It was just about two years ago that Prescott eNews launched with a tiny budget and a big dream. We wanted to bring a truly local news website to Prescott and the neighboring communities that would celebrate the people who live here and report the news with a fresh voice while offering an up-to-date, vibrant internet experience.

As we reported the news in our own way, we had one question to answer: Will anyone care? Will what we write about resonate with our local community?

The first few months, we spread the word by being very visible and chatting it up. Helen Stephenson became a fan and then came to us and asked if she could join the team. We said yes, and cheered inwardly. After just 3 months, we redesigned the site so the content would be more manageable. By the end of 2007, we had a little over 87,000 pageviews. That was about 13,000 page views per month. Our question was answered - they did care, hooray!

So, we kept on keeping on. We went to ball games, plays, council meetings, schoolboard meetings. We went everywhere we possibly could and asked questions and took notes and wrote stories. In the meantime, our wonderful readers also contributed stories and ideas and told their friends. Lauren Millette joined the team, in late August, and then in November, we partnered up with KQNA, which has been awesome to work with, by the way.

By the end of 2008, we had reached over 1,000,000 page views since we started up about 18 months previously. Wow! But, to be truthful, we were so busy at the time, we didn't even notice. For one thing, in addition to reporting, we were outgrowing our site design, and had to focus on developing a new look'n'feel, which we launched in January.

But, now we're paying attention, and guess, what? In May, we had a record month, with nearly 211,000 page views. And we're very pleased to announce that by Monday or Tuesday, we should reach one million page views in just the first half of 2009! Woo Hoo!

It's time to celebrate, doncha think?

So, we're going to have a contest! Whoever comes the closest to guessing how many total page views for 2009 we'll have by June 30 at midnight, will get a goodie bag worth up to $100. It'll have movie tickets, and restaurant gift certificates, and even more...

Here's some info to help you in your guesses:

• As of midnight Thursday night, we had 988,108 pageviews in 2009.
• So far, this month, we're averaging 8561 pageviews per day, but weekends tend to be a little slower (people are busy having fun!)

Rules:

Send in your guess to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Only one guess per day per person.

Participants need to be 18 or older.

The person who sends in the closest number will win. In the event of a tie, a winner will be drawn at random.