The Shop Local Delmarva website has been updated to include random showcasing of our locally owned businesses and what they have to offer.
Raffie's offers a good example of what a Premium subscription offers. Not only is Raffie's featured on the main pages, but, also, promotions for specific products are targetted in the business categories for the counties Raffie's serves.
If you're a locally owned and operated business, you can be listed for free. You can "test drive" subscription services for a limited time. Please email us for details.
Promotional blog for the Shop Local Delmarva app available in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
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Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Welcome Raffie's!
Shop Local Delmarva welcomes Raffie's to the family of locally owned and operated businesses. Located in Talbot County, Raffies also serves Dorchester, Caroline, and Queen Annes counties. Serving Delmarva since 1959, Raffie's offers top quality beds, mattresses, dining sets, and home furniture at greatly discounted prices.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Shop Local Delmarva website experiencing inconvenient technical difficulties
Shop Local Delmarva's hosting company performed an upgrade to its services. The upgrade has affected the look of the directory listings causing them to be a bit askewed. It's only a matter of changing two numbers to fix the problem, but there's over four hundred pages that need changing. Shop Local Delmarva is working on fixing the problem and hopes to have the entire directory corrected by the end of next week.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Vote for Delmarva's Best!
What's Up? online magazine is asking you to vote for your favorite Eastern Shore spots to eat. Here's your chance to spotlight your favorite locally owned and operated restaurant. Visit What's Up? and cast your vote!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Welcome Island Transmissions and Powersports
Shop Local Delmarva welcomes Island Transmissions and Powersports to the family of locally owned and operated businesses. Located in Stevensville, Queen Annes County, MD, Island Transmissions and Powersports specializes in rebuilding transmissions, transaxles, differentials, and transfer cases and much more. With 20 years of experience in the automotive/marine service industry, they provide a full range of services from simple maintenance to the most complicated repairs on automobiles as well as boats, pwc’s, heavy duty and agricultural vehicles. Please let them know you found them on Shop Local Delmarva.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Raising chickens in Northampton County a no-no
Apparently, raising chickens in Northampton County on the lower Delmarva is not allowed. Who would have thought that raising chickens in a rural area was prohibited?
Locally owned businesses are over burdened with stiff regulations and often overlooked in local economic development plans. It's ironic how communities balk at allowing their neighbors to raise chickens, citing a need to protect the Bay or depreciating property values, but then welcome this big chains of Target, Walmart, Home Depot or even new housing developments.
A documentary airing on PBS quoted a fact that a single family home on one acre of land produces more pollution runoff to the Bay in a year than a two hundred acre farm. Unlike a farm that maintains a wooded buffer zone between its property and the watershed, the home has a paved driveway that leads to a paved street that allows runoff to flow directly to the Bay. Chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides used to maintain lawns and gardens and control pests, chemicals and cleaning solutions used to clean vehicles, patios, decks, and the outside of the house, improperly functioning septic systems, car exhaust and leaks on the pavement - all have a clear, unbuffered flow to the Bay.
Runoff from chicken farms can harm the Bay, but the problem can be minimized with strict enforcemnet of buffer zones between the farm and watersheds. It's a little harder to enforce effective buffer zones around shopping centers and housing developments. Northampton County, and all of Delmarva, should strive to keep and protect the small farms and ban the shopping centers and housing developments.
Please read another opinion provided by delmarvanow.com/The Daily Times.
Locally owned businesses are over burdened with stiff regulations and often overlooked in local economic development plans. It's ironic how communities balk at allowing their neighbors to raise chickens, citing a need to protect the Bay or depreciating property values, but then welcome this big chains of Target, Walmart, Home Depot or even new housing developments.
A documentary airing on PBS quoted a fact that a single family home on one acre of land produces more pollution runoff to the Bay in a year than a two hundred acre farm. Unlike a farm that maintains a wooded buffer zone between its property and the watershed, the home has a paved driveway that leads to a paved street that allows runoff to flow directly to the Bay. Chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides used to maintain lawns and gardens and control pests, chemicals and cleaning solutions used to clean vehicles, patios, decks, and the outside of the house, improperly functioning septic systems, car exhaust and leaks on the pavement - all have a clear, unbuffered flow to the Bay.
Runoff from chicken farms can harm the Bay, but the problem can be minimized with strict enforcemnet of buffer zones between the farm and watersheds. It's a little harder to enforce effective buffer zones around shopping centers and housing developments. Northampton County, and all of Delmarva, should strive to keep and protect the small farms and ban the shopping centers and housing developments.
Please read another opinion provided by delmarvanow.com/The Daily Times.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
New advertising blitz
Shop Local Delmarva is happy to report that its daily average traffic flow has increased from one or two visits per day a month ago to three or four visits per day this month. The increase in traffic can be attributed to better search engine placement and social networking promotion.
At the present time, no businesses are listed in the directory. Hopefully, those who have visited Shop Local Delmarva have bookmarked the site for future reference in hopes the site will grow. Shop Local Delmarva has begun an agressive campaign to reach out to the locally owned businesses on Delmarva to make the site useful for the visitors looking for their locally owned businesses. The campaign includes new advertising on Craig's List and WBOC classifieds as well as personally visiting our locally owned businesses.
As always, all locally owned businesses can be listed for free under the Basic subscription plan. The Basic plan is and always will be free. In addition to the Basic Plan, Shop Local Delmarva currently offers two affordable paid subscriptions to enhance your business' Internet presence. Locally owned businesses can test ride the paid subscriptions for free!
Shop Local Delmarva has set a minimum goal of 100 listed businesses in the directory and a daily average traffic flow of ten visitors before Shop Local Delmarva will begin charging for the subscription services. Until those minimum standards are met, your business can be listed under the paid subscription plans for free. Once the minimum goals are met, Shop Local Delmarva will give you the option of continuing your subscription at the listed price or change your listing to the free, Basic plan at no charge to you.
To put the numbers in perspective, with an average daily flow of ten visitors, about 300 potential customers will visit the site each month. With 100 businesses listed, that translates to three new potential customers per business. With Shop Local Delmarva's low subscription rates, one new customer per month will pay for the subscription service.
Judging by the input Shop Local Delmarva has received so far, many people on Delmarva want to support their locally owned businesses and need an easy resource to find them. Shop Local Delmarva offers that resource, but can only be as successful as the support it receives from the locally owned business community. Get listed today! It's free!
At the present time, no businesses are listed in the directory. Hopefully, those who have visited Shop Local Delmarva have bookmarked the site for future reference in hopes the site will grow. Shop Local Delmarva has begun an agressive campaign to reach out to the locally owned businesses on Delmarva to make the site useful for the visitors looking for their locally owned businesses. The campaign includes new advertising on Craig's List and WBOC classifieds as well as personally visiting our locally owned businesses.
As always, all locally owned businesses can be listed for free under the Basic subscription plan. The Basic plan is and always will be free. In addition to the Basic Plan, Shop Local Delmarva currently offers two affordable paid subscriptions to enhance your business' Internet presence. Locally owned businesses can test ride the paid subscriptions for free!
Shop Local Delmarva has set a minimum goal of 100 listed businesses in the directory and a daily average traffic flow of ten visitors before Shop Local Delmarva will begin charging for the subscription services. Until those minimum standards are met, your business can be listed under the paid subscription plans for free. Once the minimum goals are met, Shop Local Delmarva will give you the option of continuing your subscription at the listed price or change your listing to the free, Basic plan at no charge to you.
To put the numbers in perspective, with an average daily flow of ten visitors, about 300 potential customers will visit the site each month. With 100 businesses listed, that translates to three new potential customers per business. With Shop Local Delmarva's low subscription rates, one new customer per month will pay for the subscription service.
Judging by the input Shop Local Delmarva has received so far, many people on Delmarva want to support their locally owned businesses and need an easy resource to find them. Shop Local Delmarva offers that resource, but can only be as successful as the support it receives from the locally owned business community. Get listed today! It's free!
Friday, December 24, 2010
How will my business show up in Google search results?
Another interesting question popped up today. The gist of the question was if someone searched keywords for a particular type of business, would Shop Local Delmarva appear in the top ten search results. The short answer is it depends.
A generic search of "locally owned businesses on Delmarva" will return Shop Local Delmarva in the top spot along with Shop Local Delmarva's Facebook page and blog page. A specific search of "locally owned florists on Delmarva" will also return Shop Local Delmarva in the top spot. However, a more specific search of "locally owned florists in Cambridge" returns results from Cambridge, MA. If the search is changed to read "locally owned florists in Cambridge, MD", nothing from Shop Local Delmarva appears in the top twenty results. Why is that?
Shop Local Delmarva is geared towards all of Delmarva. Listing every possible town that a consumer may use is infeasible, not to mention that such a long list of keywords really irks the search engines. At the time of writing this article, Shop Local Delmarva has no florists listed in its directory. If a potential customer searches for a locally owned florist in a specific town on Delmarva, there is no telling what results would be returned. This is where the keywords to your individual listings play an important role.
If you look at the different listing packages, you will see a "number of keywords" option. The basic, free listing includes three search keywords. One of those keywords you would want is your town. The other two keywords would relate to your business, in this example, "florist" and "floral gifts" may be a good choice. Choosing these keywords doesn't guarantee a top-ten search result, but does get you closer to where you want to be.
The work for Shop Local Delmarva begins and continues indefinitely to refine these keywords. Periodically, the chosen keywords are tested and the search results evaluated. With only three keywords to describe your listing, search results probably won't return your listing in the top five, but should return your listing in the top thirty. In this example, if the chosen keywords "Cambridge", "florist", and "floral gifts" does not return desireable search results, Shop Local Delmarva will change the keywords to try to obtain results in at least the top thirty results. Perhaps, "Cambridge", "florist", and "flowers" would be a better choice of keywords. Shop Local Delmarva cannot guarantee a particular business' search result ranking, but will always strive to achieve the best possible ranking given the keywords available to use.
The more keywords used in your listing, the more likely your listing will appear neaerer to the top of a typical search. A Premium subscription gives you four more keywords to use in your listing and an Enhanced subscription gives you seven more keywords to use. Shop Local Delmarva will manipulate the keywords in your listing level and compare them to Google analytics to optimize the best or most likely used keywords that a potential customer may use to find you.
In the example given, if you are the only florist listed on Shop Local Delmarva, you have the advantage of being the only florist to appear in the search results, but you have the disadvantage if the potential customer uses "Easton" instead of "Cambridge" in their search query. Odds are good that your listing would not appear in the top fifty results much less the ideal top twenty. If, however, there is a florist listed in Easton, there's a good chance the potential customer will find you through the Shop Local Delmarva directory as the potential customer shops around the site. That is the power behind having a large directory of businesses. Many businesses listed throughout Delmarva will guide potential customers searching for a business in a particular town to other related businesses located nearby the potential customer's town.
At this point, you may be thinking that attracting potential customers through the Internet is nothing more than a lucky throw of the dice. To the end user, your potential customer, this may appear true. But to you, the business listed on the Shop Local Delmarva website, you are the house controlling the dice and, as anyone who has been to Atlantic City or Vegas knows, the house always wins in the long run.
A generic search of "locally owned businesses on Delmarva" will return Shop Local Delmarva in the top spot along with Shop Local Delmarva's Facebook page and blog page. A specific search of "locally owned florists on Delmarva" will also return Shop Local Delmarva in the top spot. However, a more specific search of "locally owned florists in Cambridge" returns results from Cambridge, MA. If the search is changed to read "locally owned florists in Cambridge, MD", nothing from Shop Local Delmarva appears in the top twenty results. Why is that?
Shop Local Delmarva is geared towards all of Delmarva. Listing every possible town that a consumer may use is infeasible, not to mention that such a long list of keywords really irks the search engines. At the time of writing this article, Shop Local Delmarva has no florists listed in its directory. If a potential customer searches for a locally owned florist in a specific town on Delmarva, there is no telling what results would be returned. This is where the keywords to your individual listings play an important role.
If you look at the different listing packages, you will see a "number of keywords" option. The basic, free listing includes three search keywords. One of those keywords you would want is your town. The other two keywords would relate to your business, in this example, "florist" and "floral gifts" may be a good choice. Choosing these keywords doesn't guarantee a top-ten search result, but does get you closer to where you want to be.
The work for Shop Local Delmarva begins and continues indefinitely to refine these keywords. Periodically, the chosen keywords are tested and the search results evaluated. With only three keywords to describe your listing, search results probably won't return your listing in the top five, but should return your listing in the top thirty. In this example, if the chosen keywords "Cambridge", "florist", and "floral gifts" does not return desireable search results, Shop Local Delmarva will change the keywords to try to obtain results in at least the top thirty results. Perhaps, "Cambridge", "florist", and "flowers" would be a better choice of keywords. Shop Local Delmarva cannot guarantee a particular business' search result ranking, but will always strive to achieve the best possible ranking given the keywords available to use.
The more keywords used in your listing, the more likely your listing will appear neaerer to the top of a typical search. A Premium subscription gives you four more keywords to use in your listing and an Enhanced subscription gives you seven more keywords to use. Shop Local Delmarva will manipulate the keywords in your listing level and compare them to Google analytics to optimize the best or most likely used keywords that a potential customer may use to find you.
In the example given, if you are the only florist listed on Shop Local Delmarva, you have the advantage of being the only florist to appear in the search results, but you have the disadvantage if the potential customer uses "Easton" instead of "Cambridge" in their search query. Odds are good that your listing would not appear in the top fifty results much less the ideal top twenty. If, however, there is a florist listed in Easton, there's a good chance the potential customer will find you through the Shop Local Delmarva directory as the potential customer shops around the site. That is the power behind having a large directory of businesses. Many businesses listed throughout Delmarva will guide potential customers searching for a business in a particular town to other related businesses located nearby the potential customer's town.
At this point, you may be thinking that attracting potential customers through the Internet is nothing more than a lucky throw of the dice. To the end user, your potential customer, this may appear true. But to you, the business listed on the Shop Local Delmarva website, you are the house controlling the dice and, as anyone who has been to Atlantic City or Vegas knows, the house always wins in the long run.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
"Shop local" movement is a national trend
Across the nation, a growing number of communities have formed organizations to promote the idea of "shopping local." Here is a good article spotlighting the effort on the other side of the country in, no less, a major metropolitan area - Phoenix, AZ.
As Shop Local Delmarva grows, the plans are to become a major advocacy group for the "shop local" movement here on Delmarva. Shop Local Delmarva's philosophy is that national chains have their place in any community, but they should not form the foundation and they should always be encouraged to source their products, support services, and employees locally before choosing outside sources to fill their needs.
To achieve the long range goals Shop Local Delmarva has established, your support is needed. As a consumer, choose to do business locally at least once a month. When shopping around for goods or services, don't forget to get pricing from your locally owned businesses. Contrary to the popular myth, locally owned businesses aren't always more expensive than a nationally owned chain. Often times they are competitively priced or even offer savings.
As a local business owner, get listed on the Shop Local Delmarva directory. A basic listing is and always will be free. Your potential customers need a resource to easily find their locally owned businesses. Shop Local Delmarva strives to be that resource for them. The more businesses listed in the directory, the more potential customers will use the resource and the more likely the customer will find you.
And remember, shop local, Delmarva!
As Shop Local Delmarva grows, the plans are to become a major advocacy group for the "shop local" movement here on Delmarva. Shop Local Delmarva's philosophy is that national chains have their place in any community, but they should not form the foundation and they should always be encouraged to source their products, support services, and employees locally before choosing outside sources to fill their needs.
To achieve the long range goals Shop Local Delmarva has established, your support is needed. As a consumer, choose to do business locally at least once a month. When shopping around for goods or services, don't forget to get pricing from your locally owned businesses. Contrary to the popular myth, locally owned businesses aren't always more expensive than a nationally owned chain. Often times they are competitively priced or even offer savings.
As a local business owner, get listed on the Shop Local Delmarva directory. A basic listing is and always will be free. Your potential customers need a resource to easily find their locally owned businesses. Shop Local Delmarva strives to be that resource for them. The more businesses listed in the directory, the more potential customers will use the resource and the more likely the customer will find you.
And remember, shop local, Delmarva!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Shop Local Delmarva's Internet Structure
Where do I follow you on the Internet so I don't miss anything?
That was a question Shop Local Delmarva received and a good one that warrants an answer for everyone who may have the same question to see.
Shop Local Delmarva has established itself on the Internet through its main website and two auxiliary social networking sites as explained below. Scheduled to come on line will be a link to a third social networking site, Twitter. Whether you follow all or just one of the paths, you won't miss a thing going on at Shop Local Delmarva or in your locally owned and operated business community.
Main website - http://www.shoplocaldelmarva.com/
This is where you will want to go to find your locally owned and operated businesses. The directory is broken down by county and further refined to businesses located in the county as well as businesses that serve the county. Individual business listings include the basics such as address and phone number as well as a Google map to help you find the business. If the business is running any specials, coupons, or sales, you will find all of them posted with the business' listing. At the bottom of the map, you can even rate your visit with the business using a simple five-star voting system. The site also has other general information about the importance of shopping local. In the right margin, you will find featured businesses' sales, deals, and coupons. In the left margin, you will see two feeds: one from Facebook and the other from Blogger.
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shop-Local-Delmarva/143805389003402?ref=share
Facebook is the largest social networking site and an important tool that allows you, and your friends and families to easily share their experiences with their locally owned and operated businesses. By clicking the "Like" button, your newsfeed will automatically include Shop Local Delmarva's updates and allow you to post to Shop Local Delmarva's wall. Your locally owned and operated businesses want to hear from you and Facebook makes it really easy for you to communicate with them and everyone else. Shop Local Delmarva uses Facebook to keep everyone informed of the latest news in the locally owned business world. Any changes made to the main website, such as the addition of a business to the directory or new specials being offered by a business, will also be posted to Facebook.
Blogger - http://shoplocaldelmarva.blogspot.com/
Like Facebook, blogger is another social networking site that serves the same purpose for Shop Local Delmarva as Facebook does. The advantage of Blogger is Shop Local Delmarva can post expanded explanations, news items, and features that Facebook limits due to its character limits on posts. This explanation, for example, could not be posted on Facebook in its entirety as it is posted on Blogger.
Twitter - not available yet
Twitter will function in the same capacity as Facebook. Twitter is scheduled to come online in January 2011.
Now, you may be wondering how you would know about the answer to this question posted on Blogger if you only subscribe to Facebook or simply have the main website bookmarked.
Even though the answer to the question appears on Blogger, a short announcement with a link to Blogger is also posted on Facebook. Facebook users can then read the answer in its entiriety by clicking on the link. When Twitter is available, a short announcement will be sent out for our Twitter subscribers. If you solely use the main website, the Facebook and Blogger feeds will show the same updated information and, of course, this question is added to the FAQ section of the main website.
No matter how you choose to follow Shop Local Delmarva, you will be kept informed of the latest updates and happenings.
That was a question Shop Local Delmarva received and a good one that warrants an answer for everyone who may have the same question to see.
Shop Local Delmarva has established itself on the Internet through its main website and two auxiliary social networking sites as explained below. Scheduled to come on line will be a link to a third social networking site, Twitter. Whether you follow all or just one of the paths, you won't miss a thing going on at Shop Local Delmarva or in your locally owned and operated business community.
Main website - http://www.shoplocaldelmarva.com/
This is where you will want to go to find your locally owned and operated businesses. The directory is broken down by county and further refined to businesses located in the county as well as businesses that serve the county. Individual business listings include the basics such as address and phone number as well as a Google map to help you find the business. If the business is running any specials, coupons, or sales, you will find all of them posted with the business' listing. At the bottom of the map, you can even rate your visit with the business using a simple five-star voting system. The site also has other general information about the importance of shopping local. In the right margin, you will find featured businesses' sales, deals, and coupons. In the left margin, you will see two feeds: one from Facebook and the other from Blogger.
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shop-Local-Delmarva/143805389003402?ref=share
Facebook is the largest social networking site and an important tool that allows you, and your friends and families to easily share their experiences with their locally owned and operated businesses. By clicking the "Like" button, your newsfeed will automatically include Shop Local Delmarva's updates and allow you to post to Shop Local Delmarva's wall. Your locally owned and operated businesses want to hear from you and Facebook makes it really easy for you to communicate with them and everyone else. Shop Local Delmarva uses Facebook to keep everyone informed of the latest news in the locally owned business world. Any changes made to the main website, such as the addition of a business to the directory or new specials being offered by a business, will also be posted to Facebook.
Blogger - http://shoplocaldelmarva.blogspot.com/
Like Facebook, blogger is another social networking site that serves the same purpose for Shop Local Delmarva as Facebook does. The advantage of Blogger is Shop Local Delmarva can post expanded explanations, news items, and features that Facebook limits due to its character limits on posts. This explanation, for example, could not be posted on Facebook in its entirety as it is posted on Blogger.
Twitter - not available yet
Twitter will function in the same capacity as Facebook. Twitter is scheduled to come online in January 2011.
Now, you may be wondering how you would know about the answer to this question posted on Blogger if you only subscribe to Facebook or simply have the main website bookmarked.
Even though the answer to the question appears on Blogger, a short announcement with a link to Blogger is also posted on Facebook. Facebook users can then read the answer in its entiriety by clicking on the link. When Twitter is available, a short announcement will be sent out for our Twitter subscribers. If you solely use the main website, the Facebook and Blogger feeds will show the same updated information and, of course, this question is added to the FAQ section of the main website.
No matter how you choose to follow Shop Local Delmarva, you will be kept informed of the latest updates and happenings.
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