Ipswich company Global Web Builders (GWB) plans to franchise its guide to sites on the worldwide Internet in 13 countries in the short term through GLOBE International.
GWB has operated its "Definitive Lifestyle Guide to Australian Webs" since June this year, enabling companies to access a list of 5,000
plus web sites now established in Australia ranked by lifestyle category.
GWB is headed by Scott Balson, who helped Ipswich City Council develop its Global Info-Links project
last year, and previously ran four computer-based marketing companies in Perth after leaving a media career in South Africa.
The company, which was formed to assist businesses to establish marketing sites on the Internet, now has "hundreds of clients worldwide" and currently is developing
sites for Triumph International and Japan's NEC Software.
Balson says GWB's new international network will enable users to click onto a world map from which they can call up directories of web sites in any participating
country and then access those sites.
Web directories currently are being set up in New Zealand, Israel, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, parts of the United States, India, Russia, South Africa and
Holland in the GLOBE format.
GWB expects to have at least six countries on-line with its network by year-end.
"Our main objective with these networks is to generate traffic on the Internet because, after all, that is what attracts advertisers," Balson says.
He says listings on GWB's directory are selling like "hot cakes" as companies realise it is the easiest way to sort through the clutter of material on the Internet.
"When we started the Australian directory in June, there were about 1,200 sites, and now there are between 5,000 and 10,000 and there are more appearing all the time,"
he says.
While the trend may be new - at least on a large scale - Balson says research already shows marketing on the Internet works.
He say's GWB's Definitive Lifestyle Guide to Australian Webs site attracts around 200,000 Internet surfers a week,
and those people aren't the introverted, young male "technofreaks" that used to be the stereotypical Internet user.
A recent American survey of 13,000 Internet users found they had an average income of $67,000 and an average age of 35 years.
"The Internet is becoming more and more of a family product, and as a commercial marketplace its extremely underestimated" he says.
With more than 1 million Internet subscribers, Australia is leading the world in the use of the technology per capita, along with Iceland, he says.
"It appears that Internet use is highest in the most isolated countries, and not surprisingly, the more well-off ones," Balson says.
He believes the Internet is particularly beneficial for exporters and tourism operators, and that the technology will greatly assist Australia's push to develop these two sectors.
Both small and large operations, including multi-national corporations are finding the Internet a cost-effective way of conducting their international marketing Balson adds.
"The great thing about marketing through the Internet is you don't have to have huge resources, you can be a single businessperson operating from home, with a product
or service developed here and, via the Internet, you can access markets world-wide," he says.
"With electronic commerce you can send messages via computer to potential customers and even attach documents that they can call up on their comupter screen
thousands of kilometres away.
"You thereby reduce the usual costs of international marketing, such as sending overseas faxes, which can be extremely expensive."
Balson, who practices what he preaches - operating GWB from a "room the size of a bedroom, working 18 hours a day" - cautions that Internet marketing
is very different from other media, and you can't just carry across your print or electronic media strategies and expect them to work for you on the Internet.
His best advice is to seek help from an experienced web designed.
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