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Press at
eCommunityGuide
Articles
The
following article(s) are archives online by GazetteNet.
Additional articles have been published in the UMass School of
Management Annual Report and Union News.
Press Release
The
following is a list of recent press releases distributed by
eCommunityGuide.
Release: Immediate
Contact: Peter A. Gelinas (Founder)
413-584-7730
press@ecommunityguide.com
ECOMMUNITYGUIDE RELEASES MAJOR ENHANCEMENTS
Local Firm Renames its Network
and Redesigns its Products to Meet its Exponential Growth Rate
HADLEY,
MA (August 12, 2001)-
In response to an exponential adoption rate of monthly
visitors, www.ecommunityguide.com, a network of nine community
web sites created for the Pioneer Valley region, is announcing
a “soft launch” on Sunday, August 12th in memory of
an initial founder, Peter Allen Jekanowki, with an official
release to follow on Wednesday August 15th. Version
2.0, a newly redesigned platform, boasting a fresh new look
and feel along with adding greater functionality and ease of
navigation will revolutionize the local community guide
experience in the Pioneer Valley. In addition to redesigning
the site, www.ecommunityguide.com is also being renamed
www.PioneerValleyGuide.com, to better reflect the utility of
the community web sites and its distinctly local appeal.
Launched on December 15th, 2000,
www.ecommmunityguide.com, now www.pioneervalleyguide.com, has
grown its audience by over 500%, achieving over 45,000 monthly
visitors to date.
New features
across the network include an advanced search tool that allows
the viewer to locate a business alphabetically, by type of
business or service, as well as by town, transforming
www.PioneerValleyGuide.com into an interactive, local
substitute for the yellow pages. “Our audience has provided
us with terrific praise and feedback, challenging us to
continually raise the bar in order to meet their growing
online community needs,” says Peter Gelinas, founder of
eCommunityGuide. Local merchants can now employ the exclusive
www.PioneerValleyGuide.com Community Keyword,
designed to provide the local business with their web address
of choice. The new site redesign showcases many new and
vibrant pictures along with an engaging photo gallery,
capturing the natural beauty and unique culture of the Pioneer
Valley, online. Additionally, based upon viewer feedback, a
new site menu has been implemented, along with major redesigns
in the body of each and every web page, allowing easier user
navigation. “The growth rate of our audience has been
remarkable, so therefore, in order to meet this growing
demand, we are adding all new functionality along with major
redesigns in order to make the user experience as rich and
seamless as possible,” says John Kostek, co-founder of
eCommunityGuide and Manager of Content Development.
Additional functionality includes direct news feeds, specific
to local content, sports, and obituaries from the Daily
Hampshire Gazette, community interest polls, enhanced
functionality of our local forums, interactive calendars, and
area organizational news publishing features.
In addition
to new site features and functionality,
www.PioneerValleyGuide.com is pleased to roll out its new
Virtual Business District Packages to local
merchants. “In order to provide the maximum value for our
local merchants, we have created a comprehensive package of
value added support services designed to give the merchant
multiple channels and methods for driving engaged consumers to
their business,” says Gelinas. Prospective members can select
either the Standard or the Promotional membership package.
Depending upon preference, businesses can include up to a full
page electronic brochure, which includes priority placement
and a spotlight feature rotation across the network, along
with tile advertising, a community keyword, bulletin board
marketing space, and more. “We have priced the new packages
at a fraction of what traditional media sources would charge,
and our packages last for a one year period, transforming the
Internet into the most cost effective and local media platform
available.” comments Gelinas.
The
www.pioneervalleyguide.com community network proudly covers
the towns of Amherst, Belchertown, Deerfield, Easthampton,
Hadley, Hatfield, Northampton, South Hadley and Sunderland.
Users can log onto www.pioneervalleyguide.com and then click
into their locale, or they may simply type their community
name followed by “guide.com” (e.g. www.AmherstGuide.com) in
their browser address bar. www.PioneerValleyGuide.com is a
proud partner of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Buy Local
Campaign (Communities Involved with Sustaining
Agriculture), and a selection of other area
professionals respected in sectors covered by our growing
community guides.
Release: Immediate
Contact: Peter A. Gelinas (Founder)
413-584-7730
press@ecommunityguide.com
LOCAL
FIRM LAUNCHES COMMUNITY FOCUSED WEBSITES
Umass business
students apply e-commerce methods to community needs
HADLEY, MA (December 11, 2000)-
Local residents will now have instant access to historical,
municipal, and cultural information tailored to their
community interests, thanks to a network of new web sites
developed by eCommunityGuide.com, an online business developed
by a group of Isenberg School of Management students at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst. The “charter network”
will officially launch on December 15th, 2000.
The new web sites included in the
“charter network” cover the communities of Amherst, Hadley,
Hatfield, Northampton, and South Hadley. Additional locales
are planned for introduction into the network over the next
few months, according to Josh Greenwald, Co-Founder of
eCommunityGuide.com. “The web sites offer residents the
localized information they seek in a format that is both fast
and simple,” Greenwald says, “We’re also going to modify the
content to ensure we’re giving people what they want, when
they want it, and in a format that’s easy to navigate.” Users
can log-on to www.ecommunityguide.com and click into their
locale, or may simply type the community name followed by
“guide.com” (e.g AmherstGuide.com) in their browser address
bar.
Each of these content-rich,
interactive, community web sites, will feature localized
information on news, weather, sports, government,
entertainment, dining, area businesses, and more. “In
addition to our regular content features, we aim to showcase
the many talents of local professionals. We have included
in-depth sections on such topics as pet care, professional
development, gardening, and cooking, amongst others,”
Greenwald says. Other strategic partnerships include the
GazetteNet, Sport-Spot.com and Zone5Gardening.com. Registered
users will have instant access to community bulletin boards,
classified advertising, local directory information, and much
more.
eCommunityGuide.com, as it is
today, began as an award winning business concept at the Mass
Ventures Five College Entrepreneurial competition this past
May. Development of the eCommunityGuide.com charter network
is based on the principal that every community should have its
own web site, similar to the offerings of Boston.com for the
city of Boston. Founder Peter A. Gelinas began the concept
back in 1997, with the development of Hadley Online (www.hadleyonline.com),
an information site serving the town of Hadley,
Massachusetts. Gelinas and his team began this expanded
effort after noticing the constant stream of traffic visiting
Hadley Online each week, often times exceeding 2,500 visits in
a town with a population of just over 4,500 residents. “The
number of visits really jumped out at us,” Gelinas says. “We
concluded that there must be a great deal of interest in this
service, and the key is comprehensive, localized content.”
With an anticipated weekly
viewership in excess of 50,000 visits per week, across the
charter network, eCommunityGuide is confident “version 1.0,”
of their community network, will be well received by area
residents. “We’ve talked with many people across the Pioneer
Valley region about how we can tailor this product to serve
their needs, and will continue do so,” Gelinas says.
Residents can look forward to additional features and
enhancements, introduced regularly, across the locales in the
months to come.
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