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It is just over a year since the first edition of Aimzine was published. A lot has happened since then, most notably we have seen a stock market collapse and something of recovery. Despite the recovery the AIM All Share Index is still more than 40% lower than it was when Aimzine first hit the ‘cyber streets’.

We are pleased with our first year of publication. The look of the magazine has come quite a way since our first edition.

Some Surprises

When we started out on this venture we realised that we had a lot to learn. One year in we recognise that we are still learning.

Using web statistics we can see which articles are proving to be popular with our readers. The three most read articles this year have been the company features on Ultrasis, Empyrean Energy and Red24. For this tiddler, with a market cap of just over £1 million, to reach the top three was quite an achievement.

One thing that we did not expect was that readers will continue to read articles many months after publication.  All of our back issues get read at least a few times each month and some articles several months old are still quite ‘busy’.

Some Thanks

During the year no less than 18 people have provided articles for Aimzine. We hope that this number will be even higher in the year to come as we look to encourage a wide range of views. We are particularly grateful to our two regular guest columnists Ash Mehta (CityInsider) and Hazel Ball (Aim New Girl) for their continuing contributions.

As with all businesses there are some unsung heroes. In our case it is our proof readers particularly Carol and Niki. We are most grateful for their thurrerness!!

The Worst and Best Bits

One thing that we do not like about Aimzine is the last day or two leading up to publication. It is always a rush and something always goes wrong.  We have suffered numerous software issues, email provider glitches, hardware problems and promised articles that failed to arrive in time.

On the company interview front, our worst choice was MyHome International. On the day we interviewed the Company they were contacted by their bankers requesting that they repay several million pounds of their bank loan. MyHome left the AIM Market a few weeks later under the control of administrators.

To balance this we have met lots of fascinating companies and some extremely helpful directors and PR companies. We very much appreciate the time that AIM companies have taken to assist us in the production of our company articles.

As for favourite articles we have several candidates for different reasons. Perhaps if I had to choose one it would be Mick Pilsworth's Essential Guide to AIM - read this article here.

Our Aims for Year Two

We have several ideas for improvements in the coming year. We would like to think that we can introduce more people to AIM in the coming year and perhaps help, in our small way, to encourage the growth of this exciting market.

We have particular plans to improve the registration and login processes on the Aimzine website as well as some ideas about the look and feel of the site. We also have some innovative ideas which we hope to introduce in the coming months eg sending out 'snippets' by email during the month rather than wait for the next edition, at the time of an RNS being released.

Finally we would like to say a big thank you to our readers, particularly those who have been good enough to contact us with their (usually favourable) views. We especially appreciate people giving suggestions for future articles – we cannot take up all of your ideas but we do consider them all.

Aimzine directors escaping 6,000ft up a Swiss Alp! 

A big thank you

to all our readers

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Written by Michael Crockett

Copyright Aimzine Ltd

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