The lbb forum has moved to http://www.localbizbuilders.com/forums

When you get there and try to log in for the first time you will NEED to request a new password–YOUR EXISTING ONE WILL NOT WORK

The old forum is still working although the posting will be limited to only a section or two. It is at:

http:/www.localbizbuilders.com/index.php

I have sections on BOTH forums(old and new) for anyone with problems.

KEith

One often overlooked aspect of the ‘offline’ niche is the fact that YOU, as a marketer, ARE in business. To be more exact, you are an offline business yourself.

You own and operate a business in town. Granted, most of what you do is online, but that certainly does not excuse the fact that you are in business.

Most people tend to think that just because you are a one person operation that you aren’t really a business. However, you might want to consider thinking along different lines and begin acting like a business, not a person.

Business owners, although you are a one person operation, like dealing with a business. Granted, they know you are the only one, but the implied professionalism that goes with a “business” is worth its weight in gold.

That leads to a business name. You are welcome to use your own name as the business name, but for branding purposes it wouldn’t hurt to have a real business name that is not yours. MaryJane Rottencrotch, although a pleasant name, may not sound as professional as MJR Concepts.

It does not take much to head to a bank and open a DBA account either. When you bill your customers use your company name as the “remit” to, so business owners will be writing checks to an entity.

Design a logo, or do something a little “jazzy” with your new company name, preferably something that is brandable so that when the money is coming i you can have some niche shirts made up, maybe a nice vinyl decal for your vehicle, etc. Use your logo/company name on all of your correspondence from emails to company stationary(letterheads, business cards, envelopes etc). None of this costs any money and can all be done right on your computer.

Remember, you are selling a service(or advertising if you are in the portal realm). Business owners want that ‘warm n fuzzy’ feeling when dealing with you, and that you are not some fly by night operation.

Again, none of this costs any large sums of cash to do, and will help establish you as a real player in the community. If you think as a business, act like a business…you will get business.

Just some food for thought.

I sent out a private message to all members not to long ago stating how I ws interested in switching the forum from the Simple Machines forum application to the VBulletin app.

I have not forgotten and actually have been putting a lot of time into considering this. The VBulletin platform has so much more flexibility and expandability than the current one we are using. I also found that I should be able to transfer almost everything directly from our current site into a new one. There is a program that will transfer everything for me, so that is a great relief(provided it works!)

The forum itself has nothing really wrong with it, but I think as we grow it will lack certain things that I can only get with VBulletin. I am trying to think ahead and be pro-active, but the more I visit similar forums using VB(like the Warrior Forum) the more I really see the usefulness of it here at LBB.

This is a semi-costly project, as well as time consuming, so that weighs on me as well. But the SMF format is very weak, and although good right now, we are already outgrowing it, and there are so many things I want to do over time that cannot be done via SMF.

Once I make a final decision I will let you all know, and also keep you informed when it’s ready to be used if I go that route.

I see the LBB Forum only getting better and better, so I want to make sure that the user experience continues to improve as we grow…which is a tough balance! Thanks for being patient with me on this, I know I have been pissing and moaning about this for a while now!

After spending a long day on the computer yesterday, I decided to take a trip to our city mall with the famn damily last night. OMG!

The place is becoming a ghost town. The mall itself is anchored by some larger chain stores, like Sears, JCPenny, Macy’s, and Circuit City.

As you know by now, Circuit City is going out of business, so there will be one less major chain anchoring our glorious mall.

But as I walked through the mall itself, I counted no less than 15 empty spaces! Now there was always one or two locations empty, but I have never seen it so empty. Granted, there are still plenty of stores, but the number seems to be dropping regularily!

I usually avoid the mall at all costs and shop locally when I can, so I notice things most don’t because they are there so often. Another store with a large location that is finacial troubles is Old Navy. These large stores that have large space leaving is a potential problem for the mall management companies, as they rely on rent ot pay the bills. I do not see any real effort to get new businesses into the mall itself, and the number of large chain stores to replace the ones leaving are shrinking.

Stores I once thought to be bulletproof are falling fast. Linen’s and Things was another store in town that recently left, leaving a huge location completely empty, with no signs of anyone moving in. What scares me is that in my mall, the smaller locations inside are not being filled either, so I cannot even justify the fact that maybe they will break up the large locations into smaller ones…as no one wants them.

Our economy is changing, and pretty soon we will all be shopping at Wal-Mart’s and Home Depot’s for everything in our lives!

But with every bad situation, there is a silver lining. With the larger stores vanishing, the smaller niche stores now have an opportunity to re-emerge and prosper.

Take Circuit City for example. Granted, they ran all of the smaller computer and electronics stores out of business, but NOW someone with some guts and a plan could now open a specialty computer store and do quite well. They could sell only computers and computer related items, with a good friendly and knowledable staff, and do extremely well(IMO).

It is also an opportunity for us as ‘offliners’ to help exisiting and start-up businesses in our community realize their potential and position themselves so that they can pick up the slack from these failed chain stores.

Just food for thought…

I personally cannot remember the last time I did a website for a customer that was NOT a blog or at least a CMS(content management system).

I really enjoy the flexibility I have with the set up, and I also really love the search rankings a blog can get with less effort than a static page.

One great selling point that I usually use to convince customers to use a blog is the fact that they can update it themselves once it is up and running, saving them money they would normally pay to someone like me to do updates on a regular basis. 99% of all customers I speak with love this idea, but only about 40% actually take advantage of it, and the other 60% still have me do updates. It is a win-win for you as a service provider.

I would be interested in hearing your input on whether you are pro blog, pro static sites, what your customers are buying etc. I think it would be good for those who have not gotten out and made sales to get a good glimpse of what people ‘want’.

Of course certain applications may lend themselves to static sites, so if you have run across those, feel free to comment on them as well…