ReachCustomersOnline.com

About This Website

Posted by TimSlavin at May 18, 2005

links within this page: Why This Website? | Who operates ReachCustomersOnline? | What Is Your Editorial Bias?

ReachCustomersOnline.com collects and organizes information about internet tools, services, and best practices for an audience of business people as well as the graphic designers, programmers, and others who provide them with internet capabilities.

Why This Website?

A huge gap has appeared between millions of people who use the internet and the local businesses they visit in person. These businesses often are not online. If they are online, many do not use the internet efficiently. Even big local businesses find the internet to be costly, tough to learn, and difficult to measure. Worse, research shows millions of people go online in search of their local businesses.

Happily research also shows merchant recognition is a key factor in people opening email and buying online or offline. Expensive ecommerce websites, even websites, are not required to use the internet to generate new business and support customers. Clearly, these non Fortune 1000 companies have a big advantage online because they also meet their customers and prospects in their shops and offices. The problem is how to help them master the internet without becoming captive to vendors, high costs, and lack of knowledge.

Finally, this website also exists for the graphic designers, programmers, and others who provide internet capability for local businesses. They welcome opportunities to learn how to provide low-cost repeatable projects to their clients. They want to develop measurable products to sell in between more expensive website projects.

Who operates ReachCustomersOnline?

I am a long-time business writer with a technology bent who has written for major corporations. My wife and I run a writing business, Red House Communications, LLC. This website is a publishing venture of our writing business. It is a way for us to package our internet knowledge.

I also have built over 50 internet and intranet websites since 1995, either doing all the work myself or managing staff and vendors. One of the sites won a major CIO.com 50/50 Best of the Web award in 2000 as well as a number of healthcare industry awards as an excellent example of how health care companies could use the internet to support their diverse stakeholders. I have hands on experience with the full web and internet lifecycle, from customer need to requirements definition, design, programming, launch, promotion, and measurement of results.

What Is Your Editorial Bias?

As writer and editor of this website, my major concerns are to collect actionable knowledge and techniques that can be applied in a business setting. Knowledge and solutions must be measurable, for example. They must allow you to start with manageable projects, prove value, learn lessons, then evolve into more complex solutions only as needed. It is criminal for any vendor to sell you the equivalent of a Bentley when a Hyundai Sonata is more appropriate. It troubles me, as well, that much internet knowledge is used as a way to drive new business, not to help customers help themselves.

This website exists to help educate businesses and point them to low cost tools and services as well as best practices. I do not promote specific solutions. Nor do I take money (also known as "affiliate fees") for recommending or writing about anything on this website. This website fails if you cannot trust me. Furthermore, while you are welcome to hire me to help solve your internet problems, hiring me is not required for you to benefit from this website.

Bottomline, I try to promote transparency. I try to empower people to do the work themselves even if they have plenty of money to hire experts.

 

If you want to reach your customers online in the most efficient ways possible, welcome to this website. Your business needs help drive this website so please feel free to email me any time. Chances are I can help you. If you find this site useful, please tell friends and colleagues who also might benefit. If this this site is not helpful, however, do let me know.

Thank you for your visit today!

Tim

Tim Slavin Writer, Editor & Publisher ReachCustomersOnline.com

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