Re: WC:>: help with small town Web business presentation

[Bruce Hart (Hart Consulting)]

We do the site for Rex Hill Winery in Oregon (near Portland;
www.rexhill.com) and they've found that while they're not selling much wine
online yet (partly because of ludicrous legal restrictions), they do get
lots of visitors to their tasting room and their Partridge Farm
bed&breakfast inn through the web site. If they offered discount coupons on
the web site I'd bet they'd get even more (I think people on the Internet
expect to save a lot of money by doing things through the web, even when
that expectation isn't realistic). Search engine positioning is key to a
site like this one and Tamra is constantly fighting to keep them
well-positioned.

We're doing a site for MeadowCreek Inn and Spa (somewhere in the middle of
nowhere in the middle of Idaho) and the hope is to generate some interest
through search engine searches (and links from the local chamber of
commerce site). The URL for the placeholder home page is
http://www.genesiscom.com/~bhart/

Based on what I've seen, I think that many small businesses may have
unrealistic expectations for how much merchandise they can move through the
web (unless they can afford to take out tv ads to advertise their web site!)

Maybe the key for Ashland business web sites is to get hooked into the web
site for the plays (assuming that there is one by now).

--bruce


>What I'd like to do is give a broad overview of the types of businesses that
>do make money from their Web sites (or experience other tangible benefits).
>Of particular interest would be the types of businesses that are common to a
>small tourist-oriented town like Ashland: motels, restaurants, bed &
>breakfasts, small retail shops, etc. Do any of you have anecdotes you can
>share about online successes experienced by businesses such as these? Or
>info on what these types of businesses should expect to pay for Web sites?
>

------------------------------------------------------------
Hart Consulting                   http://www.hartcons.com/
Web Design & Engineering Studio   Silicon Valley, California
650-967-6162                      1-800-749-8032 (fax)
------------------------------------------------------------
              
____________________________________________________________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 Join The NEW Web Consultants Association FORUMS and CHAT:
   Register Today at: http://just4u.com/forums/
Web Consultants Web Site : http://just4u.com/webconsultants
   Give the Gift of Life This Year...
     Just4U Stop Smoking Support forum - helping smokers for
      over three years-tell a friend: http://just4u.com/forums/
          To get 500 Banner Ads for FREE
    go to http://www.linkbuddies.com/start.go?id=111261
---------------------------------------------------------------------