Why should I bother knowing about the internet?

• An incredible source of information, resources, more industry sources in the future
• Have your own presence, or web site—another marketing channel
• Keep up with what your customers are using as resources and even sources

Perry’s Perennial Pages: http://www.uvm.edu/~pass/perry/

--there will find links, no list on this page because out-of-date soon, hard to retype and make accurate, easier if already on web to just go there and click on links

click here for Sample Links for this leaflet

• dates, events, meetings and trade shows
• sources of plants and supplies, especially "b to b" or business to business
• references: culture, plant and plant selectors, photos, libraries
• contacts: trade associations, universities, extension
• competition—scope them out
• weather
• pests and weeds: controls, labels, MSDS, IPM, info about
• trends: colors, themes
• discussion lists on pests, specific topics, specific plant groups
• issues like government regulations
• keeping up—weekly newsletters from magazines, newspapers
• future: training, courses

• Locating people, businesses and contact info
• Information on anything from Art to Zip codes
• News—newspapers, Ezines, what’s on where
• Travel—looking and booking, all manner of tickets
• Shopping--Ecommerce

A real art, the real bottom line since so much on web, applies if you have your own site too—how can people easily find you?

• Bookmark key sites
• Search engines—the real "magic" of the web, many different ones

• type as specific word or phrase as possible: Perry’s Perennial Pages, not just perennials
• try retyping different way: for instance Perrys Perennial Pages will give totally different sites than Perry’s Perennial Pages, or perennials vs. perennial
• Try a different search engine, or search engine for search engines
• I’m impatient, for you time is money, 2 seconds here and there may not seem a lot, but multiply times 1000 clicks per day=half hour x 7 days= 3.5 hours per week (why also good to have fast computer), so if I don’t get a desired site in first 6 sec.(average consumer time, will soon be 4) (usually search engines give 10 sites at a time, prioritized) I retry something else (keep this in mind if you have, will have a site—customers must find fast); learn to ignore all the advertising banners

• Often get what you pay for: cheaper computers have cheaper components, especially true for some big "chain" stores—even though brand name, cheaper components; also less to no service through chain stores; plan on replacing in 4 years maximum
• No faster than slowest component, like water in pipes, so all components should be fast; learn latest from talking to various sales persons, studying flyers, research on internet

Having a web presence or site—Why?

• Competition is, another means of promoting business, marketing channel
• Increasing customer use for finding anything as above, often before phone—

Keys to a successful site

• Ability to be found easily, quickly is most important (can have great site, but if can’t be found or quickly, no good and wasted money); "meta tags" (see below) and get linked
• Something useful, "where’s the beef"—not just lists of links, reason for people to visit: can go from just stores hours and contact info, to pictures of business and employees or jobs, to consumer leaflets, helplines, etc—let your marketing ideas run wild! Survey customers on what they’d like to see; all the way to online ordering, or checking inventory
• Reason to return—weekly plants or specials, tips of the day (lots of this can be automated), feature customers gardens or contests, videocams in greenhouses, etc; keep it updated
• Unless you serve a big area like state or region or country, focus on what will help your customers; think "out of the box", look at other industries—surf the web; might even try something like online ordering of simple items like peat and bark mulch, to pick up or deliver—saves customer time; or plant and design consulting, for a small fee; or place order and have ready to pick up—saves customer time, like pizza and drugstores—the "drive through" syndrome (if so, lose the in-store POP so have to build into websites); ask why should they buy from you and not another local or online site, then tell them; niches may no longer work, since opportunity now for anyone to have one on web
• Well-designed site—scope out and learn from others on web, what works and what doesn’t, what you like and don’t like—colors, layout etc; often can get site designed locally, even high school students or classes; whomever designs it, YOU need to know what works and doesn’t ; build for the lowest common denominator—slow computer, slow connection, older browser

• less is more, plenty of "white" or open space, clean, simple, uncluttered
• watch lifting copyrighted media of all forms; much copyright free, or for small fee
• use meta tags—code for keywords and description, what computers see and you don’t, check out under "Page Source Code" or similar drop-down menu; also look at code to see how pages work; use main words in meta tags, cod title, top of web page, first paragraph
• colorful—this is a visual medium; use standard colors most browsers can see
• keep graphics small, includes photos, ask if you really need each one; avoid using fancy effects like blinking just because they can be done; avoid "frames"
• avoid fancy applications like Java applets—unless designing for teenagers or the corporate world with fast computers; as in all marketing, keep your customer target audience in mind.

• Bottom line for a site to deliver: content, service, speed, convenience

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