2005 End of the Year Report For
LearnAboutMoviePosters.com

WE HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON!!

First... for those who haven't been with us during our growth, you can look at our history here.

2005 wasn't very kind to us. It was by far our most challenging. Most will probably remember that December 2004 we were hit with that worm that ate a hole in our website AND our backup. The first couple of months of 2005 were spent reconstructing about 150 articles that had been lost.

We were able to get back to expanding in the spring until the end of August when Hurricane Katrina send us into exile until late November. We're still battling insurance company and trying to get contractors to fix our house. Even though we were unable to make changes, LAMP stood strong and continued to operate normally during our exile.

Even though we had major obstacles during the year, we were still able to make some decent progress and expansion. Here are a few highlights from 2005:

1. We were forced to break off the History Section, which we expanded and added several articles such as Pioneers, expanded movie studio logo histories, and history firsts in all major countries.

2. We revised and expanded numerous articles such as Genre and Black Cast and added several major articles such as an indepth on Godzilla with charts and the Top Selling Movie Posters article.

3. We also introduced a new area Movie Video Database for the collectors that also collect hard to find videos, DVDs, trailers and electronics.

4. One of most important expansions was the introduction of the Generic Section where dealers could list what they have available that ISN'T pictured in the archive yet. This section has gotten an excellent reception and already has more listed for sale than the pictured listing section (almost 20,000 in the Generic Section).

5. We started adding movie titles into the Database that were original releases from non-English speaking countries. We added almost 30,000 titles to the Database (currently at 118,170). And even though we didn't make our goal of 20,000 images, we still added almost 13,000 images to the Database. We also started adding information on rerelease dates and more aka info.

6. In the International Sections, we started gathering history, distributor and studio logos.

We continued to grow in traffic during 2005. We had almost 2.3 MILLION visitors for the year and continue to grow.

CURRENT CONDITION

During December, we noticed that we were having some random down time in different sections. Upon examination, we found that we were at the maximum size for our hosting and was bumping over their limits.

We searched for new hosting facilities and thought that we found a new host. We bought 10 gigs of space including an area for the database. As we started uploading to the new facility, we discovered that their sales program had exaggerated their capabilities. Their site COULD handle our database and programs, but THEY didn't have the programs. WE would have to buy and supply all the software to their servers (which amounted to over $25,000).

So we had to cancel and search for better. To get what we need, we had to finally share a Dedicated Server. So NOW we have 80 GIGs of space online... PLENTY OF GROWING ROOM. We have just finished the MONSTEROUS TASK of MOVING LAMP.

So ..... LOOK OUT.... Sue and I are READY for 2006!!!

NOW........ WHAT'S COMING!!

The move to new servers means a change in the LAMP structure.....we are going to have to make a few modifications and changes to streamline the flow..... at the same time we want to expand footers and make it easier to navigate the site. We want everyone to FIND what they are looking for.

Our goal for 2006 is to get to 65,000 images online in the LAMP Database. That's adding about 22,000 images for the year...... AND to have 100,000 items FOR SALE in the database through images AND the Generic Section. (We currently have a little over 30,000)

GOALS By Section:

LAMP-Main - we have a stack of articles that need to be added .. such as .. Starchbacking, foxing, photo lobbies, March of Times, NSS vs Studio releases... etc..etc. PLUS we have a LOT of articles that need updating and expanding. We will be adding a lot more to the Legends section. Since the database utilizes director instead of cast as the differential, the Legend Section is designed for the sorting be cast (as we add more to it) which at the same time makes it available in the database. In addition, a LOT more emphasis will be placed on the Dealer and Travel Maps with more information about state and country events.

LAMP Database - Besides adding more images and info... we are working on new sort icons that we think will become important.. Currently when you do a search, our little 'golden poster' lets you know when we have an image in the file..... Instead, we want to add icons so you can see when images are in the aka's OR something is for sale in the archive or in the Generic Section or the Electronic Section or Assessories Section.

LAMP-International - We have a LOT more information to add... more emphasis will be placed on distributors and poster identification. This coming year we will be adding a lot more cross links to make it easier for research.

LAMP-Studio History - we have to streamline this section to make it easier to navigate.... because we have a HUGE amount of material to add. Plans are for expansion are:
a. histories from other countries which will be tied into LAMP-International.
b. Distributor logos... to help identify country distribution
c. Seals and Stamps - to help identify these with their histories.
d. more information on old theaters, pioneers, printers and lithographers

LAMP- Poster Artists - this past year we started adding images of signatures to help identify artists.. we plan to expand all current areas AND add more photos and bio information.. We will also be reworking the artists pages, adding more links and working on adding scheduled events by living artists to be tied into the Dealer and Travel Maps.

LAMP-Video Database - we started this during the summer but Katrina curtailed a lot of what we had planned. This will be an area of MAJOR expansion. We already have numerous articles in process and will be placing more emphasis on collectors that have trailers, laser disc and hard to find material. We have the computer programmed to automatically add these to the LAMP Database as well.

LAMP- Military Posters - this will become tied more into film posters through Genre and War Posters. We plan a format change and expansion with a connection to a new Network Section.

We look forward to working with each of you and hope we all have a very Successful 2006

ed