What is the Western Slope E-Mall?

The Western Slope E-Mall is an electronic marketplace that brings together small service businesses on the Western Slope of the Rockies and their potential customers.   Physical malls are usually populated with medium to large sized retail businesses.  Small service businesses typically operate on too small of a profit margin to afford a store front, let alone expensive mall property.  Hence, the Western Slope electronic mall was created.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

Who operates and profits from the Western Slope E-Mall?

The Western Slope E-Mall is a service provided by Western Slope Personal and Business Services, LLC, which is primarily a computer consulting firm. 

It is offered as a service to small businesses and their customers and is not intended to generate a profit.  At times, the Western Slope E-Mall will break even.  At other times, it will be subsidized by other profit generating services of Western Slope Personal and Business Services.                                                                                                                                                                                            Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

What about spy ware?  pop-ups?  spam?

The policy of the Western Slope E-Mall is to not allow the use of spy ware, pop-up ads, or spamming technique by any of the businesses who house their web pages within the WSPBS web site.   Moreover, WSPBS will follow an opt-in policy, asking your permission first before gathering data, whenever WSPBS might issue a questionnaire or survey.

Many advertisers will place a link on the Western Slope E-Mall to their web sites that are located on separate servers.   WSPBS does not have control or influence over such outside web sites.                                                                                            Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

How do I advertise my business on the Western Slope E-Mall?

There are three ways to advertise a business on the Western Slope E-Mall.  Click here to read that discussion and view the related price structure.                                                                                                                                                                                                              Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

Why should I have a web site?

Businesses create web sites for a variety of reasons.  The common reason, of course, is to advertise and provide information about services or products.   A reason lower on the list is to actually sell products or services through the web.  Selling on the web is not for everyone.  But most businesses can benefit from more advertising.                                                                              Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

How do I create a web page?

Most small business owners are too busy to develop the knowledge and skills to use specialized software like Microsoft Front Page or Macromedia Dream Weaver to create their own web pages.  A well-kept secret (because the software companies would rather sell you an expensive specialized package) is that anyone who knows how to use Microsoft Word or similar word processing package can create a web page.  All you have to do is "save as" a .htm rather than .doc file.

WSPBS consultants will be glad to step you through that process.                                               Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

What will be my web site address?

Let's say your company name is "Designs by Sally."   If you want to have a simple web site hosted on the Western Slope E-Mall, your web site address would be "www.wspbs.com/Designs by Sally" or something similar of your choosing.                                                                                                      Click here to return to Western Slope E-Mall Office.

What if I want my own domain name?

If you want  your web site address to be something like "www.Designs by Sally.com" or something else to reflect your business, then you will need to purchase that domain name and rent space on a server to host your domain.  You will also need to set aside time to manage your web domain.

That is not necessarily an overwhelming set of tasks.  WSPBS consultants can help you with any or all steps.

If you have your own domain, you can still rent a link on the WSPBS E-Mall to link to your site.                                                                                                                                                                       Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

How should I advertise my web site?

The most obvious way is for you to mention it in one way or another to every person you meet.  Put your web address on your letterhead and business cards.  Include it in your email and snail mail correspondence.  Include it in any other forms of advertising you use, such as brochures, phone book ads, newspaper ads, and radio and TV spots.

Also, anytime a prospective customer visits another Western Slope E-Mall advertiser, she/he will see the link to your site as well. 

                                                                                                                                                                     Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

How is the Western Slope E-Mall advertised?

It is our intention to position wspbs.com within all the major search engines.  Usually, the more hits a web site has, the higher it moves in the search results.   So, visit www.wspbs.com often to help move it higher which helps your site be advertised more effectively

WSPBS will send out press releases on a quarterly basis to newspapers, radio and TV stations on the Western Slope.   That should also stimulate invitations to appear on radio shows to discuss the Western Slope E-Mall.

WSPBS plans to partner with organizations that foster small businesses, such as incubator programs and chambers of commerce.  We also plan to develop and distribute flyers to post on popular public bulletin boards provided by area merchants.  Other elements of our advertising plan is to host informational seminars and publish an e-newsletter.  The latter will only be offered on an "opt in" basis; WSPBS will resist spamming and other "opt out" techniques.

Of course, as each of the Western Slope E-Mall advertisers promotes the Western Slope E-Mall name, all advertisers will benefit from the additional consumer traffic.

As we all know, the most effective form of advertising is word of mouth by satisfied clients.  WSPBS will strive to provide high quality services at low prices to stimulate that word of mouth advertising.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.                                                                                     Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

Why is advertising on the Western Slope E-Mall so inexpensive?

That's simple.  Western Slope exists to help other small businesses.  We do not intend the E-Mall portion of our services to be a huge money maker.

                                                                                                                                                               Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.

What are the credentials of WSPBS consultants?

The founder and main consultant of WSPBS is Don Carpenter.  For over thirty years, he has helped over 200 small businesses fulfill their computing needs.  In addition to that extensive consulting experience, Don spent ten years in industry and twenty-five years teaching in higher education.  Presently, he is on the computer information systems faculty in the Department of Business at Mesa State College.  To view his complete set of credentials, visit www.mesastate.edu/~dcarpent 

Depending on the size of the project, other consultants will be brought onto the project team.  Often those will be students and will be directly supervised by Don Carpenter.                                                                                                              Click here to return to the Western Slope E-Mall Office.