WalesCymru.com

Running a website is time consuming and sometimes you just don’t have enough time. Friends will know I’ve been busy helping others progress their use of blogs and social media activities, and hope to be able to make some announcements about these shortly. I’m now also working on a full-time contract with a Welsh Government Agency helping them ‘go digital’ - but again can’t say much more at this time; which means I have little time for other activities.

In the coming weeks I hope to make a few minor updates to WalesCymru and remove some of the out of date listings that have built up over the last two years. If I delete your listing by accident, please restore it immediately, as I’m sure listed businesses and users are getting some value from the site.

Being FREE helps at one level, in that it has no barrier to entry; but also means you have no income to pay for any resources or updates. The site is still seeing around 5000 visitors a month and around 20,000 page views - so I’m hoping some Welsh businesses are seeing real benefits of a WalesCymru list and positive review. If you’re one of these businesses and have any suggestions on how this site might progress, please drop me a line.

Are you inspired by 2nd generation sites and want to work at the forefront of web development in Cardiff? Then we have the ideal job for you.

As an experienced rails developer you’ll be building clean, elegant and (re)usable code and web applications in Ruby on Rails, AJAX, PHP, Java, Javascript, CSS, HTML, XHTML, XML, and SQL.

To see what we expect, simply check out http://www.WalesCymru.com and let us know if you’re interested, and also how you’d develop this live (beta) site.

Hours: Full-Time. Holidays: Generous. Working Style: SCRUM. Rewards: Open ended.

This job is salaried and pays from £24,000 pa, although a senior developer can expect to earn more.

Share options are also a possibility as you’ll be producing some kick ass applications!

Email: rails@WalesCymru.com

WalesCymru.com celebrates three months since going live, and what an eventful three months they’ve been.

We have been very impressed with the reception we have received and with the quality of information that has been added. Yes, there has been the occasional piece of ’self-promotion’ or advertising copy masquerading as a review, but that’s par for the course on the modern internet and most of these have been removed within hours. What is far more impressive is the 1500 businesses that have been added or claimed, the 10,000+ unique visitors and the growing number of genuine *positive* reviews posted by actual customers, outnumbering negative reviews by 20:1.

From our side we’re working on some outstanding issues, stepping up our Search Engine Marketing, and scoping a range of new features that we believe will greatly improve the quality of our presentation and the ease with which listings can be found and accessed. In all over 40 improvements are planned for release in the next three months, so if you haven’t done so already now might be a good time to check and if necessary update your listing.

In the meantime, at this three month anniversary, we’d like to take this opportunity to say ‘Thank You’ to our users - it’s you, after all, who will make this site into the community resource that Wales needs and deserves.

We have been asked “What does it cost to be listed in WalesCymru.com”.

It appears some users don’t believe us when we say - it costs nothing, it’s FREE and will remain this way as long as I’m running this site!

Why is this FREE?

Take a quick look at some of the established online directories and ask yourself, “Is the listing fee value for money?”

• For £200 pa you can have a web link on your Yell.com entry - really?
• Is £24.50 a month to join TouchLocal’s LeadFinder worth it - I think not.
• How about £83 a month (approx. £1000 pa) to be a listed as a top ten entry on KellySearch; or
• £1 a day to be ‘featured’ on Applegate - Is this really going to provide you over £3000 pa in new business ? (assuming 10x is the minimum ROI that you’ll expect) - probably not!

Do these and a wide range of ‘other’ Directories actually deliver you a real and measurable ROI?

I suggest no, but please correct me on this IF I’m wrong.

This why it’s FREE on WalesCymru.com and will remain this way, as we believe this service is already ‘over priced’ by most, if not all, of the established providers.

That said, we may charge for listing enhancements that actually cost money to provide, or add some real value, such as video content, or links to real time online bookings, etc. but we’ll let everyone know what these enhancements are and give you the choice to upgrade at any time.

NB. A standard listing is: your business name, telephone, web address, description (a long as you like), tags (to describe your unique features and service profile), address, a Google Map pin, and up to ten high quality photographs. As a registered user you can claim or add this free listing and assume fully editorial control.

So what are you waiting for? Please add your FREE listing today, and tell all your friends and fellow business owners to do the same.

This is a call to action to every Welsh business owner. We want WalesCymru.com to be the best online directory for Wales, and we want to achieve this by 31st March 2008!

That means not only do we have to be the most comprehensive directory, we also have to provide the best quality content and best directory service of any of our competitors.

This is achievable!

By basing WalesCymru.com on Web2.0 principles, or Directory2.0 - as some commentators may call it, everyone in Wales can contribute towards this goal. You don’t even need to be the business owner.

What should I do now?

If you’re a business owner, sign up today and add your listing, it’s free and should take less than 5 minutes to do.

If your favourite pub, restaurant, shop, or place is not already listed, we can’t have that! Please encourage the owner to create their free WalesCymru.com listing. Or, if you’re feeling really generous, why not do it for them - just don’t claim to be the owner if this is not actually the case.

My business is already listed. OK, we or someone else have already added you, that’s great as it will save you time. Simply sign up and ‘claim it’. We check your claim to make sure you’re the genuine owner, but once approved you have full control of this listing. You’ll then be able to edit the description, add indexing ‘tags’, upload photos, include a link to your own website and move the map pin, if this is not correctly positioned.

Please help us achieve our goal to be the best online Directory for Wales.

Welcome to WalesCymru.com and to our first blog entry.

I suppose we should begin at the beginning by introducing ourselves and setting out why we’re here.

WalesCymru.com is the product of 10 years of thinking and 4 months hard grind.

The idea for a Welsh portal (the forbear of the “social network”) pre-dates Google and most the Internet as we now know it. It originates in consultancy work carried out by Imaginet for ISPs in Ireland and Saudi Arabia in the mid ’90s. The concepts and principles advanced through this work were applied to the 1998 development of Total Cardiff - a website planned, designed and built for the Western Mail and Echo (the latest version of this site is ICWales WalesOnline, and is operated by a company that is now called Media Wales).

What we learnt in the ’90s was that local media companies have great content and a good relationship with the local advertising community; but are not always the best placed people to provide an effective community website. I suppose time, and the $240m recently invested by Microsoft in Facebook, will tell if this is really true.

So, who are we?

The Team behind WalesCymru.com are all based in Wales and each has over 10 years experience at the web’s coal face. They are:

• Greg Cannon
• Beanlogic
• Mark Boulton Design

Greg Cannon: Owner, founder and backer. Greg started his first Internet business in 1993, then founded Imaginet in 1995 (along with Dave Taylor & Nigel Roberts) while managing the WDA’s EDI Awareness Centre. In the intervening years he has developed web business and e-marketing strategies for over 200 organisations, including the DTI (BusinessLink), BT, Eircom, the Welsh Assembly Government (VisitWales, WDA) and The Royal Mail and has project managed over 450 web developments. Greg registered the domain WalesCymru.com in 1998; along with several others, including MediaWales.com which he still owns.

Beanlogic: These are the technical gurus behind this site, and include founders Keeran Hawoldar & Elwyn Malethan, both ex-Imaginet.

Mark Boulton Design: We have Mark to thank for his creative genius, his knowledge of web standards and his simple, beautiful designs. Greg and Mark share a previous employer; while Mark now shares offices with Beanlogic, with who he has had a long standing designer/developer relationship.

You: Where would we be without a user base and an audience? Now we’ve started it’s up to YOU to prove the concept.

What is WalesCymru.com?

In essence WalesCymru.com is a new business and social networking site for Wales. It is a social media site where the content and advertising is provided and managed by the people who know Wales best; namely the people who live, work, study, shop and play here. Well that’s our long term objective. Initially WalesCymru.com is a self managed directory, where every Welsh business can create and mange their own FREE listings, and a set of community features, based on the latest Web2.0 technologies, that include self managed user profiles, reviews, ratings, recommendations and notifications.

What now?

If like us you are passionate Wales please take a few minutes to review the site and the various features and opportunities that are now available to take part in this FREE online community.

Then when you’ve had a good look around, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, or would like to discuss how you can come on-board, please don’t hesitate to contact us - via this forum - we’d love to hear from you.

Greg Cannon