Here is a quick demo showing just how easy it is to build a web site using the Brownbook ‘web site creator’. The pages that I created are here. The two sites that I show at the end of the video that have used the ‘web site creator’ are: Jolly Gnome Garden Services and Kuen Kung Fu.

There is a help area here where you can see the tools that I use a lot more clearly.

The cost to use the ‘web site creator’ is $98 per year - a flat fee, there are no extras, hosting costs etc. There is no limit, to the number of pages that you can build, or the number of times that you can update it.

This is turning in to ‘video madness’ week. It started with Robert Scoble doing a great video about Brownbook, Then David finished 2 epic videos about how businesses can make the most of Brownbook, and now Lisa has updated our 2 promotional videos ‘Brownbook for everyone’ and ‘Brownbook for business’ (below). Now I am going to start another video showing how easy it is to use the new ‘web site creator‘, which is packed with great features that enable anyone to create a professional web site in minutes.

Here are two videos from Dave that tell you how to make the most of your business listing on Brownbook - hints and tips, what to look out for and what really works:

And part 2…

This is todays (10th December) ‘top 10′ leader board for ‘friends’ on Brownbook:

9 friends - Martyn Regan
4 friends - YOURTRUSTEDTRADESMEN
3 friends - Hippy
3 friends - mickdavies
3 friends - Healdsburg Prop Mgmt
2 friends - neil@nhaaccountancy.co.uk
2 friends - Michelle Jones
2 friends - carol1
2 friends - Blindology Blinds
2 friends - DaveH

So how do Brownbook registered users get more friends? We have made it really simple, just register and then use the invite friend button to tell your friends about Brownbook. You’ll earn points when your friends

join, which adds to your reputation in the Brownbook community, you’ll also earn points when their friends, and their friends of friends join, its a kind of ‘pyramid’ points system… so you will go on earning more points as those people invite more people.

Tell your peers – it’s music to your ears - iPod reward

We have a bit of a competition this month for registered users to receive an iPod…

Who gets the iPod? The person who has the most friends at 12 noon GMT on 10th December 2009.

We will updated this leader board twice a week.

And if you need more information, there is a help page here.

I was asked the other day why we don’t do radiating search, and its a good question the answer to which is not immediately obvious.  I figured it may be useful to share the reasons why?

When we first designed Brownbook.net we set out to challenge all the established rules of how local business directories ’should’ work (coming from a big directory background as we do this was not always easy, but an exercise we def wanted to do).

#Evolution of tag-style searches in other web behaviors:
The use of tags to replace traditional ‘more scientific’ methods (tags versus hierarchical taxonomies/classification structures, and geo tags versus radiating search) is becoming more prevalent on the web and an accepted behavior that allows consumers and publishers (businesses in the case of business listings) to naturally reach a equilibrium of self regulation.  What I mean by this is that instead of maintaining a complex (and by definition rigid) taxonomy you use tags to allow that taxonomy to evolve naturally over time (some people may be familiar with the term folksonomy).  We see the same rules that apply to a hierarchical category taxonomy applying to a radiating geo search.

It’s not a short answer, but as with all simple concepts the wiring under the board is often more complex than you’d imagine.  But in short geo tags let users and busineses define what works best for them, without the arbitrary rules that the traditional directories had to enforce.

We’ve been seeing tons of new Canadian traffic! Until the firehose overwhelms my teacup, I’ll be doing my best to edit them all for clarity in the tags, but please try to follow the standard tagging format. These are only guidelines, but if you follow them, you will have much better luck being found by people:

• tags are like categories that aren’t exclusive, the longer the tag, the more specific someone has to be to find it
  • more than 3 words in a tag might not be searched for
• try to re-use tags your competitors use
• avoid writing prose or using the first person (I, we, etc)
• if you have a multi word tag (like “limousine transportation”), use it, and then add another two tags for each word if they stand on their own (like “limousine” and “transportation”)
  • be careful not to add tags this way that don’t stand on their own (like “corporate limos” into “corporate” and “limos”)

In general, these might help you businesses get found, but let your customers do the categorization if you can- ask them for a review with our “invite review” feature, and they will be given the opportunity to fix up your tags.