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Issue 13 February 2008
Our Community NewsletterI'd like to thank those of you who list with us and use our various features. The community websites are growing in use by visitors and the new OLCNOW Shopping Guide I hope will soon take off. It's with your help that the community web sites and Shopping Guide will take off and be successful. Tell your customers about us. Then your listings and ads will be seen even more. Forward the link to our newsletter to another business who might be interested just as you were. Be sure to read the last article on this page. It's about advertising with us. Thanks, Jim In This issue:
Online Community issues.Well if you hadn't noticed, shame on you for not reviewing the websites, we have had an issue with domain names for Middleville and Otsego. Those websites failed to come up at the beginning of December. And they did not become useful until mid January, but they are working well now. We made a few minor changes to the home pages, so that they would look better when viewed in 1024x768 resolution A vast number of people are viewing our site with this resolution or higher. 800x600 is a little funky, but readable. The photos in the center columns were reduced to help this work right and as always you can click on the photos for viewing in a larger size. We need more input from local organizations about their upcoming public events. Whether a church, community, Chamber of Commerce or other organization, we will put your events on our Community events page at no cost to you. We do wish that you send us the information well in advance of the event. Help us help you get out the information to others. Shopping Guide Spring Quarter.There are only weeks left to place your ad in our quarterly ad in the Reminder or just placing your ad or coupon on our pages of the OLCNOW Shopping Guide. We are offering the approximately business card size ad in full color for a low rate of $46.60. This will as always include the cost of the spring quarter on the website. For added bonus we will include the summer quarter on the website for free ($18.00 savings) As an introductory offer, we are going to offer just using the shopping guide at the lowest price for placing ads $18.00 per quarter. Purchase the spring quarter and get Summer Quarter free. You'll be able to change your web ad each month if
we create it, or any time you want if you create your own ad. You can
create your ad with any program, just send it to us as a .jpg file or in a .pdf
format.
Although many of our clients just list their businesses with us, many are
looking for ways to advertise that are low cost and innovated. We believe that
this newest feature can be a great addition to their advertising needs. With
our overall goal of promoting the local area and
bringing local businesses to consumers and consumers to local businesses, the
shopping guide just may be the key. Below are some key points that we feel the
shopping guide can help in that area. Benefits of the newspaper quarterly ad: Although the shopping guide will take time to
become real effective, you can let your customers know your ads appear on the
website for their viewing. Mention it, especially if you plan to run advertising
for specials and sales in the coming months. They then have a fast track to see
what you have planned.
Come on and join us. Working with many can have its benefits. Contact us for details. Next proposed newspaper full color ad March 1st 2008 for Spring Quarter. (March, April, and May)
There are many consumers out there that are looking for coupons. If you can,
send us a coupon or content for a coupon to place on the shopping guide. Below
are some ideas that you might employ in creating a coupon offer.
The main reason to offer coupons is to get the customer into your business.
Be sure to place expiration dates on your coupons and change your offers from
time to time. Now with the addition of the Shopping Guide, you have a variety of ways to advertise. Due to the current economics of the times and the seasonal aspects many of you will be cutting back the money you'll want to spend on advertising. I hear it all the time. One of the remarks I get during the slow times is "I can't afford advertising right now, business is slow." I understand that cash flow can make a difference in what amount of money you want to use for advertising, but slow times should be a focus on advertising as well as the time of the year. I know that many of you decide to budget a certain amount of money just for advertising and that is good, but that money should be set aside for use rather than waiting for it to come in through sales. If set aside at the end of your year, you can afford to advertise the following year through the slow times when you need people to come into your establishment. I'd like to get many of you advertising with us on our community websites and the Shopping Guide, but I also want you to know that we are a supplement to your normal advertising. We honestly do not reach the number of households that the newspaper hits. We may over time though hit people that are not normally reading the newspapers and rely on web surfing. Small ads for our online websites are cheap compared to other online advertising and the same goes for the Shopping Guide. Please contact us for pricing. In the coming months and by way of the websites, I will be going over some ways to create ads and how to take charge of where and when you advertise. I want to interview a few businesses on how they manage their advertising, and pass some tips on to the rest of us. Keep watching for information during the next few months. We will send an email out when we start some of these projects, so you'll be able to keep up with it. Our goal is to promote local businesses. Webmaster |
The importance of shopping local:courtesy of Wayland Chamber of Commerce
OLCNOW SHOPPING GUIDEIf you plan to change your ad for March, begin planning now. It does take some time to put those ads together. If you plan to do your own ad please submit them before February 15th for March. Gun Lake Winterfest 2008
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Freebies & Discounts.From time to time we will use this section to direct you to where you can find free software, utilities, and other free services. If we hear about it we will let you know. Disclaimer:free office suiteOpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. Contains a Data Base, Calc, Draw, Math, Impress, Writer. All the same features of MS Office only free. It is a large download. Go here to download. eAnnouncer:Free Outlook add-in, that can help solve some of your customer
email problems. I use it to send out emails to tell everyone the newsletter is
ready to be viewed. Want to create pdf files, but can't afford Adobe Acrobat. CouponsRemember you can place a coupon on OLCNOW Shopping Guide for free. Send us copy of your coupon offer and we will add it to the website.. Ten Tips for Improving your Return On Investment of your newspaper advertising   Website addresseswww.gunlakeonline.com Contact:
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