Learn about advertising in ChallisIdaho.com Business News.

QUESTIONS:

Why do some listings have houses at the top of the street and some don't?

The colorful storefronts at the top of the streets are from our premier paying customers. They are letting the internet world know that they are open and ready for business.

We also, occasionally, assign one of these cute storefronts to selected businesses in town so that they can see how our website works and choose to join with our full membership. Browsers through ChallisIdaho.com can tell who is paying for advertising and who isn't because the link from the building goes to a splash page which clearly indicates the status.

In all cases, our paid membership delivers a powerful service to local businesses.

Why are some businesses listed with blue links, and others black without a link?

Blue listings click through to the businesses' website or personalized splash page. These are our paying customers, as noted above. The listings in black are businesses that we have added to the site by searching the web, phone books, etc. for local information. We are working to contact all these businesses and encourage them to join us as full members.

The only way we can improve the current state of information about local businesses in Challis, Idaho is to get as many local businesses as possible managing their own listing. We start out by gathering the infomation we can find, sorting it as best as possible, and then contacting local business owners about managing their own link. We are always looking for new businesses in Challis, and adding them to the site. The listings in black are from local businesses who have not yet responded to our letters.

• Many local businesses are listed by us until they upgrade their listing to our paid services.
• These unverified listings do not include a link to the owner's website.
• A paid link is only $5 a month. (Very reasonable for our great exposure)
• Paying for a link on our site gives that business control over the content, and helps us maintain only current information.
• Our goal is to have ChallisIdaho.com be an up-to-date, useful listing of Challis businesses. We attract many customers who are looking for local businesses, and we want to give these customers the best information we possibly can.
• The only way to do this is to have each business managing their own listing. We will eventually remove all unverified listings so that our information is always correct and up-to-date.

Why do some businesses have the wrong information, or are listed on the wrong street?

Finding good information about local businesses on the internet is very difficult because business information changes so frequently and rapidly. Businesses start up, and go out of business every day. They often change locations and contact information. It is also very common that a local business was entered with a typo somewhere, and then that information was copied across the web.

Chamber websites are usually good places to find local information, but Chambers are focused on street presence in town. Chambers run on tight budgets. They are so busy with local events, and other important tasks, that their websites often aren't up-to-date. Very few Chambers have websites that allow the business customers to change their own listing information.

In other words, if our information is wrong, it is likely that it is also wrong elsewhere! The information we can find on the internet is the same information your customers can find about you! We are trying to fix that!

Our Community website: ChallisIdaho.com, started as an additional vehicle to help local businesses in Challis manage their own internet presence. We are a reflection of the quality of information available on the web -- We need YOUR help to get it all straightened out. When we look good, YOU (the local business owners) look good!

The difference with us is that we provide a vehicle for businesses to manage their own listings. We are committed to fixing this problem. It can only be done through local business participation. If your listing is incorrect, please apply for a username and password to manage the content.

Why did I receive an email or postcard about my business being listed on ChallisIdaho.com?

We are working long and hard every day to improve the quality of the information we can find on local businesses. The only way that can be done is to contact local businesses and encourage them to start managing their own listing. We charge a very low fee for providing this service.

If you are a local business owner reading these pages, consider this:

• The only way any business has to bring in new customers is to advertiste. ChallisIdaho.com faces all the same issues that your business faces: How do we reach our customers with a good and honest product?
• We advertise to you, so that we can advertise you to your customers!
• The more businesses we get listed on challisidaho.com, the better service we can deliver to everyone because a good internet presence requires building momentum with relevant links.

We love running our online town, and because of that we are always searching for information on how the internet works, and how small businesses can profit from a good internet presence. Along the way we have learned really great things about advertising, and business, that we want to share with you to help you make money. If you are listed on our site, we will send you useful information when we learn it.

• If you don't want to hear from us, please reply to that email and ask to be removed.
• Oh yea... Make sure your reply back to us includes the body of the email, and information about who you are so that we can find your listing and delete it properly.

P.S. We never share your email with anyone, or display it on our site - because that would be just rude. We are here to make your life easier, not to make it a nightmare of spam!

Why should businesses have to pay for this site? I've seen other sites that are free.