TotalSierra.com Picks Up Where Major Search Engines Leave Off.

Net Results Media Group launches TotalSierra.com to regionally support small businesses and address the shortcomings of the major search engines in rural communities. Considering the financial and technical resources available to the majors it seems clear that their failure to attract a substantial percentage of small businesses, outside travel and real estate, is either by design or, by operation, exposes the inability of the majors to target small towns and small businesses. NRMG believes that the future of the Internet, for rural areas, will be brighter with the development of better regional and industry specific search services. Regional services should focus on being comprehensive, having substantial reach while being city specific, developing cross-selling opportunities, remaining cost effective, allowing for feedback and devoting enough resource to give users a feel for the region, it's towns and their people.

"What were once fairly unbiased information search services are now (in general) sophisticated marketing systems where cash speaks louder than content. Going for a top listing on the major international engines not only means a big budget, but also thousands of competing sites all vying for your position. All is not lost however. Using regional search services, will eliminate much of your competition, will cost less and will most likely, lead to a higher return on investment..." writes Paul Fisher, founder of Traffikka.com.

Travel related and real estate Websites dominate the search results for small towns on major SEs. If we are going to encourage the participation of a broader spectrum of small businesses we must create regional directories that are comprehensive. Few mechanics, electricians or accountants use the Internet to attract new customers because finding their Websites on the majors is too difficult.

City specific directories are too limiting in the reach they provide for local businesses. A truly regional directory like TotalSierra.com allows business owners to promote their businesses within the region they are geographically associated with and tailor their reach by selecting exactly which towns they want to do business in. Many small businesses don't advertise at all. Yellow pages are expensive, static and don't allow for tailored reach. Internet directories create many cross-selling opportunities by grouping related businesses together. New businesses and new product, service and contact information can appear immediately. Yellow page books take up to 16 months to print new business ads and ad changes.

Regional Internet companies can produce results for advertisers at far lower costs than can traditional media. There are no papers to print, no broadcast equipment, no celebrities to pay. Generating feedback for advertisers is also expensive for traditional media. Online databases can allow users to leave feedback that is unsolicited, nonconfrontational, inexpensive and easy to generate.

TotalSierra.com is a true collaboration of programmer and end user. The technology of the site is advanced but more important than the technology is the end user input, which has been paramount in the development of the Website since its inception. The 83 city and counties featured give adequate reach and the 11,000 categories an adequate end level category breakdown to service a high percentage of businesses.