| Welcome to the February 2009 issue of the |
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| We have devoted this little corner of the website to keeping you and all interested parties abreast of what is happening with the Michigan Antiques Directory. We hope you have taken a moment to read our "About Us" page so you know how we got here. | |
| Table Of Contents |
| The Detroit News - 'Target In Sight' article |
| Observation: The Building of a Billboard |
| MAD's New Home Page |
| The MAD RAG's New Look |
| Just a Reminder... |
| The Detroit News - 'Target In Sight' article | ||||||||
Michigan Antiques Directory was in the news again, this
time with an on-line news source. As it occurred the last time, we had
an unsolicited inquiry from out of the blue. A freelance writer for the
Detroit News contacted us via email for a story she was writing. Below
is the ensuing email exchange.
You can read the article in its entirety for we have reproduced the article “Target In Sight” for your reading pleasure. Most encouraging is the fact that a keyword search using a generic term like "michigan antiques" directed the reporter to our web site. We're pretty sure she didn't spend a lot of time scrolling through search results. Our users, your customers, enjoy the same ease and time savings. |
| MAD's New Home Page |
| Our home page has been updated with a few modifications.
A new background color and view port position, but these are not the
important changes. The most exciting change has to do with navigation.
The previous version of the home page was design with a "2 click" method. Using our map navigational system, the first click was on a four county group and the second to a specific county. We didn't want to arbitrarily pick the county a user would see when an area of the state was selected. An intermediate county group page was designed so the users could make their own choice. We thought the "2 click" process was rather cumbersome, but we didn't have a suitable solution to this problem. 
The new home page enhancement has solved the problem. When mousing
over the map of Michigan, only one county at a time is highlighted,
allowing the user to choose a specific county of interest. A list
of cities within that county is displayed dynamically from our database.
Now with one click on the county of your choice you will be taken
to that county's page and all the listings within that county organized
by the city in which they are found.We are very happy with this enhancement to Michigan Antiques Directory. We know our users will appreciate it, too! We have more enhancements envisioned in the upcoming months. Check back with us and read about those changes in future issues of the MAD RAG! |
| Observation: The Building of a Billboard |
|
I was driving into Grand Rapids one morning and saw a billboard being
built by the side of the highway. It was a good location, just north
of the M-6 / US-131 interchange, about 5 miles south of downtown.
A lot of traffic goes by that point everyday. But how many people
will really look at that billboard as they negotiate heavy traffic,
bad weather and a multitude of other distractions? Here is my billboard
story. My father owned a restaurant in Spring Lake. He rented a billboard for 3 months during the summer on west-bound I-96 (Grand Rapids to Muskegon) just before the Nunica exit. He dropped about ½ of his annual advertisement budget on just that one billboard. If my memory serves me correctly that was about $2000 back in the early 1990's. Just how effective was that billboard? How many people really saw it? How many people actually visited his restaurant because of it? We never knew the answers to these questions. What we did know was that a properly placed billboard could effectively capture a market of travelers in search of a good meal. And, so, what about the Internet? We know that the use of the Internet as a planning tool for travel, tourism and shopping is without parallel. If you have a business, you should have an Internet presence. We can offer you a 'billboard' like listing to direct people to your store for $63 a year. Our web site, Michigan Antiques Directory, is producing some outstanding page positions on Google, which means that we are an effective Internet tool for your advertising dollars. We also offer a mini-web-site product. For an annual fee of $96 (plus initial set up fee) you can market your store with images, a event schedule, etc. - creating an "Internet Store Front". For far less than what my father paid for 3 months of billboard advertising you can get 24/7 exposure all year round. It is funny how things come to mind - espcially when you have a passion for something. Thanks for reading! — John Victor |
| Just a Reminder... |
We invite all our clients to send us some
interesting news about their store, antiquing, their part of the state
or something you think people who visit MAD might find interesting.
We welcome your experiences and news. Maybe you have an idea that you
would like to share. Tell us how people have used MAD to find your store.
Just send us an email. Please feel free to jump into future issues of
the MAD RAG. Our
referral program is still available to our valued clients of Michigan
Antiques Directory (MAD). We know that word of mouth continues to
be a most reliable form of advertising. When people find a good thing,
they naturally want to share that information with others who would
benefit. We propose taking advantage of your conversations with other
store owners about Michigan Antiques Directory to build our client
base – a win for us! In return we would compensate you in the
form of cash or credit to offset your advertising expenses –
a win for you! Please visit our Referral
Program page for details.Over the years that Michigan Antiques Directory has been in existence we have worked hard on our search engine placement. As the years have progressed we have seen our ranking steadily improve. Our city level indexing is working within the search engines and many people are finding your stores using content searches that pick up your descriptions within your listing. If you would like to update the description of your business listing, just send us an email. Remember... Michigan Antiques Directory is an antiques and collectibles business site that can help any antiques and collectibles seller within the state of Michigan have a central location on the Internet -- no matter how far off the beaten path their establishment may be. If you have any questions, concerns, comments or suggestions please let us know. We look forward to hearing from you |
| Thank you for reading this issue of the MAD RAG — John and Leslie Victor |
| The MAD RAG's New Look |
 As
you probably have noticed, this issue of the MAD RAG looks
a little different from the other issues. We thought that we would give
it a more 'newsletter' look since that is what it is, rather than the
'blog' thing we had going on. 
A drop-down menu bar has replaced the side bar menu for better navigation
and readability. The older issues will have the new page header and
menu added to them. The page content format will remain the same. As
the weeks go by you will see different sections of our site getting
a 'face lift'. Be sure to check back and read about all those changed
in future issues of the MAD RAG. |
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