are church-goers and will be rising early on Sunday for church, so why a Saturday night? Why not a Friday night...or here's an idea, actually broadcasting them during the day or early evening!

OK, that's my Awards show mini-tyrade. I try to keep things positive in the DG.com blog, but sometimes "righteous indignation" is in order :-)

Friday, November 12, 2004
Yesterday I wrote about Marvin Winans' guest lecture at the University of Michigan - Dearborn campus. Here are just a few of the interesting tidbits I picked up from the discussion:

• Early in his career Fred Hammond played base for The Winans. Pastor Winans mentioned that he didn't even know Fred could sing until one time during a concert he called out to Fred to sing the chorus of a song they were doing and in Pastor Winans' words, "Fred TORE IT UP!"
• The hit Winans song with Anita Baker, "It'll Be All Over In The Morning" was originally slated to be with Whitney Houston, but Whitney's record company wouldn't let her do it.
• Growing up, the Winans used to go to the Clark Sisters' house and have "sing-off" competitions
• The Winans family grew up in the same neighborhood with Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, members of the Temptations, members of the Four Tops, and the Clark Sisters
• Marvin Winans' nickname growing up was "peanut". His son, Marvin Winans, Jr. is affectionately known as "coconut".
• When he was a young boy J. Moss told Pastor Winans that he wanted to sing like him. One of Pastor Winans' sisters jokingly said, "I don't know why, 'cause you can't sing"

Thursday, November 11, 2004
One of the perks of being the editor for DetroitGospel.com is that I get a lot of opportunities to meet gospel music artists up close and personal. What a treat to be able to sit in on Deborah Smith Pollard's History of Gospel Music course last night where the special guest speaker was none other than Marvin Winans.

Pastor Winans captivated the attentive audience for two hours with an encyclopedic knowledge of gospel music history and stories of the Winans rise to gospel music prominence. Humorous anecdotes included a who's who of music legends including The Clark Sisters, Fred Hammond, Whitney Houston, Anita Baker, Andre' Crouch, Thomas Whitfield, and many others whose names may not be quite as recognized.

Interspersed throughout the discussion, Pastor Winans treated us to snippets of Winans' and other's songs as he played and sang at the piano. When the first chords of "The Question Is" rang out, the multi-racial audience erupted in applause.

One of the many interesting things he noted was the controversy surrounding "The Question Is" when it was first released. The fact that it was embraced and played by secular radio stations angered many in the Christian community, much the same way that Holy Hip Hop is doing today. He noted that someone in the church called him up and told him that she had heard his music on "the devil's" radio station. Being too much of a gentleman to ask, Winans commented that he always wondered what SHE had been doing listening to "the devil's" radio station :-)

Friday, November 5, 2004
Finally got the photos from the J Moss CD Release Celebration on the site. Karen Hunt-Barker did a great job capturing the evening (with more photos to come). Special thanks to Carl for filling me in on the details of the evening. I almost felt like I was there too.

With so much going on and two preschoolers to juggle, I really have to plan out my calendar well in advance if I'm going to attend an event. Some of my favorite local (soon to be national :-) artists are in concert around town this month (so as not to get in trouble I won't name names :-), and I'm planning out my baby-sitting schedule. I'm probably a little biased when it comes to local vs. national artists because I know the national artists will get the support they need with or without Detroit Gospel.com. I think where we can really make a difference is for the many talented local artists out there looking to get exposure.

Thursday, November 4, 2004
The Stellar Awards are January 15, 2005, in Houston, TX. During this year's Stellar Awards we at Detroit Gospel.com promised ourselves we would be at the 2005 awards. Well, they're almost upon us and we're prayerful that we'll be in the mix. Growing the web site is a slow process, but the Lord has blessed us with steady growth since we launched Feb. 1. We've gone from 2555 visits in February to 6600 visits last month, an increase of over 150%. Now the trick is keeping that growth going. We've got a lot of ideas. It's just finding the time to implement them.

Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Election Day! What a blessing to live in a society where everyone has the right to vote. As I cast my ballot today, I couldn't help but think about all those who gave their lives so that I would be able to participate in this country's political process. Free of harassment, free of judgment, and as Detroit's own LaShelle Griffin would say, simply, "Free". My prayer for today is that God's will be done.

Monday, November 1, 2004
It's hard to believe that it's already November. So many things to do at the beginning of the month around here. Change over the website, provide stats for the prior month for DG.com and all of the other websites we host, send out monthly statements, not to mention get through the dozens of emails in my in-box that came in over the weekend. Also working on providing some artists for the annual Noel Nite in the city's Cultural Center. Although we submitted about a dozen gospel groups, only one, Partners In Christ, was selected to perform. There are over 30 venues available for performances throughout the Cultural Center and Partners In Christ has been blessed with one of the more prominent ones; The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. We'll be putting more information about the event on the website soon.

Still bummed about "It's Local Gospel 2004" being cancelled. Kurt Carr is probably one of the few gospel artists that I've never seen perform live. I was talking to a good friend last night who said she'd never thought about the importance of pre-sales in making or breaking a concert. The Detroit gospel audience is traditionally a "decide on the day of" type of audience, so I'm sure it's nerve racking for the promoters who have to make enough in pre-sales to cover the costs associated with getting big name acts here. Earlier this year a Ricky Dillard concert had to be cancelled at the last minute for the same reason.

Saturday, October 30, 2004
Gave away two tickets to "It's Local Gospel 2004" on the radio show today, and then found out this evening that it's cancelled. Our guess is that there weren't enough pre-sales. We were really looking forward to it too. With so much going on in Detroit (just about every day), I'm sure it's getting tougher and tougher to promote paid concerts here. Especially when so many of today's top gospel artists perform regularly around town and usually for free.

Thursday, October 28, 2004
My husband told me that the Newsletter is too long and doesn't have enough "pizzazz"...well, those weren't his exact words, but that was the gist of it, so I'm still working on getting it out. Our ad ran in "Soul Source" today. Special shout-out to Vanessa R. Williams whose beautiful artwork graces our ads and postcards. We'll see if our hits go up as a result. Still trying to decide when to run a Black Gospel Promo ad. Don't get me wrong, I know Black Gospel Promo is a great marketing tool (shout-out to Veda Brown), but we have to be really careful with our expenditures around here. We were thinking about advertising in "The Gospel Music Industry Round-Up 2005"...until we saw the rates. Oh well, maybe next year.

Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Kind of quiet around here today (must be the middle of the week). Trying to get a newsletter out before Friday, but the calendar additions just keep coming. Currently reviewing a CD by Jim Couchenour who is a member of SounDoctrine. It's a wonderful jazzy/funky instrumental project and I'm still trying to come up with a good quote to send in. Also trying to get press passes to Hopeville for Renee' to cover it. Working on setting up an interview with Cross Movement for Conway. Additionally working on the Business Plan for DG.com, a proposal for corporate sponsorship for a gospel concert, and setting up an RSS Feed for the site. It may be quiet, but there's definitely plenty of work to do.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004
God is so good, and He does everything in His own time and in His own way and to His glory. I tend to worry about this website a lot. Yes, I know, I should be anxious for nothing (especially not for a website :-) and yet I catch myself worrying about whether or not we have enough visitors, whether our revenue will ever exceed our expenses, whether all the artists and businesses we're trying to promote are seeing results, whether we're as good as all of the other gospel websites out there, whether our visitors are finding what they're looking for on the site, whether we update the site frequently enough (especially the Blog), whether we're responding to all of the inquiries we receive, whether we're glorifying God in all we do...And then the Lord sends something our way that lets me know He is with us and He is in charge...and I just love Him. It's the small things that add up and let me know we're in His will and He is blessing us. ..in His own time and in His own way and to His glory.

Last night was the J Moss CD Release Celebration. From what I hear, there was a "Who's Who" of gospel music in attendance; Fred Hammond, Marvin Winans, Kierra Sheard, Karen Clark Sheard, PAJAM, Ramiyah, and a list of other artists and industry personnel that goes on and on. One of the ways that the Lord blessed me was that even though I was unable to be in attendance, there were four Detroit Gospel.com staffers present who were working to get the word out about us. How do I know this was a blessing from the Lord? Because each of these wonderful people does this without pay and with much love. A special thanks to Renee', Karen Hunt Barker, Carl B. Phillips and Anthony Howard for covering the event.

Saturday night was the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum's 8th Annual Induction Awards Ceremony. Again, another "Who's Who" of gospel music was on hand and the Lord again blessed me with a husband who would spend his Saturday (again without pay and with much love) covering the Press Conference and attending the event. His efforts were not in vain, because this Monday's website visits were at a record high. An extra special thanks to my wonderful husband, Keith Crosby.

Today, we received a calendar event addition for the upcoming David Miller CD Release Celebration (David's new release, "Standing On The Promises" is in my computer's CD player right now as I was just listening to it yesterday while working). It is a wonderful project. I wrote about it in this Blog on Sept. 10 and I was surprised to see that the calendar event mentioned my "review." Why did this bless me (and begin me on this whole train of thought)? Because, quite honestly, I'm shocked to find out people actually read this Blog. Sometimes I think of it as a kind of journal that will allow me to look back and see how the Lord blessed Detroit Gospel.com over the years. I forget that people really do read it. So, it blesses (and humbles) me that people find what I have to say about what goes on behind the scenes of Detroit Gospel.com interesting enough to take time out of their busy schedules to read. So, if you're reading this (especially since this is a longer than usual entry), a special thanks goes out to you for not only visiting the site, but regarding it highly enough to dig into it. To God be the glory!

Friday, October 15, 2004
I think the Detroit Gospel community is really starting to see the benefit of this website. With so much going on, it's really starting to be "the" spot to find out what's happening in the Detroit gospel music scene. Last month's poll showed us that over half of our visitors are using the site in their ministries or in their jobs. We know it's going to take some time before all of the gospel community knows about and visits us, but with the Lord's help, we're well on the way.

Thursday, September 23, 2004
Received an email from a Christian school today with corrections to our list of metro-Detroit Christian schools. Not sure if this list is available anywhere else on-line and yet many of our regular visitors probably have never even seen it. Some people say they never go past the home page, and yet others stumble upon the site by searching on something that's deep into the content of the site. It's a funny site that way...kind of hard to get your arms around it...which is why it's such a challenge trying to redesign it. I've got a redesign scribbled on a note pad, but actually translating that to the site may be awhile.

Thursday, September 16, 2004
Keith interviewed the Mel-Man today for the site. Our first interview with a Christian comedian. Got two really good discussion questions for the discussion board. Also a new answer from Pastor Eric. Bazil Meade interview came in today too. I'd like to send out a newsletter, but I was trying to wait until all of the updates were in. The site just keeps growing. What I really need to do is break free from the webmaster role so I can concentrate on the editor role. Need to get more income, however, to do that. All in God's good time.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Verity is on top of things. We received copies of the Shea Norman CD in the mail today. Got to add them to the site for giveaways...On another note, got a Black Gospel Promo for God's Little Soldiers and their inclusion on the ballot for a Stellar Award nomination. Congratulations to Detroit's own. Also got an email concerning Elder Murphy's upcoming weekend of activities. Other emails today have come from the Dublin Gospel choir thanking us for their write-up on the site, Carl B. Phillips concerning the upcoming interview with Dorinda Clark-Cole, and from Karen Hunt-Barker with an attachment of a photo of Bishop Merritt and DG.com staffers at the Fred Hammond CD Release party. There's about 20 other (valid) emails we've received so far today (not counting spam). On average, I spend a couple hours a day going through and responding to emails.

Monday, September 13, 2004
Keith interviewed F.Hammond Music and Verity recording artist Shea Norman today. Shea was one of the artists on the "Fred Hammond Presents: 'in case you missed it...and then some'" project. He's got a new solo project, "My Heart Depends on You" forthcoming. I've got to admit we've got a back log of artist interviews for the site and in most cases, I'm the bottleneck. So, look for interviews with Twinkie Clark, Belvayana Stewart, London Community Gospel Choir, Dublin Gospel Choir, Brandon Perry, Ernest Lee, Sonnie Day, and Shea Norman coming soon...I hope.

Saturday, September 11, 2004
Sonnie Day was a guest on the radio show ("Detroit Gospel.com On The Air") today. Her new CD, "You Visit Me Not" is an impressive debut. She wrote all the songs, sings, founded the record company (Rooted Records) and I'm sure wears countless other hats on the project and the promotional activities. She's another bright and shining example of the depth of talent here in Detroit (again, why we do what we do). You can go to www.sonnieday.com for more info on this up and coming artist and her debut project.

Friday, September 10, 2004
In Vanessa R. Williams' interview (Featured Artist this month) she commented that she thinks of Detroit as a place where you can walk out on the street stick a microphone in someone's face and they can sing gospel. I think she's pretty close to the truth! We get CD's daily from local artists looking for their big break and just about every one of them is as good (or better) than the CD's currently in rotation around the country. Case in point is a CD we received from Nu-House Records yesterday by David Miller (produced by Darell Campbell, Sr., David Miller & Pastor Kelli Williams). This CD is "the bomb." Every song is praising God in totally unique and different ways. There's traditional, rap, full choir, jazz, ballads...just something for everyone. It's CD's like this that make me remember why we at Detroit Gospel.com do what we do.

Thursday, September 9, 2004
Tried to pick up a Billboard Magazine today to take a look at Billboard's Top 50 Gospel Chart. This is the fourth week in a row that the Gospel chart has been unpublished. What's up with that? Gospel music has more sales than classical and jazz combined and yet it's treated like a stepchild.

We're trying to decide whether to advertise in "the bible of the gospel music industry," The 2005 Gospel Music Industry Round-Up. With full-page color adds going for over $3000, we can only afford about 1/32 of a page (smile). With all of the conferences, banquets, and publications, there are so many places to spend our money and so little money. I'd be nice to be able to support everything and everybody, but right now, we're the ones in need of support. Well, what God has for us is for us and our prayer is to let it flow through us and be a blessing.

Thursday, August 5, 2004
The summer pace is picking up. At the beginning of the month I was a little worried that we hadn't received many calendar entries. That quickly changed! August is bursting with gospel events, not the least of which is the Detroit Gospel.com MEGA MIXER! We've never had an official coming out party, so this is it. Mark your calendar for Saturday, August 28, from 1-4 and you're all invited (you can even bring the kids)

Tuesday, July 27, 2004
We've been busy attending gospel events over the past week. Friday night DG.com attended The Bishop's CD Release Party which included great live music, dinner, and three of the funniest Gospel comedians around (including CBS Star Search Comedy Champion, Horace H. B. Sanders). Saturday is radio show / family day so we skipped the many Gospel events taking place around town. Sunday we found ourselves at Community Jam '04 where the gospel music was powerful and plentiful (and our five year old son had a blast on the bouncer). Because of a family commitment we missed a Sunday evening gospel concert at the home church of Carl B. Phillips. Tonight, Keith is at The Bobby Jones Showcase. We could probably spend each and every weeknight out at a gospel event across the city and all day Saturday and Sunday. I wonder if Detroiters realize how very blessed we are.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004
What's Up? Here are just some of the things that are going on behind the scenes at Detroit Gospel.com this week alone: (1) We're looking at redesigning the site. Not an easy task by any means, but we're always looking for continuous improvement opportunities; (2) preparing to interview Vanessa R. Williams on Saturday's radio show; (3) working on expanding the site in several new directions with all new pages and new features; (4) working on our business plan (yes, I know we should already have one, but what can I say?); (5) making contacts with potential sponsors and advertisers; (6) reading and responding to about 50 (legitimate/non-spam) e-mails a day; (7) updating our growing email address database (we're approaching the 2000 mark); and last, but not least, (8) updating the website with calendar entries, news, and other information.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Yes, the newsletter made it out, but most people must be checking the site out pretty consistently on their own because we didn't get the big spike in hits to the site that we normally get. We're averaging close to 200 visits a day (up from less than 100 just two months ago) so word seems to be spreading. More visitors starting to pick us up on search engines (our page rank recently went from "3" to "4" on Google) so we're getting more and more visitors from around the country and around the world. There are a lot of very interesting people out there coming to our site (and God bless 'em for coming). We're making plans to take the site to the "next level" (whatever that is:-)

The laptop finally gave up the ghost so I was forced to take it into the shop for service where the salesperson politely told me (we a straight face no less) that it would be 2 to 3 WEEKS! Oh well.

Friday, July 16, 2004
OK, so now my mouse is completely inoperable and I'm using the ergonomically-challenged "mouse" pad that comes built into the laptop. Productivity has therefore slowed to a crawl and the newsletter I was planning to get out today, is getting less and less likely to be sent. But, the site is updated! If I could just get the newsletter out, I would shut this baby down and drop it at the nearest BestBuy to get it fixed.

Monday, July 12, 2004
I keep telling people that Detroit Gospel.com has a blog, but then I never have time to write in it. For anyone out there who actually reads this (I think June may be the only one--by the way happy belated birthday June!), I apologize for not writing anything in almost two weeks. My computer is slowly breaking down and as much as I dread the reality of it, I'm going to have to take it into the shop, so if there's another gap in blogging, you'll know why.

Sat on a panel of gospel industry professionals (how'd they let me on??) on Sat. at the UGA's Gospel Music Summit. What a really informative workshop and what a wealth of talent and know-how this city possesses. Karen Hunt-Barker (in one of her signature hats) did a wonderful job of pulling it all together.

Sent out a request for favorable comments/quotes from some of the wonderful people that Detroit Gospel.com comes in contact with. We got some really nice ones back that we'll be posting on the site soon.

We requested press passes for One In Worship and looks like we'll be able to cover this incredible upcoming event. Renee's working on writing up the Martha Munizzi interview, Conway's trying to track down either LaRue Hill or King Ray for an interview, we'll be interviewing Vanessa R. Williams on the radio show on an upcoming Saturday, and I'm trying to put together some International things. Yes, we're busy, but blessed.

Thursday, July 1, 2004
Has 1/2 of 2004 really come and gone? It seems like we were just working around the clock to launch Detroit Gospel.com and here it is 5 months old! Contemplating yet another re-vamp to the site. There's no shortage of ideas around here, just a shortage of time and resources. Without giving too much away, we're thinking BIGGER. Now it's just a matter of implementation. More coming soon.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Getting more calls from people interested in contributing content to the site. Definitely a blessing to have the input. Hoping to get some help with interviewing the many deserving artists who contact us almost daily about getting interviewed.

Monday, June 21, 2004
Gearing up for the Perfecting expo this weekend. There's always something going on in the City! ...Conway interviewed God's Army last week and it went really well. Look for the interview on the site soon... Now that the radio show's underway, investigating options for TV. Pray for us! ...Site visits continue to climb ...Some parts of the site are falling a little behind in terms of updates. The bigger the site gets, the harder it is to maintain. Just have to keep pluggin' away.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Still recovering from the PraiseFest! Hopefully (prayerfully) we made some good contacts and got the word out there about Detroit Gospel.com. We did manage to get about 130 email addresses to add to our growing list. This should put our database of email addresses over the 2000 mark. Definitely had an opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people, and site visits are up to all-time highs. Deborah Smith Pollard has also been mentioning the site on her show and we're getting good feedback from those who are visiting as a result. We seem to be building momentum.

Special shout out to all who worked so hard (for so little pay...in fact no pay...ok, for a hat and a t-shirt) at the Detroit Gospel.com booth during the PraiseFest: Grace, Eugene, Clinton, June, Steven, Mark, Brianna, and Jim, (plus Mom & Pop Sturkey for watching the little ones all weekend and Patrice for being on call to watch the little ones). We thank God for faithful friends and family!

Thursday, June 10, 2004
The PraiseFest is almost here! Trying to set up our schedule for juggling the kids and manning our booth at the PraiseFest all day Saturday and Sunday. A lot of preparation involved in being there. The DG.com hats and T-shirts are due in today, the discount cards are due tomorrow, and we've got a growing checklist of items we need to take down and set up (table, chairs, umbrella, banner, etc.). Hoping to at least break even (between the cost of the booth, sales license, hats, T-shirts, printing, banner, umbrella, gas, etc., we're in for over $1500). The weather says chance of thunderstorms both days :-( Lord we need you to bless us real good.

Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Flurry of site updates going on - new, new, new stuff all over the site (must be newsletter time). Check it out!

Sunday, June 6, 2004
One of the chorus verses from a song our choir sang today was, "You shoulda been there, you shoulda been there!" Well, you shoulda been there at New Foundation Christian Center last night! Staffy Butler-Blakely, WLQV 1500AM Radio personality was the mistress of ceremonies and the "house choir" under Staffy's direction got things started right (and the girl and the choir SANG!). Next up, one of Detroit Gospel.com's favorite groups, The Whitfield Music Group, truly ministered to God's people. It was a high time in the Lord.

Tomorrow night is Fred Hammond's CD Release party at Straight Gate International Church. God willing (in my head I'm thinking "and the creek don't rise", but I've got a friend---shout out to Elijah White---who say's if God's willing, why should it matter if the creek don't rise?) Detroit Gospel.com will be in the house covering all of the gospel scene goings on.

Our new writer, Conway, is already getting a lot of positive feedback about writing for the site. Looks like he'll be interviewing God's Army for his first write-up. Look for it soon.

Saturday, June 5, 2004
After much prayer and fasting, we were blessed with our first radio broadcast today and God showed up and showed out! All praise, glory and honor to Him who is able to keep US from falling. Keith did an excellent job of producing the show and putting it together, June was great as our host, Renee' was wonderful as our engineer, Byron Cage's interview responses are still going strong, Levell Baldridge was fantastic calling in (and putting up the funds along with Avis Ford), and Marc Perry was marvelous as our intro/outro/promo voice. It definitely takes a village to raise a radio show :-) If you missed it, be sure to tune in next Saturday at 2PM on 1340AM the WMUZ Gospel station.

Friday, June 4, 2004
Another busy weekend planned. Trying to get to the Elyon/E2 Productions Ice Cream Mixer this evening, followed by choir rehearsal. Saturday the Detroit Gospel.com radio show debuts on WEXL at 2PM and then planning to go to Triumph for a gospel concert featuring The Whitfield Company. At 6PM, Staffy Butler-Blakely's church is hosting a gospel concert including The Whitfield Music Group. Sunday is church (choir and teach the preschool Sunday School class) followed by the TOLBF's 4th Anniversary dinner.

Brought an intern writer/assistant on board today. I couldn't off-load some of the DG.com work fast enough! At least 50% of my time is spent on DG.com, with a significantly lower percentage of the company's revenue coming from it. Need to shift some of my focus to income generating activities or neither FruitfulWorks nor Detroit Gospel.com will be around much longer. God bless us all!

Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Actually got the newsletter out. Now, just have to update the site for June. Going to be bringing on an intern to help out for the summer. Busy trying to get the radio show produced for Saturday, and then the next Saturday is the PraiseFest. Busy Busy Busy!

Friday, May 28, 2004
Time to get the newsletter out. Anytime you see a flurry of updates on the site, it's just us spiffing up "the house" for our invited guests. Going to try to keep it short this time. Our database is up to almost 2000, so the costs for sending the newsletter are starting to increase (which is one of the reasons the frequency has gone down).

Thursday, May 27, 2004
Today is our son Seth's 5th birthday, so I'm taking the day off to celebrate what we like to call "Seth Day" around here (well I'm not exactly taking the WHOLE day off since I'm sitting here at 6:15 in the morning typing this :-) Jeepers here we come.

We had hoped to have The Whitfield Music Group's interview on the site this week (especially now that "This Time" has been added to the rotation over at WMUZ), but it's just not going to happen. Everything's in divine order, however, so my prayer is it will be out there at God's appointed time.

Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Praise God, the interview with Martha Munizzi went extremely well last night. In addition to photos with Martha, Keith and Renee' also snapped a few with Pastor Paula White and Damita Hammond behind the scenes at Perfecting's Holy Convocation 2004. Now the trick is getting all of their great photos and the interview write up onto the site (in the midst of trying to switch over to the June edition of the site and get a newsletter out...ok, it may be awhile... I need an assistant!).

Tuesday, May 25, 2004
It's official, the Lord has blessed Detroit Gospel.com with a radio show on 1340AM, WMUZ's gospel station. The first show is scheduled to run Saturday, June 5, at 2PM. We thank God for our show and for our sponsor, Avis Ford. We've also been blessed with a new writer for the website. Look for more information about Conway Norwood, our new gospel hip hop writer coming soon.

Keith and Renee' are hopefully interviewing Martha Munizzi at Calihan Hall as I write this. Look for the interview with Martha as well as one with God's Army in the next few weeks on the site.

Sunday, May 23, 2004
Congratulations to Karen Hunt-Barker and the UGA-Detroit Chapter for a wonderful evening of urban gospel on last night. Renee' said it was a great turnout and that the music truly ministered. We know how hard Karen (and everyone else involved) worked to make this happen so we thank God for blessing their efforts.

Friday, May 21, 2004
Last day to decide about getting a table at the Praise Fest. Unless the Lord opens up the heavens and drops $500 down on our heads, I'm thinking we'll be waiting until next year. Waiting to hear back from Donnie McClurkin and Noel Jones' publicists as to whether we can set up interviews with them while they're in town for Perfecting's Holy Convocation 2004. Also trying to work out the schedule for interviewing Martha Munizzi. Received an email from the Dublin Gospel Choir (who knew they had gospel choirs in Dublin?:-). They're interested in making contacts with choirs here in the United States. Where to begin?

4:06 PM: God showed up and showed out with not just $500 but $600. We'll see you at the Praise Fest 2004!

Thursday, May 20, 2004
Looks like the radio show is back on - our sponsor has agreed to a four month run. Praise God! We have until Friday to decide about the table for the Praise Fest. Still in prayer as to whether to pony up the money this year or wait 'til next year. It's a sizeable investment in money and time, so we want to make sure it's a wise investment and that we get a "return" on our investment. The Lord will show us what to do...

Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Keith met with Earl Wright over at WMUZ to discuss Earl's writing for the website. Looks like Earl's on board and ready to do a whole page! Keith also got a chance to chat with Rev. Mother and introduce her to Detroit Gospel.com. She may even be interested in contributing something to the site. Praise the Lord, 'cause we need all the help we can get. There are a list of emails in my inbox that I need to respond to for DG.com, but I hope the senders bear with me because I won't be getting any responses out any time soon. Got some ideas for some revenue generating activities (to fund our table at the Praise Fest). Still waiting to hear back from our sponsor about the radio show. So much to do, so little time...well, that's not true...God gives us the same 24 hours as everybody else, just have to learn to work smarter, not harder.

Thursday, May 13, 2004
Everybody says we've got to get our name out at the PraiseFest this year (which is on by the way). The concern is finding the funds for a table at the PraiseFest. I guess we'll need to get creative.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004
SO GLAD that the first project I was asked to write a review for on CDBaby.com is a project I whole heartedly endorse and absolutely love, "This Time" by The Whitfield Music Group (click here for project on cdbaby.com). I could without reservation give the project 5 Stars and write a glowing review because that's how I honestly and truly feel about it.

My husband and I often joke that you never read a "bad" review of a gospel music project from a Christian media source. As Christians we are called to exhort and not tear down, but let's face it, sometimes there really are mediocre projects out there from gospel artists. "This Time" is definitely not one of them, but I'll have to pray over how to respond if someone asks me to write a review of a project I'm not that crazy about. Sometimes it's not even that a project is "bad" it's just that it may not be the style of music the reviewer prefers.

For example, God's Army has a wonderful new CD out and recently got a great write up in the Detroit Free Press. However, they might not want to ask for a review from someone who prefers traditional Southern gospel. I don't get paid much (in fact I don't get paid anything) for doing this website, but one of the perks is that I get to pick and choose who we feature on the site. As a result, the site completely reflects my tastes in gospel music. I hope others like my picks too.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Renee' got a call from Martha Munizzi's publicist yesterday. Looks like we'll be doing an interview with her while she's in town for Perfecting's Holy Convocation. Met with the Whitfield Music Group last night. The interview was inspiring and refreshing. We also got a little taste of what heaven's going to be like when they sang a medley of songs for us. There's singing and then there's SANGING! That choir can SANG! I mean I've heard a lot of choirs (I've even sung in a few myself), and The Whitfield Music Group is definitely in the upper echelon of choirs that truly have an anointing to minister to God's people AND to the lost. Our prayers are with them for much success in their ministry.

Monday, May 10, 2004
June's busily working on the Detroit Gospel.com radio show demo --supposed to hear back from our sponsor today as to whether or not it's a go. Renee' and I are scheduled to hook up with the Whitfield Music Group tonight for an interview and some photo opps. Getting some positive feedback on the Robert Norwood interview (thanks again June). Also starting to get more inquiries from other artists about being interviewed. Newsletter went out on Friday to over 1100 email addresses. With all of this activity you'd think our visitor stats would be shooting through the roof. Keep reminding myself it's all according to HIS time, not ours.

Thursday, May 6, 2004
The week is just flying by! Karen sent us some photos from the Bobby Jones Gospel Retreat in Vegas (God's Little Soldiers--not to be confused with God's Army :-). Thanks Karen!

Really going to make a push to get the site updated today (even though the staff wants to leave Byron Cage out there another month, we must move on :-)

A set-back with the radio program - sponsor doesn't want to sign the contract. Letting go and letting God handle it.

Tuesday, May 4, 2004
OK, it's already May 4, and we've still got April's featured artist out there. Our main computer was thrown offline on Friday and today is the first day we've been able to connect to the Internet successfully (Renee' says we're about to be blessed so the enemy is busy). June's interview with Robert Norwood is ready to go (thanks June!) but I admit to being the bottleneck. Let's just say that my "to do" list is about "to do" me in! :-) Anyway, God is good and it'll get done when it gets done.

Went to interview The Whitfield Music Group yesterday, but wound up rescheduling for next Monday. Got a chance to just kick it with the group for a couple of minutes and let them know how much both Renee' and I are enjoying the new project, "This Time". I had listened to it awhile ago and absolutely loved it. Renee' finally got around to listening to it and immediately fell in love with it too. As Renee' would say, "it's truly anointed." Really want to help get this project out there because it really deserves to be heard by the masses. Turns out Larry Whitfield is a big fan of Detroit Gospel.com and Detroit Gospel.com is certainly a big fan of Larry Whitfield and the whole Whitfield Music Group. (This is the "shout out" to you Larry that I promised :-)

Friday, April 30, 2004
Once again I find myself trying to get the newsletter out. It's a three-step process: (1) Update the site so it's (somewhat) fresh when our guests come to visit; (2) Update the mailing list with new names/emails; (3) actually create the newsletter and send it out. Step 3 is actually the easy/quick part. It's the updating of the site and mailing list that takes so long. Maybe I can find a summer intern to help me with this :-)

Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Had an opportunity to meet and talk with Robert Norwood yesterday. What a genuine man of God. Robert is a wonderful follow up to Byron Cage as our featured artist for May. June did another fantastic job with the interview. As if that wasn't blessing enough, Renee scheduled an interview with Larry Whitfield of the Whitfield Music Group. Once again I'll be playing photographer for the interview. Definitely one of the perks of this project is having an opportunity to promote some of the up and coming talent from the area. It is right in line with our prayer and mission to be a blessing.

Friday, April 23, 2004
Picked up a sponsor for our upcoming weekly radio show. Praise God!

Thursday, April 15, 2004
Another one of the (many) challenges with a website such as this one is coming up with a weekly poll question. Many questions run through my mind, but not all are "suitable for framing." We don't want to offend but we do want to make it relevant and compelling enough for people to take the time to answer. It's also got to be something that the average gospel music consumer is familiar with, multiple choice, and preferably Detroit related. Right now I'm stumped for a question. What I really need is for someone else to take this on so I can work on more pressing things...like the next survey question.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004
One of the (many) challenges with a website such as this one is presenting interesting and relevant information while not crossing the boundaries of privacy. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes everyday that I think about sharing, but then I think again and decide not to because I don't want to be a "blabber mouth." I figure it's better to err on the side of caution than to reveal something that might cause undue stress for someone else. That said, I really can't think of anything to share today that wouldn't infringe upon someone else's privacy. Maybe I'll have something sharable tomorrow :-)

Saturday, April 10, 2004
FINALLY got the newsletter out. Good response to it thus far. Found some glaring errors on the website (some not so glaring errors on the newsletter too). Glad someone mentioned that the guestbook button didn't work...you think I would have tried it. Oh well, I'm sure there are more errors where those came from.

Thursday, April 8, 2004
SounDoctrine's Jere B and I had a race on to see who could get their newsletter out first. He won hands down. I'm still struggling to get this week's newsletter out. Good thing I don't get paid to do this, I'd be out of a job :-)

I am pretty close to getting it out. It's sort of like when you're having friends over for dinner; you want the place to look nice. So, you clean one room and it makes every other room look dingy, so you wind up cleaning the whole house (you can probably guess what my house looks like right now). Before I send out the newsletter inviting everyone into "my house" (DG.com), I want to spruce it up and make sure everything is just right. The more I spruce up, the more I find to spruce up! And while I hope the whole thing looks fairly effortless, there really is a lot going on behind the scenes to make this website happen...and every single change takes about 3 times longer than I think it will!

Anyway, I think the "house" is clean (I just know there's some glaring error still out there that about a dozen visitors will email me on). Welcome to the 313!

Monday, April 5, 2004
Spent the last five days totally revamping the site (hope you like it). I think it's a lot cleaner looking - a lot less jumbled. I think April's issue is fantastic. Where else can you hear Byron Cage talk about his relationship with the Lord and hear alternative Christian funk with a touch of Jazz in the same place? Not to mention June's incredible interview with Teresa Hairston, and Keith's...oops I just remember that I forgot to add Keith's article for the parenting section. Something to look forward to later in the month (smile). Thanks be to God for putting this site together and providing us with the wonderful artists who are featured this month (and every month)...I'm going to bed!

Wednesday, March 31, 2004
A lot of events are starting to come in. The busy season is upon us. Got quite a bit to do to update the site for April. Don't think everything will be done by April 1. Can only do so much. Also got to get a new newsletter out there. Starting to get a little overwhelmed.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004
I can't believe that Smokie Norful was in Detroit for a concert this month and we didn't know anything about it! So much for sharing Detroit's gospel music scene with the world :-) Well, I guess we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves.

Monday, March 29, 2004
April is almost here. Working on updating the site for April edition (featured artist is Byron Cage). A lot of new features planned for the month including the addition of web radio. Also trying to come up with a plan for a weekly radio show and eventually a TV show. Big vision.

Friday, March 26, 2004
June sent us her write-up of the Teresa Hairston interview. It's excellent--both entertaining and informative. Getting more and more requests from local artists to profile them on the site. Current staff size is just not large enough to cover everybody right now. Trying to look for ways of generating more revenue from the site so that we can afford to get more people involved. Just trusting in the Lord that He will bring His vision to fruition.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Looks like Perfecting Church is going to come on board as a Detroit Gospel.com advertiser. Their eagerness to support the website is such a blessing. We also may be picking up two more advertisers within the week. The Lord is certainly moving on our behalf.

Sunday, March 21, 2004
There are a ton of gospel entertainment events coming up in Detroit in the next few months. More than a notion updating the site to reflect all that's going on. Better get to it...

Thursday, March 18, 2004
Did my first internet radio interview tonight on the "Give God The Glory" radio broadcast on www.voiceamerica.com with Bro. Kevin Johnson. Less than 15 minutes, so it just flew by (not enough time to get nervous :-)

Had an opportunity to listen to The Whitfield Music Group's latest CD, "This Time." What a great project. Production, songwriting, vocals, music...everything is first class. When I hear projects like this one it just makes me want to tell the world about them. I guess that's why I started Detroit Gospel.com.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Snow-covered day in Detroit. I guess my thoughts of Springtime were a little premature :-)

Put the new Detroit Gospel.com photo album out on the site today. In our short time in operation God has truly blessed Detroit Gospel with His favor. Photos with four Stellar Award winners/nominees (Byron Cage, Ramiyah, RiZen, P.A.J.A.M.), an author (Ty Adams), industry powerhouses (Veda Brown and Deborah Smith Pollard) and Detroit's finest (Darius Twyman, Staffy Butler Blakely, and Harry Patton) grace our album. God is awesome.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004
June's first interview with Gospel Today creator, Teresa Hairston, went exceedingly well. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God sent June to us. Everything about her speaks excellence; her spirit, her commitment to the Lord, her preparation, and her execution. What a blessing.

Slow in getting this week's newsletter out. Got a couple of new websites trying to get completed (everybody's wants it out there yesterday :-). Had to put DG on the back burner for a couple of days. Exec Bd meeting tomorrow to plan out strategy for the future of both FruitfulWorks and Detroit Gospel.com. The Lord has given us a BIG vision, now we just need His help in how to bring it to fruition.

Sunday, March 14, 2004
Met with June Green last week. What a sweetheart. She's got a full plate already (school, her ministries, work), but she's interested in working with Detroit Gospel.com on some of our upcoming projects. God bless her and welcome aboard!

Talked with quite a few up-and-coming artists this week. Supposed to be getting information from two very promising ones, Robert Norwood (out of Straight Gate church here in Detroit) and SounDoctrine out of Ohio. I was impressed by both and hope to feature them on the site in the near future. I was so impressed by SounDoctrine's music (classified as Christian Jazz Funk) I didn't even care that they weren't from Detroit! I've been a music aficionado for many many (almost too many) years and I've amassed quite a CD collection. A couple of years back I sold off (on eBay) or gave away just about everything that wasn't either gospel or jazz. SounDoctrine is a great blend of both and hearing them gave me the idea of adding a Gospel Jazz page to the site. I think there are probably a lot more people out there like me that appreciate the marriage of these two musical genres.

Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Going to be covering the upcoming Midwest Gospel Hip Hop Alliance's "Forward The Faith" Gospel Hip Hop Summit & Conference here in Detroit at the end of April. Perhaps this is something we can get June involved with. June introduced herself to Detroit Gospel.com by calling into Staffy Butler-Blakely's radio show when we were guests. Since then she's said that she's interested in working with us. I'll be meeting with her tomorrow to discuss more details.

Monday, March 8, 2004
Newsletter subscribers steadily increasing. The plan is to add new content to the site weekly, send out newsletter announcing the new additions, and get people to come back each week. When we get the site visitor numbers up high enough, we'll be able to show investors/bankers that we have a built in following and then hopefully branch out into print and other media. At least that's the vision.

Saturday, March 6, 2004
Just got back from the "Own Your Own Media" seminar at Wayne County Community College. What a wonderful event. I only got a chance to attend two workshops, but the contacts and presenters were phenomenal. I got a chance to not only meet Veda Brown (creator of Black Gospel Promo), but to learn more about how she's become so successful. Also got a chance to hear Munson Steed (publisher of Rolling Out magazine) and his insightful philosophies on the publishing industry. (He says you should start out with a website to test the waters so to speak. So far so good here at Detroit Gospel.com.) Renee and I also ran into our new buddy, Walter Kearney, from P.A.J.A.M. So many other notables there, Tish Tansil, Ty Adams, Rebecca Osaigbovo, R.J. Watkins, Sam Logan, the list just keeps going. Really a valuable experience and a productive use of precious time.

Thursday, March 4, 2004
Once I got the site updated for March I kind of went into "need some rest" mode and forgot about updating the Blog...again. Oh well, I'm back.

Had great numbers for February. Over 2500 visitors in our first month. Not bad, but got to keep the numbers going up. Marketing, marketing, marketing. We've got a table at the upcoming "Own Your Own Media" seminar. Hopefully it will help get our name out there some more.

Monday, March 1, 2004
It's 2:45 AM and I'm still working on the March edition. Hope to get it out there REAL soon so I can get some sleep.

The interview at WJLB with Deborah Smith-Pollard went really well. What a classy lady she is. Really a great experience, and definitely saw an up-tick in site hits throughout the remainder of the day.

Saturday, February 28, 2004
Just when I thought things couldn't get any busier...God just keeps blessing us with opportunity and favor. I just thank Him.

The interviews with RiZen and Byron Cage couldn't have gone any better on Thursday. Renee did such an excellent job. Her questions weren't the usual fluff you find in magazines, they got to the heart of the matter; starting off with, "What is YOUR relationship with God?" The ladies from RiZen and Byron Cage couldn't help BUT testify to the goodness of the Almighty. March and April's Featured Artist page is going to be "off the chain."

Got a chance to meet all of PAJAM (Paul Allen, J. Moss, and Walter Kearney), Ramiyah, Witness, and some of the baddest musicians around at Greater Grace Thursday night for The Experience New Life Tour. The concert was phenomenal (I want to say "Awesome," but I try very hard to reserve that word for the Lord Almighty). If you ever get a chance to be part of Byron Cage's ministry through music live, grab it. He truly ministered to my soul. In interviewing him it was obvious that the anointing is just all over him and he is truly sold out for the Lord. He is the real deal.

As if that weren't enough, we've got a new staff member coming on board soon. Earl Wright, a heavy hitter in the Detroit gospel music scene is going to be providing us with insider information for people looking to get started in the industry. God's favor just keeps coming.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Wow are things ever busy around here...but it's a good busy! Of course I meant to write yesterday, but the day flew by so that I just didn't get a chance. Spent most of the day in email; reading and responding to. It's probably not obvious to the casual observer, but Detroit Gospel.com is really just one piece of the overall FruitfulWorks conglomerate :-) I'm actually working on getting other websites out the door (so to speak) too.

Got an email from Byron Cage today (forgive me for name dropping, but he's just such a blessing to this operation) and he IS going to be here in Detroit tomorrow. Renee and I will be pulling out the old press passes as we go to interview both he and RiZen before the concert. I'll let you know how it goes!

Monday, February 23, 2004
OK, I've really been off my game this week. Four days since my last entry...not good. Saturday we did an interview with Staffy Butler Blakely on WLQV 1500AM. I thought it went a lot better than my last interview because Keith was there with me to remember to say everything that I forgot. It also didn't hurt to have Reneé phoning in to remind us too (smile). Staffy was great and the interview just flowed. This coming Sunday I move to the FM dial with Deborah Smith Pollard on WJLB FM98. Keith will be out of town, so I'll have to go it alone.

Finally finally FINALLY got our first newsletter out. I'm sure there's some horrid typo I completely missed....We're still trying to come up with ways of letting people know about our site. On a shoestring budget we're up to over 1000 visits this month, so that's a very good thing. I'm sure that the Lord will work it all out in time, we've just got to be patient. Speaking of patience, we're still trying to nail down our March featured artist. We're praying that all will go well with interviewing RiZen when they're here on the 26th and we'll have it on the site beginning March 1.

Thursday, February 19, 2004
An article on Detroit Gospel.com ran in The Michigan Chronicle today. Could see a definite up tick in visitors to the site as a result. Definitely getting some input from the folks over at Greater Emmanuel COGIC. Someone's been adding events (really great events) to the calendar including a couple of upcoming concerts from Karen Clark-Sheard, Dorinda Clark-Cole, Twinkie Clark and Kierra "Kiki" Sheard. That's just the kind of involvement we're looking for from the gospel music community. If you're out there, THANKS!

Wednesday, February 18, 2004
OK, so I wasn't so wrong. Just heard announced on the radio that the New Life Tour is coming to Greater Grace Temple "with Byron Cage". The radio announcements are playing "The Presence of the Lord" in the background of the announcement and saying Byron Cage will be here, but according to an email I got from Byron Cage, he's going to be in New Orleans. Even talked with his publicist and she doesn't show him being here. I could be wrong again, but right now it looks like there are going to be some pretty disappointed concert goers at the concert if they're waiting on Byron Cage to step out.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004
OK, wrong again...Byron Cage is not going to be at Greater Grace on the 26th (he must think I'm a real ditz). God bless him, he's still gracious enough to offer us a phone interview. Once we get his interview done we'll step up the advertising and probably go with a Black Gospel Promo ad. Still got to get that first newsletter out.

Monday, February 16, 2004
Still trying to get RiZen for March featured artist and Byron Cage for April. Looks like they'll both be at Greater Grace on the 26th. God willing, we may be able to interview them both while they're here. Working on getting our first newsletter out. The subscriber list is growing so we need to get something out there pretty soon. Think I'm going to change Google AdWords to try to get some more traffic to the site. Averaging around 100 visitors a day. Not bad for only being out there two weeks, but we want to get some serious traffic coming in within the next few months.

Saturday, February 14, 2004
Happy Valentine's Day! Kind of quiet here at Detroit Gospel.com today. Has it only been two weeks since we launched? Have to get my son, Seth (4 years old), to draw our weekly giveaway contest winner for this week. I've got a radio interview tomorrow. I have to be honest, I'm not one of those people that enjoys talking about themselves. I hope I don't bore anyone to tears who's listening.

Friday, February 13, 2004
So much to do, so little time...actually I get the same 24 hours as everyone else, so I shouldn't complain. It's just that seemingly little changes on a website can take hours to do right. There's still so much more I'd like to add to the site (Prayer List, classifieds for local gospel musicians, more information, the list goes on). Most of my time now is spent marketing the site and keeping the calendar of events updated. Reneé continues to be a one-woman PR campaign. Keith began contacting all of the gospel record companies today so that we can get on their distribution list for their PR campaigns. I feel like we're on the edge of something big, but I don't know what. When people ask me where I'm going with this I have to honestly say, only the Lord knows. It was the Lord that gave me this vision and only He knows where He's taking it.

Thursday, February 12, 2004
More calls and emails coming in from all over the country. Our readership is growing! Emailed RiZen's management today. Mistakenly left off RiZen and Evelyn Turrentine-Agee from the list of Detroit Stellar Award winners. What Stellar Award winner wasn't from Detroit? (Just kiddin') Ok, yes I know, RiZen is from Saginaw, but we've extended the boundaries of Metro-Detroit to wholeheartedly embrace them. Got an email back from RiZen's mgmt saying someone would be contacting me today to set up an interview. Well, today has come and gone, and no one contacted me, but I know the Lord will work it all out.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004
It's 3:00 a.m. and I just checked my email (I always check my email just before going to bed because you never know what might show up while the world thinks you're sleeping). The Great Lakes IT Report was in my inbox (as members of the Detroit Regional Chamber we get this great report on information technology news daily) and guess what, we're in it! I sent an email to Matt Roush, WWJ news reporter and editor of the IT Report, and he actually ran a blurb on Detroit Gospel.com. We've arrived! In case you're wondering what I'm doing up at 3:00 a.m. (especially since I've got to get up at 6:30 a.m. to take my kids to preschool--and I actually stay at preschool with my youngest, Faith), in addition to Detroit Gospel.com I'm working on 4 websites for our web design and development business. I've also got to get the e-newsletter ready for Detroit Gospel.com. Sleep is a luxury I can't afford right now.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Someone (actually a lot of someones) must be praying for us because God is truly moving on our behalf. Received an email from Deborah Smith-Pollard inviting us to be interviewed on her Sunday morning radio show on WJLB. For those of you reading this who aren't from Detroit, lets just say that Ms. Pollard is synonymous with gospel music here and her radio show is an institution in the Christian community. This is a tremendous blessing for the Detroit Gospel.com website and will allow us to really get our name out there.

Monday, February 9, 2004
Finally got re-indexed by Google. Now the Google search function on the Detroit Gospel.com website is working--so glad no one's called me on the fact that it was totally not working before today. Hoping to pick up more site traffic outside of Detroit now that Google's made us visible to the world. Amazing how much of an impact Google has on the popularity of a website. We've got the number 1 and 2 spots for searches on "Detroit gospel." In fact, since the blog is holding the number 2 spot, someone might actually start reading my ramblings (smile).

Sunday, February 8, 2004
Stayed up late watching the Stellar Awards last night. Last week we had posted an erroneous poll question about the Stellars because the Stellar website listed last Saturday as the Detroit broadcast date. Oh, well, it wasn't the first and won't be the last time we goof. The Lord knows our hearts (smile). Have to admit, I am getting old (39 and counting) and I couldn't quite get with every performance. There were some however, that spoke to the soul, most notably the opening by Byron Cage and the closing by Hezekiah Walker and the Love Fellowship Choir. Detroit, of course, was well represented throughout the broadcast.

Saturday, February 7, 2004
Spent the day at the Hope United Methodist Church African American Expo. Really a full house and made lots of contacts. Partners In Christ, Daryl Beebe and Harry Patton, were on hand and are as anointed as their music. They were really great to meet and got right to work telling people about Detroit Gospel.com and their music ministry. We pray them much success in all their endeavors and we hope that we can help them along the way. Seth and Faith (our 4 and 2 year olds) helped us draw winners for the weekly giveaway contest. They got to spend some time at the Expo and were excited about getting to "go to work" with mommy and daddy. Reneé as always was on her game. In her short time there she probably made as big an impact as I did all day.

Friday, February 6, 2004
Yesterday busy from sun up to sun down. Completely forgot to make a blog entry. Keith met with David Gough at the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame yesterday. We'll be doing an article soon on IGMHF for the site. Also got an email back from Byron Cage saying we can do an interview with him anytime. God is truly giving us favor. African American Expo at Hope United Methodist is tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to make more people aware of the website. Partners In Christ will be joining us for part of the day. Spent today sending more emails out to the media about the site. Looks like something will run in the Chronicle soon. Sister Celeste has been announcing the website on her radio show this week. As I've said before, the real work is getting our name out there.

Wednesday, February 4, 2004
Another radio interview scheduled. This time on WLQV (w/Staffy Butler Blakely, our first survey respondent that blessed us so). God is truly giving us favor. As if that wasn't enough, we received an email from Byron Cage today. The fact that Byron Cage even knows about Detroit Gospel.com and took the time to check out the site and write us is nothing but the Lord. Of course I'm aware of Byron's tremendous music ministry, but I did not know he was from Detroit! What an omission from the site! Taking time today to get the site updated with Byron's information.

Tuesday, February 3, 2004
Hits steadily coming into the site. Praise God! Starting to step up the quest for site advertisers. Running into some initial resistance. Nothing new. It will probably take awhile to pick up a following. Still waiting to get indexed by Google. After that, we will be open for business to the world.

Monday, February 2, 2004
Viral marketing is a powerful thing. All of our wonderful friends we sent emails to about the site's launch are sending them on to their wonderful friends and so on. Several radio personalities have passed the site on to their listeners. We're going to do an interview on an entrepreneurial radio show in mid-February. If the site does well, all credit goes to God. If the site doesn't do so well, I'll take full credit.

Sunday, February 1, 2004
The launch date is here! Since we put the site out early to test it, it's a little anti-climatic. Received our first survey response today. The very favorable comments were encouraging. Starting to get calls and emails from family and friends about the site. So far so good. Placeholder site is still showing up in Google, rather than the new completed site, which is a little frustrating. Trying out Google Adwords to see if it's worth the money each month.

Saturday, January 31, 2004
It's hard to believe that after all the work we've done to get the site out there that there is so much more work to do now to market it. Can't afford to use gospel promo pr service yet, so doing it all ourselves. First step was to send a press release to everyone we know and ask them to pass it on. I guess this is our take on "viral marketing." Because of the Novarg virus, decided not to use any attachments, just put the release in the body of the email - no pics, no fancy stuff - nothing but the facts.

Friday, January 30, 2004
Well, for better or worse, IT'S OUT THERE! Uploaded the site to the web late last night / early this morning. Up until 4 am getting all of the scripts, links, etc. to work correctly. Not indexed in Google yet, so the Google site search not yet operational. Spent today trying to set up links to the site. Will probably spend the weekend getting an email list together to send the press release to. A friend of Reneé's called her and let her know the site was live. Already getting traffic! God is good.

Thursday, January 29, 2004
What the enemy meant for evil, God turned to good. Because of the email virus I experienced yesterday, I was prompted to take extra precautions before launching the Detroit Gospel.com website. I spent most of today encrypting the email addresses on the site so that Spam-bots won't be able to scan the site for addresses to add to their database (hopefully this will reduce the number of emails flooding my mail box for enlargement of a certain male body part). I also removed almost all of the email addresses of all of the resource people on the site (record label execs, radio personalities, etc.), so that the Detroit Gospel site cannot be used by hackers to direct spam or more hazardous code from our site to anyone else. (Note: the few resource emails that remain have been encrypted). Trying to get the site onto the server by tonight so I can spend tomorrow testing the scripts. Go live date still scheduled for February 1, 2004.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Was up until 2:30 a.m. this morning "cleaning" my computer's hard drive of the Novarg virus. My first indication I was infected came when one of my many email boxes filled up with over 600 Return-To-Sender messages for undeliverable mail sent from my address. First time I've ever been infected with a virus. Just one more fiery dart from enemy lines. Our breakthrough is near.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004
We have gone months without any technical difficulties and now that we're close to launch, (pardon the expression) all hell's breaking loose. Our primary computer has completely refused to turn on twice in the last three weeks resulting in several lost hours spent trying to reach tech support. Now today, our host server's root directory is filled up and I can't access mail or the control panel (I know for many of you that last sentence was gibberish, but let's just say it's not a good thing). Looking at it through spiritual eyes, I know that we must be on the verge of a breakthrough because the enemy is stepping up the battle. But as Yolanda (and Jahaziel in II Chronicles 20:15) says, the battle is not mine, it's the Lord's.

Monday, January 26, 2004
Edited the Partners In Christ article and sent it to Harry Patton for review. Getting close to show time, so hope there are not too many changes. Totally forgot to watch the Stellar Awards this weekend. I know... how can an editor for a gospel entertainment website forget to watch the Stellar Awards? Well, you try watching the Stellar Awards at 11:00pm on a Saturday night with a recuperating four year old, and an active 2 year old running you all day Saturday. Why do they always put the Stellars on at some ungodly hour anyway? The majority of people who want to watch it have to get up the next morning to go to church! Sounds like a good idea for a poll on the site: Did you watch the Stellars this year?

Sunday, January 25, 2004
Listening to the radio getting ready for church. It's like when I began working in the auto industry, when I saw cars on the road, they were no longer just cars, they were amalgamations of engineering, styling, marketing and other efforts. I noticed the badging, the grills, everything. Now when I listen to gospel radio, I listen for upcoming events, who's releasing what when, what artists are hot, etc. It's like my antennae are always up for information to add to the site.

Saturday, January 24, 2004
Keith began demonstrating the site to potential advertisers today. Good feedback. My only concern is loading time. On a 56 K modem, the site is going to take a little over 30 seconds to load. I could remove some of the photos to make it load faster, but that's going to take some of the "fun" of the site away. Life is full of tradeoffs.

Friday, January 23, 2004
Received two completed articles today from our ace reporters. The health and fitness article is something I need to read! Our first featured artist interview blessed me as well. God is truly moving.

Thursday, January 22, 2004
Walked into the office today, turned on the computer...and nothing. Tried everything to get it to come on...still nothing. It shouldn't surprise me that the enemy can get into everything, including a laptop. Tech support--NO help. Prayer - BIG help. A couple of hours later, I try it again...and thankfully, something.

Getting down to the wire. So much more going on with gospel in Detroit than I ever imagined. This really IS the gospel music capital of the world. It's been fun though. All the long nights, all the work, the strong "discussions" with my husband about the site's direction. We call it a "Purpose Driven Site" because we really feel like we're fulfilling our purpose. Who else in Detroit develops websites, sings in their church choir, loves gospel music, has friends involved in gospel music willing to help them, and has the time and inclination to do this? No one we know.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Our four year old son had out-patient surgery on Monday, January 19. He's doing well but still recovering. Detroit Gospel.com production went into hiatus while my mothering instincts went into overdrive. First time back in front of the computer since early Monday morning. Our site completion date of January 19, blown out of the water. Now we're working to get it done ASAP. Our first featured artists, Partners In Christ, are a God-send. They've already agreed to do a CD signing at our African American Expo Booth, and they've got an information packed website we can draw from. Besides that, their music is hot. God is workin' it out so much better than I ever could.

Sunday, January 18, 2004
There are so many things we want to put in this website, but in order to be ready for our Feb. 1 launch, we'll have to omit them for the first phase of the site. We know the site will continually evolve, and we see the vision for it, but we hope that others will catch the vision too. We hope that no one will come to the site and just trash it as non-value-added. That's probably our biggest fear, that we'll build it and they won't come.

Saturday, January 17, 2004
We've been working on this website around the clock for the past month. It has honestly evolved into a lot more than we originally envisioned, and there is still more to be added that just won't make it into the Feb. 1 launch. We've got everyone we know praying for the website's success. We truly believe God inspired us to do this and we pray that it will be well received. It's getting close...it's almost like we're about to give birth and bring our baby into the world. We're excited, but a little anxious as well. And yet we know that we should be anxious for nothing, so we continue to pray...

Search The Detroit Gospel.com Site for information on your favorite Detroit Gospel artist, or just to find out what's going on in Gospel entertainment...

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