Minerals.net August 2015 Newsletter

Welcome to the August 2015 edition of the Minerals.net Newsletter! We are excited to inform you about our new homepage design, which has many new features and a much improved look and interface.

New Minerals.net Design

Our new homepage design incorporates research on user interface and experience to make the website more practical and more easy to use. The new website promotes our social media activity on Twitter and Instagram, which is updated regularly and provides new site content on a frequent basis. The new website also shows recently updated minerals and current news items. We have also redesigned the links and menus to make the controls and link items more useful and relevant.

New Advertising Opportunities

Our new design incorporates additional advertising opportunities. We are offering many different ad sizes and options on our website, which currently serves almost a million monthly page views. We are offering introductory advertising prices, so now is the time to get a good price. For additional information, visit our advertising page at:
http://www.minerals.net/Advertising

1000+ Facebook Likes!

During July we achieved a milestone 1,000 likes on our Minerals.net Facebook page! The Minerals.net Facebook page provides interesting news, updates, and articles and especially outlines news and updates going on our website. Make sure to visit it at:

www.facebook.com/minerals.net

New Minerals Added

Two new minerals have been added to our database with comprehensive information and great pictures:

We are working on updating the content for many of the oxide minerals, and in the coming weeks we will be adding the remaining oxide minerals of importance that are missing from our database. Going forward, we will also be using larger 3D crystal graphical thumbnails for a better visual experience.

Springfield Show

The Springfield Show, more formally known as the East Coast Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Show, is the most significant show to mineral collectors east of the Mississippi. The show will be this coming weekend, August 7-9, at the Better Living Center at the Eastern States Exposition, 1305 Memorial Ave., West Springfield, Massachusetts. Many of the important mineral dealers are present at this show which is held in a very large room all under one roof.

Aside from the great variety of material available both in the high-end and affordable spectrum, this show also has themed public exhibits, which are usually extensive and very well organized. This show definitely should not be missed if you are within driving range. Minerals.net will provide comprehensive coverage of the show in our detailed show reports on our news page.

Smithsonian Museum Visit

In the beginning of July, Hershel Friedman took a visit to Washington D.C., and spent a day in the National Museum of Natural History, where he visited the world-famous gem and mineral hall. Hershel took hundreds of photos, and will be posting on article on our news page about the collection with many great photos. We will also publish additional photos not in the article on our Instagram page. Stay tuned!

Follow the Zebra:
Video on Gemstone Mining in Tanzania

Follow the Zebra is a documentary on the gemstone mining operations in the African country of Tanzania. Tanzania has been the source of many important gemstones, especially Tanzanite, which was named after its origin. Follow the Zebra is a video documenting the mining process, going in depth into the operation and lives of the miners that dig these gem deposits in sometimes very primitive methods.

The clips and in-depth coverage in Follow the Zebra are very interesting, with much of the material seen in this video never filmed before. The speech in the video is difficult to follow in several scenes due to the heavy accents, and the film storyboard is on occasion difficult to follow. However, it is still very worthwhile to watch as some of the scenes shown on the film are quite fascinating.

The film duration is 1 hour and 7 minutes, and it can be watched online by renting a license to stream for $4.99. A short trailer is also available to preview the film.

>> Video Page and Trailer

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