Helpful Tips
Consumers are using the internet more than ever to know their local retailers.

Meet Your Neighbors

A recent study by ROI Research Inc. and Performics shows that up to 30% of local retail store and service purchases are influenced by internet searches. This is a clear indication that "Local Online Advertising" is no longer a luxury but a necessity for any business.

Registration with "Local Online Advertising" sites doesn't have to be costly, but it can be tricky. You have to be careful to register with credible web sites and companies. Below is our list of suggested "Local Online Advertising" web sites.

• CitySearch.com – offers two paid plans, “Web Connect” and “Call Connect”. There is no minimum budget requirement.
• Local.com – This web site gets more than 10 million visitors monthly. You can sign up for their free basic listing or pay-per-click service.
• Yellowpages.com – offers city guides and advertising solutions. Basic listing is free.
• TrueLocal.com – currently indexing more than 13 million local businesses, and starts at $1 per month.
• RegisterLocal.com – for $199.95 per year, they will submit your business profile to Search Engines and directories.
• ReachLocal.com – put together everything your business need to set-up, maintain, track and analyze local internet advertising. Pricing depends on plan.
• Froogle.Google.com – An addition to Google’s shopping search engines, which allows visitors to search for specific product by location. Posting is free.
• Craigslist.com – connects buyers and sellers in 300 communities. Posting is free.
• MerchantCircle.com – offers local business listings service that helps you manage your reputation and visibility online. Basic listing is free with option to upgrade.
• Listings.Local.Yahoo.com – Yahoo!Local is an online destination for people seeking information about businesses in their area. Available in three plans, with Basic Listing being free.
• Adwords.Google.com - Their pay-per-click service puts your ad when people search a particular location. You only pay when your ad is clicked.
• CitySlick.net - The CitySlick Local Business Directory empowers consumers by finding local deals, in city discounts, and reviews on local businesses. Businesses can submit their profiles by creating free or paid local online promotions.
• ShowMeLocal.com- has a lot of great tools for local business owners to promote their business online…from coupons, testimonials, RSS feeds, and much more. The best thing is that it is absolutely FREE for business owners and consumers alike.

The above list will definitely get your local advertising rolling. However, it is also important to optimize your web site for your local target market to maximize your result. This means including your city, location or area name in your keywords list. (You can contact VIANET Web Design for additional tips on this).

Remember, just like with any other advertising plans, results don’t happen overnight. However, if you take advantage of these online advertising sites and optimize your web site, you can expect your neighbor to be knocking on your door soon.

Happy New Year!

• Helpful Tips: Meet Your Neighbors
• What's New - Latest version for Jostens site
• Promotion: "2008" FREE Website
• From Our Customer

"2008" FREE Website Annual Promo Starts in January

New Version for Jostens Site

This season, the new version for Jostens sites has 2 new additional designs, more features and enhanced coding. We listened and put together most of the requested features from different Reps during the past season, and come out with a more proficient and easier to manage web site. Some of the Reps may already have most of the new features, especially those who have their web sites created recently.

The new web site version increases the productivity of the Reps because of the added features and additional options in managing and processing of orders.

Some features are:

• Information for Student and for person paying the orders are separately displayed in the Order Confirmation
• Invoice and Order Confirmation can display the contents of the packages.
• Rep can print list of Orders based on schools, dates, etc. This list is helpful to bring to school while giving out orders.
• Reps can build their own packages thru the Admin Section.
• Easier and faster checkout process.
• Option to have an Online Credit Card Terminal (useful to process non-Jostens products)
• Students can pay their invoice online
• Process payment by receiving Customer’s credit card information via encrypted e-mail. This gives Reps the option to process the payment using their own Credit Card Machine.
• Ability to change handling fee per product.
• Ability to have different tax rate on products or on school areas.
• Customer can put customized text as they order personalized product (such as Name Cards).
• Reps can offer rings in their own website. (Student can customize it too).
• Add/Edit schools and assign Cap & Gown price or ring type.
• Product can belong to multiple schools/categories (no need to enter the same product for each school)
• Export transactions to Quickbooks (this feature is coming soon, but can only be implemented to web sites in newer version).

These are just few of the enhancements done in the new version of the web site. Some of the improvements are done in the coding and in the overall structure of the site, so it can’t be noticed visually. However, they have a big impact on how the web site works internally, and give a better foundation for more features and growth in the future.