One year ago today, Cartersville Patch went live with a handful of articles, events and announcements; an extensive business directory; and few users.

While we've seen some changes—the addition of local bloggers, special sections and a few homepage redesigns, we've produced more than 2,800 news articles; published the work of local journalism students in From the Eyes of the Purple Hurricanes and The 'Cats' Meow; and provided a community gathering place for locals, natives and those with ties to Cartersville and Bartow County.

We welcome each of you to continue posting comments, publishing your events and announcements, and taking full advantage of all Patch has to offer.

Get Involved

2011 was about building our site, and 2012 will be focused on you, our users, readers and community. We are looking to engage more with you all going forward, which means we're encouraging your input via news and photo submissions, blog posts, comments, and events and announcements.

In addition to the 13 things we think you should know about Cartersville Patch, you can now upload your photos straight to our website in the Neighborhood Gallery, check traffic and gas prices on the site, and download Patch apps for Android and iPhone. We also invite you to let your local voice be heard by becoming one of our bloggers; just email brande.poulnot@patch.com.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

What We've Done

Cartersville Patch is one of more than 860 hyperlocal news sites in AOL’s Patch network.

While Patch as a whole has tripled its unique-visitor traffic in the last year—becoming the fourth largest regional/local online property, according to the latest comScore data—you've followed the Cartersville site's coverage of just about everything local. From April tornadoes that devastated the area to the story of a missing wife and mother that went national, we appreciate you turning to Cartersville Patch.

Patchers, from the local crew to their leaders states away, know we could not do it without you.

“Given that the average Patch site is just over a year old, we couldn’t be happier with the traffic growth we’ve shown to date,” Patch President Warren Webster said in a statement. “We are incredibly proud of the role we play in our communities every day—and of the consistent positive feedback we receive from our users—so seeing this rise in traffic is very gratifying for our entire team.”

While Yelp now leads the comScore regional/local category rankings followed by CityGrid, Yahoo!Local, Patch and CBS Local, Patch was ranked 10th in the category in December of 2010.

We currently have sites in 22 states plus the District of Columbia. Cartersville Patch is one of more than 40 Patch sites operating in Georgia.