Business owners within the “807” area code now have a directory of their own on the World Wide Web thanks to an innovative idea spearheaded by the Electronic Publishing (EP) department at the Fort Frances Times.
The new website–nwontario.com–will be launched at the Times’ booth at the annual Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce Trade Show, which runs Friday from noon to 9 p.m. and again Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the curling club.
“You can add your business to the directory ‘live’ via computer and the Internet at the trade show,” Lincoln Dunn, web concept developer at the Times, said Monday.
“The website will update in real time when people add their information to it,” he noted. “There’s nothing like this [directory]–nothing that focuses on this area like this does.”
nwontario.com will be self-driven and free for business owners to list themselves on, with more than 190 business categories available. A link to the business directory also will be available through the Times’ own web site at fftimes.com.
“When people are searching for information on Northwestern Ontario, this site will come up,” said Times office manager Linda Plumridge, noting the benefits of the online business directory where tourism was concerned.
“Basically [nwontario.com] provides a means for people outside the immediate area to find businesses in Northwestern Ontario, and even for those within the area to say ‘Okay, I need one kind of service, where can it be found?’” echoed Times publisher Jim Cumming.
“It’s one central place to come to and is accessible from anywhere in the world,” he added.
Meanwhile, ‘leapontheweb.com’–also created by the Fort Frances Times EP department–was launched today. It’s aimed at painting a clearer picture about the company’s web services, and the ins and outs of what’s involved in setting up your website for success through EP.
“For a lot of people, the Internet is still really new technology,” reasoned Plumridge. “Many don’t know how to use it to their advantage [and] lots of people are at the point where they want to have a website but don’t know how to do it.
“We needed to come up with some identification for this department to give it a higher profile–leapontheweb.com is our online identification,” she added.
“We offer the whole gamut of web services–there’s no one around here that does that,” added Dunn.
“If you’re interested in web services, leapontheweb.com will describe the web services we offer,” he said, noting more than 20 area businesses already have gone online through the Times’ EP department, which also includes Katy Byman (graphic designer) and Faye Keesic (database programmer).
Attracting the online market with your web site comes with change, Dunn noted. That’s one of the reasons why fftimes.com averages 400,000 hits a month.
“The Fort Frances Times website does so well because it changes everyday,” noted Plumridge.
“That’s why we get the kind of traffic we do,” agreed Dunn. “The heart of a successful website is that it changes. That’s what brings your customers back.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
