Home Business and the Suburb Wide Web
Many small and home businesses feel daunted at first by the global reach of the World Wide Web. They (wrongly) conclude that the web has little to offer them because they are only serving the local area.This mode of thinking is probably costing them the opportunity of extending their customer base and cutting their advertising bill.More and more Australians are using the Web as the first place they turn to when looking for information about products and services. This is a rapidly changing trend. A growing minority of the people who seek information on the Web are also buying directly from the Web.The use of the Internet in Australia is growing rapidly. One measure is the number of Broadband connections which rose from under 600,000 to over 1.7million in the past eighteen months.
That's more than 2000 new connections every day. Many of them are household who are only just starting with the Web, but there are plenty of them. As they become more comfortable with the Web many will evolve from information seekers to online shoppers.If you are marketing locally based products or services you can still use the Web. You can be sure that your competitors will soon be doing so, if they haven't already started.To see who is marketing locally with the Web do this searchWilliamstown + directoryThe plus sign means that bot terms will be present. Of course put in the name of your own suburb!For many suburbs you will find some sort of directory or local portal, maybe even several.The first and obvious thing to do is to make sure your business is in that directory.
But you can do a bit more as well. Check out your competitors. Look out for possible partners for link exchanges.For example if you have an accommodation business you can swap links with nearby attractions or restaurants. If you have a limousine service you could link up with florists or others serving the wedding industry.The search engines are starting to introduce technology to facilitate local searches, but people are starting to do this already. You can localise your search by using something like 'Williamstown + florists' as your search term.
But soon we will all be using Google like an online Yellow Pages..
Darby Higgs is editor of OzArticles which is dedicated to increasing the use of Australian written content on the Internet. It does this by encouraging Australian writers, providing a clearinghouse of articles for republishing on the web, and by encouraging webmasters and ezine editors to use Australian articles. See http://www.ozarticles.comMother's Day is This Sunday: How It All Started
Mother's Day is this Sunday, May 8th. " It's early this year", says Ken Summerville, C.E.O. of 1-800-I-LOVE-YOU Flowers and Gifts. "This year Mother's Day most popular bouquet for us has been the Lena Liu product from Teleflora and the Galway Irish Crystal bouquet also from Teleflora." In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, "I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother's day.
There are many days for men, but none for mothers." Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna's mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother's favorite flower, the white...
Mother's Day is This Sunday: How It All Started
Florists > Mother's Day is This Sunday: How It All Started
Best UK Online Florist - Web User Magazine Award
(ContentDesk) February 4, 2006 -- Serenata Flowers are pleased to announce that they have received a Gold Award for best online florist from the UK's best selling Internet magazine, Web User, beating Interflora and Tesco.
As the UK's largest independent online florist, Serenata Flowers offer stunning flowers at very attractive prices all backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. In their review, Web User were particularly impressed with the ease of use of the Serenata Flowers website and the high quality and longevity of the flowers received.
With Valentines Day on the 14th February, the UK's online florists will receive a major increase in traffic and orders over the coming week. Visitors to...
Florists > Best UK Online Florist - Web User Magazine Award