42Freeway covers new commercial projects such as new retail stores, restaurants and even larger road project. This can also be large government development projects or even large residential developments.
The area of coverage are the towns along South Jersey’s Route 42 and surrounding.
Don’t take the name “42Freeway” too literally. It represents a broader area than the roadway. Whether Pitman, Mullica Hill, or Deptford… it’s all an interconnected commercial and roadway community. We’re all shopping in the same stores, eating in the same restaurants and driving the same roads. The stories 42Freeway covers makes much more sense to these towns.
- 42Freeway Website : Articles are published here
- 42Freeway Facebook Page : Core reader commentary, on shared articles
- 42Freeway Instagram : Fun Photos as I am out and about
The article coverage, in short it’s the projects around questions like those below:
- Hey, what’s going in over there?
- What are they building down at?
- Hey did you hear that XYZ is coming?
- What are they doing over on the highway?
The value the website adds to the process are:
- I find things out as early as possible, and share with readers.
- I’ll add extra value to the story, either a better explanation or other interesting details
- Sometimes I just want to share cool fun things that I think readers will be interested in.
42Freeway.com History
42Freeway.com was my first website in this genre, started back in 2014.
For many years it was very much a hobby. In this earlier years at times as life got busy I would go several months without posting! I wasn’t making any money at all.
Back around 2019 I realize I was getting a fair amount of traffic at the site, and the Facebook page was really taking off. So I added ads to the site.
Soon I was able to step up from an introductory ad network, and was approved for a professional class network.
With the growth in traffic and revenue, I decided to make this a fulltime opportunity.
42Freeway is approaching 2 million page views for 2022 and will likely hit 30,000 Facebook followers before 2022 ends!
Shift to “Sister” Sites
42Freeway has become a local brand. Thousands of people know the site, name and logo very well… and even I (Mark) have become somewhat of a recognizable “celebrity” as I am out and about.
The name is a huge asset to the site! It really just “fits”… for the towns along the Route 42 area,
As I started spreading out to other areas… Cherry Hill, Mt Laurel, Vineland…
… well I started realizing that the name 42Freeway just didnt travel well in those other areas. It just doesn’t make sense for someone in Cherry Hill to be getting news from a site called 42Freeway.com
Additionally, a big factor for the site growth has been Facebook, and people “liking” the Facebook page. Well I feel it’s even tougher for someone living in Mt Laurel to “like” a page called 42Freeway. “Oh I dont want my feed filled up with stories on Washington Twp. I’ll never get down that way”
So I struggled with this mentally now for over two years. One site for all of South Jersey? Or more localized sites?
In the end I decided to go back to my original plan of multiple sites, with multiple Facebook pages.
I really think the hyper-regional aspect makes more sense.
Check out the main page here at Skyzlmt.com for information on the other sites.