We believe the main tasks of a web site are:

• to bring business to the owner of the web site
• to present the business of our customers in an eye-catching and easily understandable way. This is important because many elderly people are now using the Internet and they want to have easy access to the information. Certain "Bells and Whistles" chase them away.
• to present the essentials of the business and not text without useful content. Visitors should be attracted to your business and they should feel confident that you are an honest partner whom they can trust.
• to allow easy navigation through the web site. This again is important for older customers who may not be that familiar with the Internet.
• to offer only complete and working web sites. It is very frustrating to open links and not get any results.
• to use proper-sized images. Especially for tourism, stamp-sized pictures should be avoided.
• not to compete with business directories such as the yellow pages, which are an excellent source of information when you are looking for a certain business or specific services.
• to include a searchable data base. We use different main categories, list all businesses which use our services with the essential information and install a link as well a search function.
• to use the principle of travel magazines for our advertisers in the tourist buiness. This means, it is essential to have Internet tourist guides in place where advertising has a good chance to create business.
• to charge reasonable fees for our services. You tell us what you want and we tell you how much it will cost. We can do this because we keep our operating costs low. For events held by charitable organizations, for publicly funded attractions, such as museums, we may even do a web site for free. (Unfortunately, we experienced lots of resistance with that in Ontario. Cooperation was much better in Thuringia, Germany, and also in Newfoundland.)

If you think this is common knowledge - you are wrong! Just check the web. For example, pretend to be a person who is interested in vacationing in a certain area of Ontario, let's say in the Niagara Peninsula. Try to find out what you can see and visit there. Check where the attractions are located and when they are open. Try to find a restaurant which offers specific food - let's say Japanese cuisine.
After you went through this exercise you will understand what we mean. Even an award does not turn such a web site into a good one.