Community& Local Information

Business, Advertising.

Fire up your local business - - get online now - if you' re not marketing your local business online, opportunity is passing you by. Global information is great, but people' s day - to - day lives are local. So many people focus on the Internet' s global reach that its potential benefit to local business is often overlooked.

Now that so much information is available online, more consumers see the Internet as something useful instead of a passing fad. - according to messaging online, there were around 891 million email addresses at the beginning of 200by now there are probably 1 billion or more. Here are 5 ways that consumers are using the Internet: E - Mail. Almost everyone has an email address, or knows someone who does. Even if you don' t have a website, you can use email to communicate with your customers. It' s fast becoming as common as the telephone, and just as necessary.

Send them useful information, and special offers, coupons. - pre - sales research. If you don' t, someone else will. For many consumers, the internet has become the great equalizer. Consumers can research everything from products to retail services, and make sure they get the best deal. They no longer have to take the word of a salesperson - - all the information they need to make an intelligent decision is online. But unless your business is online, it' s unlikely they will find you.

Online Shopping. - s. retail e - commerce sales for the first quarter of 2002 were almost$ 10 billion, and will top$ 44 billion by year' s end. Top picks include books, music, travel, clothing, movies, Computers/ videos, and health products, consumer electronics. Clearly, plenty of Internet users have gotten comfortable with spending money online. But if your business isn' t online, you won' t get any of those e - commerce dollars. Community information is like a magnet - - it draws locals online.

Community& Local Information. - people care about their communities and want to know what' s going on around them. Savvy business owners recognize this and revamp their websites to include local information and real - time content, available from companies like www. moreover. com and www. yellowbrix. com. They' re also looking for weather forecasts, entertainment listings, local headlines, and sporting events info. Content is the# 1 reason users return to websites. An estimated 22 million people in over 100 countries are flocking to auction sites such as Yahoo, uBid, BidBay. com and the granddaddy of them all, eBay.

Internet Auctions. - the listing fees are a small price to pay for the kind of exposure businesses can get. Consumers can also search by region and category at http: //pages. ebay. com/ regional/ hub. html - "eBay Local Trading" , where major cities are setup as regions. About 4 million items are up for sale every day on eBay, in every imaginable category, cars, including services, and houses. If you' re selling anything at all, you should definitely, especially consumer products check out eBay. For local business owners, the message is clear: your customers are online. and so is your competition. These are some of the ways consumers are using the Net.

How much longer can YOU afford to wait? - officialsoftwaredownloads. com to learn much more, including the 5 things that google doesn' t want you to know! Visit http: //www.