May 2008 News

In this issue of WebWidgets News, May 2008...

• Welcome new trial customers
• Gaining more exposure on Google via Maps
• New Feature - Referred By and Opt In
• VOIP phones
• New direct dial numbers for Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton
• Wellington small business expo
• New Payment Gateway - Flo2Cash
• Emma is leaving us
• Website of the Month Profile

Welcome New Customers

We'd like to extend a special welcome to all the people we met at the Auckland small business expo who are currently trialing WebWidgets. 

Gaining more exposure on Google via Maps

You might note recently that if you search on Google for a "trade + suburb" that a map appears at the top of the page with fast links to many local websites. If your business is geographically focused, then you are missing out traffic. Make sure you have registered your business on the "finda" website, or that your telephone details are up to date.

New Features - Referred By and Opt In

It is a really good idea to collect information about where your new customers first heard of you. In the options tab, top right, there is now an option to insert this question automatically into many contact us forms, enquiry forms or shopping carts. This information will be permanently stored against the member record.

If you are also compiling a mailing list, I encourage you to add the "opt in to mailing list" option, as you are now unable to send emails to your customers unless they have expressly opted in. I note the "opt out" feature is now meaningless at the point of contact and has been removed from our CMS. The Opt In feature is now available on many more pages including enquiry forms and shopping carts.

Please let us know if you have any problems with either of these new features, or if you require any help adding them.

More Personalised Newsletters

You can now address your newsletters to just the first name of your members, rather than their whole name. Please contact us if you require your newsletter to be converted to this format. We will also be defaulting all new newsletters to using first name, and visually to a 75%-25% 2 column style where you can add additional links or marketing info to the second column.

2talk VOIP phones - cutting telephone costs for small businesses

For around the equivalent price of 1 telecom line, you can now have up to 20 DDI staff extension lines, 3 local calling numbers, eg Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. It doesn't matter what city you live in, or even if you are working from a rural area. You can have an interactive voice menu, and call routing to several extensions if someone is unavailable. Different staff can work from home or office. One number can ring two phones in either location. In addition, you can have fax-email and email-fax capability and voicemail delivered to your inbox. You also get 2000 free calling minutes to all landlines in several countries around the world. All of that, for the same price as one telecom line.

Web Widgets can now provide information on this service, and some other services in the new links area of our website.

Telephony - Interactive Voice Menus / Cheaper Calls

New direct dial numbers

We now have some new direct dial numbers for Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton. You will note we have a new voice menu. If you wish to speak to someone specifically, please wait to hear the short list of extensions. eg press 6 for Reuben, or 8 for Albie. Once you know the extension number, you can press it at any time.

Auckland 09 9744301
Hamilton 07 9749055
Wellington 04 9744490
Christchurch 03 9749085

Small Business Expo Wellington

WebWidgets will be exhibiting at hte Wellington Small Business Expo from 25-27th June.  If you would like free tickets to the event, please click this link...

http://www.businessexpo.co.nz/Wellington/Exhibitors/registration.asp  

New Payment Gateway - Flo2Cash

Web Widgets now support the payment gateway, www.flo2cash.co.nz . You will still need to apply for a new ETSL VPS number from your merchant bank to process card-not-present transactions. The Flo2Cash service costs $30 including 100 transactions, in addition to any fees charged by your bank.

We have also re-formatted our payment gateway summary page, so you can quickly compare the many different available credit card payment gateways. Remember that you can relatively easily change payment gateways with little or no cost using Web Widgets. Please be aware that banks tend to be slower than us at completing integration, and there may be a period where you need to enable a test payment method for use by your bank, which is not good for busy shopping carts. We note that you can integrate all payment gateways yourself for free, if you follow our online instructions. We only charge a setup fee if you want us to be involved in any compulsory testing that they require, or conversion of digital certificates.
http://www.webwidgets.co.nz/payment-gateways.html

Emma Is Leaving Us

Unfortunately Emma is leaving the Web Widgets team this week. We will be very sorry to see her go, she has been a great asset to our team. Our many Tairua-based customers will now see Emma at the new Library almost about to be completed.

Tairua/Coromandel customers should now direct their enquiries to our main support email address support@webwidgets.co.nz or phone Reuben on local number 07 8649942. 

Website of the Month - Coromandel Peninsual Blueprint - www.coroblueprint.govt.nz

Bernie Walsh, Communications Manager from Thames Coromandel District Council, explains what this month's website is all about, and shares the experience of developing the website:

The Coromandel Peninsula Blueprint is about thinking for the future. The Thames-Coromandel District Council, Environment Waikato, Department of Conservation and Hauraki Whaanui have joined together for the project which is about managing what can be done on the land and waters of the Coromandel Peninsula, looking ahead 50 years. We already have many different plans in place but the Blueprint will bring together all these plans and the thoughts of our communities to ensure consistent planning and decisions for the future.

About half of the homeowners on the Coromandel do not live here permanently - with many living in Auckland and the Waikato and some overseas. The website was set up to help them and our permanent residents to give their feedback on-line and easily access detailed information on the project including a lot of in-depth research and a host of reports.

There are no special features on the website but we did request an on-line feedback form. We don't often offer this option to our residents and we felt for this project we should. We also set up a way for people to register their e-mail address with us to get updates on the project and we have a Youth Forum to encourage young people to send in their views and visit our Bebo site.

It's been a challenge to put everything on-line and create a new website at the same time as manage a lot of other consultation via mailed-out leaflets and information days. We are just a small team. There was a lot of information to structure into the site and quite tight deadlines to meet in terms of getting material on-line, live and correct. Making sure all the project artners were happy with everything also required quite a lot of co-ordination.

It's still a work in progress - with a few teething problems in terms of making sure everything is exactly right - but it's working for us. The website was made live at the end of March and there have been 1000 forms received so far, both on-line and offline. There have been 421 unique visitors to the website, with the most popular parts of the website proving to be the Key Issues page, Feedback Form and Youth Forum. This is a long-term project with the website set to be live for at least two years.

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Best regards
The WebWidgets Team