Competition - Win a free 5 page website completed in 60 minutes from Omniserve.ie

Vexorg

Omniserve.ie have given us a competition for a business website closing this Friday 29th August.

Details below:

We are offering 1 free website to Boards readers of this forum. To win this website on this coming Friday (29th August) we will select the best slogan posted to this thread that starts with

“Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because …………”

The free website includes:

1. Domain registration of an extension of your choice.
2. Hosting of your email and website.
3. Distillation of your requirements and any unique content you want to
provide using our intelligent "Collecting Your Input" online form.
4. Organising of your content into a format for the site build.
5. Basic optimization of your site focusing on your name, business you
are in and geographical location.
5. An online meeting with one of our staff where you are taken through the
build of your site and trained in how to make changes and use the CM4all
control panel to do this.
6. Shown how to use features such as blogs that can get you more business
(here's an example of a client making good use of this to get more gigs for
their band: http://www.blackwaterband.ie/5930.html ).
7. Free entry of your new site in our blog which, thanks to being indexed
every couple of minutes by Google, ensures that your business name and
primary product area appears in Google organic results very quickly. This
free post also includes a link to your site and we have tracked
that click throughs to completed websites from our blog have occurred within minutes of
the post being indexed.

If anyone else wants ot sponsor a competition please read this

Omniserve

Thanks Vexorg.

Due to the difficult economic times and the changing way people search for new services(ie via Google rather than traditional methods) small businesses need every help they can get in getting new business from the web. Our objective is to try and get as many small Irish businesses as possible live on the web in the shortest possible time.

We are offering 2 free websites for the best reply to the slogan, one for readers of the Entrepreneurial & Business Management forum and one for readers of the Web Development & Design forum.

I am happy to answer any questions relevant to our competition or the new Omniserve offering.

Regards Eoin

Stab*City

“Small businesses need a website these days because it helps small businesses create big business”

just said id get the ball rolling!!

Cr8or

“Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because of snake oil salesmen (like someone we know).”

yeshi

We claim to know SEO because our clients are clueless.

stevire

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because procrastination never pays!

jhegarty

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because a crappy template website should double their business*

*may not be true

forbairt

6. Shown how to use features such as blogs that can get you more business
(here's an example of a client making good use of this to get more gigs for
their band: http://www.blackwaterband.ie/5930.html ).

I like what ye are doing here



Shows that the band want people to really think they've created the website themselves and that they haven't sold out and used a professional agency / freelancer / student / friend to design the site for them

Sully

A true example of -- you pay for what you get.

Smcgie

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because, as the stone age needed the wheel, as the youth of today need social networking as and as Eastern Europeans need Lidi, without it! … Your on your on in this country".

Ps I am in the middle of getting a website designed by the slowest company on earth! – Please release me from this immortal torture. :eek:

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

MyClondalkin

Omniserve wrote: »

Thanks Vexorg.

Due to the difficult economic times and the changing way people search for new services(ie via Google rather than traditional methods) small businesses need every help they can get in getting new business from the web. Our objective is to try and get as many small Irish businesses as possible live on the web in the shortest possible time.

We are offering 2 free websites for the best reply to the slogan, one for readers of the Entrepreneurial & Business Management forum and one for readers of the Web Development & Design forum.

I am happy to answer any questions relevant to our competition or the new Omniserve offering.

Regards Eoin

Hi, your slogan assuming thats what your after, does it have to read "Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because"?

..or is this to be an opening paragraph or something else ?

Which words do you wish to stress, Irish, small businesses, website etc.. any more ?

igora

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because.... to stay ahead the web is read.


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because .....to survive business must go live.


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because ...for 24 hours of every day your business will trade the electronic way..


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because ....Its fast, its efficient and so worth while and its a great appraisal of your profile.

confidential

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because.....if you want to grow the world needs to know.

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because.....the tiger is gone but we must move on.

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because.....the business is there if you really care.

oeb

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because I said so and I'm bigger than you.

Pablo

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because with over 108,000. registered .IEs and growing at 2,000 a month you are certainly missing out on something big.

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because nobody uses the yellowpages any more.

Sully

The Scientist wrote: »

Well you're not paying for anything in this case are ya?
Omniserve were good enough to run a Competition for Boardsies and all it gets is begrudging comments from people who coincidently have Web Design links in their Sigs.

I'm not talking about the competition, if there giving away free webdesign then hey - its free. And there contributing to the board (well, free promotion ). But paying for that type of design, well I suppose if you need something cheap and cheerful..

As for the competition itself, bare in mind that this is not the only company to have run a competition with Boards in the past

But ya, iv gone off the point at hand in this topic. Best of luck to all who enter the competition. Ill throw in a quicky for the craic..

"Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because eCommerce is the future of business - without a web presence, your company is not reaching its full potential."

"Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because times have changed - eCommerce is the future for a successful business."

"Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because an internet presence is key to a successful business"

philtaylor

Vexorg wrote: »

Omniserve.ie have given us a competition for a business website closing this Friday 29th August.

Details below:



If anyone else wants ot sponsor a competition please read this

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because you would be DAFT.ie not to!

Is this what the new commercially oriented boards will be like. Pimping out forums for a few hundred quid so daft.ie can justify an investment.

Also I would like to bring it to the attention of the owners of the comp that there website claim is false. That sample website is not first for that search key. its on the first page but half way down it. False Advertising.

di11on

“Small businesses need a website these days because if you're not online you'll be benign”

“Small businesses need a website these days because without one, you're out of sight”

“Small businesses need a website these days because an online presence delivers real world benefits”

Vexorg

philtaylor wrote: »

Pimping out forums for a few hundred quid so daft.ie can justify an investment.

Can you explain this?

Sully

philtaylor wrote: »

Is this what the new commercially oriented boards will be like. Pimping out forums for a few hundred quid so daft.ie can justify an investment.

Was done before Daft invested, I don't see much of a problem with it myself. Though I don't see how it benefits the owners - it benefits probably the client and the end user more.

Also I would like to bring it to the attention of the owners of the comp that there website claim is false. That sample website is not first for that search key. its on the first page but half way down it. False Advertising.

Meh, im sure it was correct at time of print.

Sully

di11on wrote: »

“Small businesses need a website these days because if you're not online you'll be benign”

“Small businesses need a website these days because without one, you're out of sight”

“Small businesses need a website these days because an online presence delivers real world benefits”

There pretty good, but I don't get the first one?

Omniserve

Some excellent suggestions so far, thanks everyone. One I was toying with was ... "because without one your business doesn't exist as far as Google is concerned" (a bit long winded though, maybe "Your business is invisible to Google").

Re Google: Seeing as a lot of people in the Irish internet community were interested in how this worked we put up an information page here on it:

http://omniserve.digiweb.ie/testimonials.html Just click on the "How It Works" button under the Google image on the right hand side.

Regards Eoin

MyClondalkin

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because, Internet surfers cant find you, fact!

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because, websites provide a cost-effective way of communicating, your products and services 24/7.

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because, the Internet is larger then TV & Radio combined.

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because, search giants like Google can work with you... or your competitors.

EDIT: added 2 more

confidential

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because "Google.ie the place to see"

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because "from noodle to poodle its listed on google"

Liam Byrne

Omniserve wrote: »

Some excellent suggestions so far, thanks everyone. One I was toying with was ... "because without one your business doesn't exist as far as Google is concerned" (a bit long winded though, maybe "Your business is invisible to Google").

Re Google: Seeing as a lot of people in the Irish internet community were interested in how this worked we put up an information page here on it:

http://omniserve.digiweb.ie/testimonials.html Just click on the "How It Works" button under the Google image on the right hand side.

Regards Eoin

So by including a link from a site that's popular with Google, you speed up the inclusion ranking process ?

Sounds like something everyone with a profile page of completed projects would do anyway, no ?

Fair play if you can sell it as something more than that!

failsafe

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because your customers are waiting for one

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because the modern customer expects nothing less

igora

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because even if its all Google or Yahoo to you......it will grow your business whether old or new.


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because whether its dial up you use or broadband.. a website will help business expand.



Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because ...there is now new global online sales but its still upto you if your business fails.

Omniserve

We will be closing the competition at 12 noon tomorrow and announcing the winner later that day.

Good luck everyone!

Eoin

blazesoftware

Here my go


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because Omniserve get you there without pulling out all your hair.


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because business is bleak so your up s**ts creek, So dont be a mule and act like a fool and get your site up today.

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because the incredible Wizard of Oz lost his business because, due to up-to-date science, To most of his clients, He wasn't the Wizard he woz.

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because if your not in you can't win.


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because 'where do you want to be tomorrow?'


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because your job is our business


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because your website success is our business


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because it's reality.

igora

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because.. if your professional in what you do a online site is a must for you.


Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because ...what once was an option has now become a neccessity.




Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because.... if you don't look good we don't look good

axer

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because the internet is the shopping centre of the world

igora

Irish small business need a website now more than ever because... if Google does not know your name...you are left behind. What a shame!!

heggie

Irish small business need a website now more than ever because if you can't rhyme, your business will decline

MyClondalkin

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because, todays public, demand it!

Technology is used to help businesses survive. Now more than ever Irish small businesses need a website.

Omniserve

Liam Byrne wrote: »

So by including a link from a site that's popular with Google, you speed up the inclusion ranking process ?

Sounds like something everyone with a profile page of completed projects would do anyway, no ?

Fair play if you can sell it as something more than that!

It's a FREE part of the service so we are not selling it as anything more than just that.

Regards Eoin

Omniserve

philtaylor wrote: »

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because you would be DAFT.ie not to!

Is this what the new commercially oriented boards will be like. Pimping out forums for a few hundred quid so daft.ie can justify an investment.

Also I would like to bring it to the attention of the owners of the comp that there website claim is false. That sample website is not first for that search key. its on the first page but half way down it. False Advertising.

I'm not sure what you are talking about Phil. If it is the Blackwater Band then please see attached.

Regards Eoin

Omniserve

We've spent the last hour going through all the entries and enjoyed reading many of them.

However when it came down to deciding we felt that we should pick the one that is best without any re-writing. We also felt that 2 were good enough to win and have decided to give 2 free websites to this forum instead of 1.

The winners are...........

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because Omniserve get you there without pulling out all your hair.

blazesoftware

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because.....if you want to grow the world needs to know.

confidential

Honourable mention goes to igora for the entry:

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because ...there is now new global online sales but its still up to you if your business fails.

If it had been a bit shorter like "Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because without online sales your business could fail" it would have been neck and neck with the winners!

I am PMing the winners with the details we need from you. Please reply as soon as possible.

Thanks Everyone for entering!

Regards Eoin

Rollo Tamasi

Omniserve wrote: »

I'm not sure what you are talking about Phil. If it is the Blackwater Band then please see attached.

Regards Eoin

Less than 1-20 Google.ie searches select the 'Pages from Ireland' search operator. And even then getting the site ranking for the site name is hardly an achievement to be honest. Ranking on google.com and google.ie (without PFI selected) for the term 'Traditional Irish Music' would be an achievement though.

The frailty of your 'Google Rapid Inclusion' Tool is even more emphasised in the fact that your own blog post sits in position 1 and 2 for your client's domain name.

philtaylor

Rollo Tamasi wrote: »

Less than 1-20 Google.ie searches select the 'Pages from Ireland' search operator. And even then getting the site ranking for the site name is hardly an achievement to be honest. Ranking on google.com and google.ie (without PFI selected) for the term 'Traditional Irish Music' would be an achievement though.

The frailty of your 'Google Rapid Inclusion' Tool is even more emphasised in the fact that your own blog post sits in position 1 and 2 for your client's domain name.

I just searched the word blackwater band on google.com and the site you mention does not come up on the first page.

I just searched the word blackwater band on google.ie and the site came up 5th on the first page.

To be honest Eoin you have a very good marketing team the fact you can get away charging 400 euro for in my opinion a very basic site, that anyone could built in about 20 mins. Plus anyone can get a site indexed in minutes.

Quote from Eoin Costelleo/Omniserve Newstalk Interview:
Free entry of their new site in our blog which, thanks to being indexed
every couple of minutes by Google, ensures that the customer's name and
primary product area appears in Google organic results very quickly. This
free post also includes a link to the customer's site and we have tracked
that click throughs to completed websites have occurred within minutes of
the post being indexed.

I love an SEO competition on the keywords omniserve. Anyone want to sponsor that.

This is worth a read aswell.
http://www.mulley.net/2008/08/21/mulleys-google-rapid-submission-tool/

MyClondalkin

Congrats to the winners;) and the moaners well let them moan, their remarks had nothing to do with the competition and should have been removed.

Omniserve

Rollo Tamasi wrote: »

Less than 1-20 Google.ie searches select the 'Pages from Ireland' search operator. And even then getting the site ranking for the site name is hardly an achievement to be honest. Ranking on google.com and google.ie (without PFI selected) for the term 'Traditional Irish Music' would be an achievement though.

The frailty of your 'Google Rapid Inclusion' Tool is even more emphasised in the fact that your own blog post sits in position 1 and 2 for your client's domain name.

I'm a big fan of LA Confidential myself and see that you make a lot of worthwhile comments in other posts so it's clear that you are a reasonable person(rather than some of the people baiting the free part of our service on other forums).

In terms of the % of people that search Pages From Ireland we are hardly responsible for cultural habits. It is likely however that those that do select Pages From Ireland will be qualified leads rather than the unqualified type.

For the search phrase 'Traditional Irish Music' Blackwater Band(a site that went live a couple of weeks ago) ranks middle of page 5 behind a large number of massive tourist orientated portal sites. Getting our customer's site into Google does not include any indication of where they will rank for a competitive(in terms of number of sites featuring that phrase) generic term like that.

Regards Eoin

Omniserve

philtaylor wrote: »

I just searched the word blackwater band on google.com and the site you mention does not come up on the first page.

I just searched the word blackwater band on google.ie and the site came up 5th on the first page.

To be honest Eoin you have a very good marketing team the fact you can get away charging 400 euro for in my opinion a very basic site, that anyone could built in about 20 mins. Plus anyone can get a site indexed in minutes.

Quote from Eoin Costelleo/Omniserve Newstalk Interview:
Free entry of their new site in our blog which, thanks to being indexed
every couple of minutes by Google, ensures that the customer's name and
primary product area appears in Google organic results very quickly. This
free post also includes a link to the customer's site and we have tracked
that click throughs to completed websites have occurred within minutes of
the post being indexed.

I love an SEO competition on the keywords omniserve. Anyone want to sponsor that.

This is worth a read aswell.
http://www.mulley.net/2008/08/21/mulleys-google-rapid-submission-tool/

Phil, you have a great sense of humour, we must meet for a pint sometime, we'd get on like a house on fire.

In terms of "anyone" building one of these: http://omniserve.digiweb.ie/testimonials.html in 20 minutes I am interested in taking you up on your offer. Please send me your standard contract and T&C and we will look at the possibility of engaging your services. Also include details of the SEO services that you provide free and the success rate of said.

Regards Eoin

philtaylor

Omniserve wrote: »

Phil, you have a great sense of humour, we must meet for a pint sometime, we'd get on like a house on fire.

In terms of "anyone" building one of these: http://omniserve.digiweb.ie/testimonials.html in 20 minutes I am interested in taking you up on your offer. Please send me your standard contract and T&C and we will look at the possibility of engaging your services. Also include details of the SEO services that you provide free and the success rate of said.

Regards Eoin

Eoin, I think we have met back in your IIA days. I think I might have even bought you lunch and a pint aswell. So maybe you owe me one. To be honest its a credit the amount of marketing you have actually achieved over this. You have conquered online, radio and print. Any plans for some tv spots.

Sully

I think the customer should compare sites built from quality design companies to sites built from the ones who offer design at very low costs. I have, and there is a massive difference in terms of design quality. You pay for what you get.

The SEO claim some organisations make, rather amusing I must say, but comparing how your average Joe So searches search engines compared to rankings "achieved" by those who manage to get the organisations name in via plugging the link in a blog - big difference.

Businesses don't realise it. They will sooner or later though, when they realise the cash they invested to get a website and SEO "dirt cheap" hasn't been successful as they expected.

Back to Omniserve, good marketing by coming on here and doing such a competition giving away something quick and cheap to the community.

Darragh29

What if the customer requires real time database functionality or facilities in excess of a 5 page website??? What happens if the customer buys the 5 page/60 minute site and then wants e-commerce capability on their site??? The 5 page static site in 60 minutes is grand but anyone serious about trading via the internet will need substantially more than this level of functionality on their website...

Omniserve

Darragh29 wrote: »

What if the customer requires real time database functionality or facilities in excess of a 5 page website??? What happens if the customer buys the 5 page/60 minute site and then wants e-commerce capability on their site??? The 5 page static site in 60 minutes is grand but anyone serious about trading via the internet will need substantially more than this level of functionality on their website...

I agree Darragh, these will all be features that we are looking at for our next release, thanks for the suggestions.

Regards Eoin

Omniserve

philtaylor wrote: »

Eoin, I think we have met back in your IIA days. I think I might have even bought you lunch and a pint aswell. So maybe you owe me one. To be honest its a credit the amount of marketing you have actually achieved over this.

Fair enough Phil, I am on holidays next week but drop me an email eoin@omniserve.ie and I will be happy to return the compliment of lunch.

Re the marketing, I have put a lot of effort into the Omniserve concept including the "Invisible Staff Member" (see the latest version of our site http://omniserve.digiweb.ie/ which includes this) to try and get the reality of what a website can do across to those 45,000 odd small 1 -2 man bands that don't have a website and are frustrated with the current methods of website delivery (see www.eoincostello.com/omniserve/Website-frustration.doc ,quotes taken from ISME EBusiness survey and our own feasibility study).

Regards Eoin

Omniserve

Just by way of a final word, I am currently writing up the research findings from work we did as part of the Omniserve feasibility study. We made some very interesting findings in the area of cognitive psychology and how people use websites. Trials we carried out with a prototype we built achieved conversion rates approximately 45% higher than traditional websites.

Once completed I am happy to share our findings with the Irish Internet community and will post them here.

I'm off on holidays now for a bit :0)

Regards Eoin

Sully

Omniserve wrote: »

Just by way of a final word, I am currently writing up the research findings from work we did as part of the Omniserve feasibility study. We made some very interesting findings in the area of cognitive psychology and how people use websites. Trials we carried out with a prototype we built achieved conversion rates approximately 45% higher than traditional websites.

Once completed I am happy to share our findings with the Irish Internet community and will post them here.

I'm off on holidays now for a bit :0)

Regards Eoin

I hope you wont be offended by this, but, to be fair - the designs your company comes up with are nowhere near as good as some of the more expensive company's out there. Plus, I am nearly sure that research has been went into what makes a successful website - and a poor design isn't what they suggest. Sure you manage to pull some good rankings in a cheap way, but that's not what other SEO services offer. Sure you need a website (small businesses) but its important to get a professional looking website that aims to please.

I am all for your type of service if people don't have the time or money to splash out on a proper website but I think you wont get many, if any, company's droping prices to compete with you

Good to see you posting though, and offering something to the community at Boards. Stay around - I think people can learn a lot from you!

Fergal C

I know I'm too late but anyway;

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because business is global.

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because your customers expect it (and will not take you seriously if you don't have an online presence).

Irish small businesses need a website now more than ever because your target market spends more time online than watching TV (I've seen figures to back this up for certain age groups, but unfortunately can't remember the source).

I'd like to wish Eoin and his team the best of luck with this venture. I'm delighted to see an Irish company introduce this innovative concept, i.e. connecting to client PC's and building sites as the customer views it.

The service will prove beneficial to small companies who want to get online quickly. The interactive element will be informative for clients who are unsure as to what their online requirements are and need a little prompting. It would be great to see Omniserve open up export markets with this service.