It seems like I've been working in the Internet industry forever. I've been fortunate enough to work on Vegas.com before it became the sales property it is today. I've worked on a project called Elite Recruit that was designed to help high school athletes get exposure and help collegiate institutions find them. It was actually the first real business idea I ever had and I was way ahead of my time. It was the first of its kind and the concept proved to be gold when Rivals.com later launched and MaxPreps.com sold a couple of years ago to CBS.
I was also lucky enough to get my Internet-education at LA.com when the Internet was at its height. Big parties, big contacts, and I was in the heart of Los Angeles. If I could write a story about that business, it would be a best seller. There have been a number of other projects that I've been lucky enough to be involved in and I can honestly say that I'm grateful for what I've learned along the way. Heck, Load.com has been the greatest experience and learning opportunity over the past 10 years. It's amazing we've been working together that long.
But this year I launched my greatest project to date, LDSJournal.com. It's an idea I had years ago when sitting in church discussing family history and how difficult it is for people to actually do the work. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I felt an obligation to help people with the skills and knowledge that I had. So, in March 2008, I launched LDSJournal.com as a FREE private online journaling service that allows people to keep a personal record of their lives.
If you're not familiar with the LDS Church, the leaders of the church place a particular importance on journaling and family history. For years I did not place much value on this simple task and that was my loss. I can honestly say that as I keep a personal journal today, I feel the warmth and love for my family, friends, and Heavenly Father, as words flow through my fingertips and into my journal. And my favorite part is that I can go back and read my entries and add comments to events that took place months ago. I know that someday, my grandchildren and great grandchildren will know me because of this project. And tears come to my eyes when I think that someday, somewhere in this world, a child is going to know about their grandparents because of this service. It is the greatest feeling I've ever had and LDSJournal.com is a labor of love.
So, what makes LDSJournal.com so great and why have nearly 10,000 users signed up worldwide in less than 90 days? Well, here's a few reasons:
- Anytime, anywhere access - the Internet allows you to keep your journal with you anywhere. With access to your journal from you mobile phone, it's very difficult to say you couldn't capture those special moments.
- FREE - c'mon, who doesn't like FREE.
- On Demand Publishing - all members will be able to print their LDSJournal to a hard-bound book.
- Reminders - LDSJournal sends reminders via email and TXT message to help people stay on top of their journal keeping.
- Multimedia - add photos, video, and audio to your journal to augment your journal entries.
There are so many small features that make this service great and we're going to continue to add features and functionality as time moves on. One of the great things is that there have been countless blogs that have been kind enough to say nice things about this project and it means so much to me and the team that helped build this service. If you go to Google and search for the term "lds journal" you will find many great posts from people that took the time to share this service with their friends and family.
I was hesitant to post information about LDSJournal.com on my Load blog, but I felt that it was important to share this service with anyone that could benefit from keeping a record of their life. So, if you're looking for a service that will help you keep a record of your life for your posterity, you won't find a better service than LDSJournal.com.