Wild Places Spend Money

I was out driving in the desert yesterday, north on I-395. I noticed that Adelanto is getting more traffic signals, but I was lucky and made all the way through town on green lights. I then passed through the communities of Kramer Junction (4 corners for you desert rats), Red Mountain and finally Trona. On the way I saw temporary cities of motor homes and camp trailers where families bring their kids to ride dirt bikes, quads and bicycles from what I could see. In one spot I counted fifty trailers, and since it was Sunday afternoon, many of them leaving. So there had to be many more on Saturday.

So I did some calculating. These folks take the time to drive from all over Southern California in their temporary homes and get some R&R even in these economic hard times. Which means that they are stopping along the way for food, gas, snacks, etc. Accounting for fuel, groceries, cooking fuel, and refreshments, each family group spends an estimated $500-$700. So a collection of 75 of these families would spend between $37,500-52,500. If you consider there at least fifty of these groups around southern California deserts on any one weekend, you get at total expenditure of $1,875,000-$2,625,000 during a three day period.

Ok, the numbers are huge. But this is for only one weekend. Let's say that half the weekends per year are suitable for these outings, around 26. So now the numbers are $48,750,000-$68,250,000. So between $48 million and $68 million in round numbers per year is spent on this ONE form of recreation per year, probably more.

My question is this: are the local communities on the to and from routes getting any benefit from this? My guess is that they are not, judging by the ramshackle condition of the small motels, gas stations and convenience marts that dot the major travel routes. This is really a shame, since a small fraction of this money would at least put a new coat of paint on their places and make them more inviting. The fact is that folks who shop at Costco and Walmart are not likely to patronize a place that looks like a dive because they would rightly assume that there is no selection and the prices will be high. But they should be the major beneficiaries of all this fabulous wealth that is being spent on California's excellent recreational opportunities.

We are in the process of talking to these folks (the small proprietors on the well traveled routes) to let them know what we are doing at FindItByMe.com. Since we are multi-regional, we can speak to the various recreational groups that travel great distances to enjoy their favorite pastime. And I haven't even mentioned the hunters, fishermen, amateur gold prospectors, bird watchers, nature photographers, sightseers, treasure hunters, hikers, rock climbers, bicyclists and motorcycle clubs that also head into the back country and travel the scenic routes. If you use those numbers, you can see that the potential yearly expenditure could climb to $1 billion per year just for Southern California!

Ok...how does it work? What can FindItByMe.com do to support the small proprietors and outdoor enthusiasts? Stay tuned for the publication of the FindItByMe.com roadmap. This document will detail how we intend to proceed on development of features for users, advertisers and subscribers.

And then there were seven!

Hello to One and All,

There are now seven ways to search for something on www.finditbyme.com:

1. Name of the Listing (usually the business name)
2. Name of a street (this gives a listing of everyone/everything on that street)
3. A search term (category)
4. Phone number of a listing
5. A URL Hotlink (like www.finditbyme.com?EagleEyeFab) or by using the Hotlink in the search box.
6. An actual web address in the search box on the site itself
7. A name of someone associated with the business (first name, last name, or full name)

There will be other searches to follow:

8. Landmark Name (can be a strip mall name, industrial park name, outlet mall name, covered mall name)
9. Leasing/rental agent name (will show vacant commercial properties for that agent/agency)

If anyone has had problems with response time on the site, like it seems to freeze up on occasion, I can confirm it is an issue with Time Warner's network, as I spent about two hours on the phone with their tech support folks getting the issue run down. I have to say they really have some good guys working there.

There will be more frequent posts to this blog from now on. So stay tuned to this and the other channels I am setting up for communications (like YouTube, Flickr, etc.)

Later!

Now on YouTube

Yes! You heard right...

We now have an account on YouTube, so pretty soon you'll see some new material that will be pretty fun to watch.

The address of the YouTube site is http://www.youtube.com/FindItByMe.

See? It's pretty easy to Find It By Me on www.FindItByMe.com.

Watch this blog for cool new stuff. Please check out Eagle Eye Fabrication on our site at www.finditbyme.com?EagleEyeFab. Drew Keys is the owner, Mike McCormack the senior advisor, and have they got some cool stuff in store in the invention and arts departments.

Want incredible custom clothing with inspired creations? See Crown Creations at this address: www.finditbyme.com?www.crowncreations.net. Carol Guttman will lead you through her inspired writings and creations on one of our best listings.

We're working on some REALLY COOL STUFF for the next release. Stay tuned!!!

Cool Stuff

Hello World!

New stuff in the search engine, I call it HotLinks. Here is how it works:

http://www.finditbyme.com/?EagleEyeFab

What does that do? It does a redirect automatically to the Eagle Eye Fabrication listing in the search engine. It allows you to use the above link on your business card or email signature, and anyone clicking on it will get redirected automatically to your listing bypassing the normal search mechanism (which can still be used after the search is displayed).

Here are some other ones:
http://www.finditbyme.com/?EagleEyeSculpture
http://www.finditbyme.com/?CrownCreations
http://www.FindItByMe.com?CrownCreations.net
http://www.finditbyme.com/?LovingMemoryPets

Well, I think it's cool!

It's 5:00 O'Clock. Where is your search engine?

So what's new?

1. Membership organizations (like Fallbrook Chamber) now have an active link under Memberships that shows all their members (if known). Clicking on the Members button will show all their members in the lower search grid. So you can go through the list and explore, but you can go back to the main membership organization when you want to by clicking in the already still displayed link in the upper search box.
2. Displayed languages reduced to English and Spanish (for now).
3. Pets link partially working; need to work on category to listing associations.
4. Starting to work on BHO (browser helper object) for IE. More on this later.

Comments anyone???

Latest Changes

Pretty soon I'm going to publish a road map (no pun) of how this site will progress. In the meantime, here is a list of changes since the last update:

• Menus almost fully multi-lingual.
• Site material and labels almost fully multi-lingual.
• The main skin's layout has changed slightly. See the site for an example.
• Image classification now working for a single broad category.
• I'm loading my Death Valley pictures a few at at time onto the site (total now is around 550).
• Eagle Eye Fabrication, Cynthia Graffio, Helena Bongartz, Farmhouse Coffee Co have also been rudimentarily categorized.
• Single clicking on an image thumbnail loads the main window image. Single clicking on this brings up the large image window.
• Double clicking on an image thumbnail does the above in a single action; fill small display window and then loading the full resolution image in a pop-up window.
• There is now a "Map" menu item. Right now it brings up the vicinity of the Fallbrook Post Office. Later it will be fully navigable with controls, etc.

Next to come into production will be the ability to log into the site as a consumer, but also as a subscriber to be able to update your listing yourself. Also working on the tour planner application...

I think now this website www.finditbyme.com is starting to get fun. Stay tuned!!!

John Graffio

Press Release!

John Graffio, CEO and founder FindItByMe.com, Inc is excited to announce the immediate availability of its flagship service, the FindItByMe.com local directory search engine. Currently featuring listings in Fallbrook and Bonsall, California, the web site provides unique benefits to both consumers and business subscribers. The search part of the web site was developed over a ten year period by Mr. Graffio and allows a visitor to the site to search by street, category, phone number or name of business. Featured listings are showcased in banners at the top of the site. Quick links to interesting categories are listed for quick and easy access to frequently requested categories. Listings feature the name of the business, their location, main phone number, hours of operation, and images of their business, products and services with captions, associations the listing is a member of, a written summary of the listing and a street map with an aerial view of their surroundings.

The FindItByMe staff is always searching out new businesses and verifying that information on existing businesses is current. The company plans to release significant enhancements to its offering before the end of the second quarter: ability to search for multiple items at once, driving directions to and from listings, search for businesses that are currently open, maps of parking lots that are adjacent to each listing’s physical location, search in multiple languages in addition to English and making the service available on GPS units and cell phones. The benefits to business subscribers include the ability to get on-demand reports of how, when and how often their listings were found and accessed as well as the ability to make online updates to their listings. Four very affordable plans are offered to the business subscriber in addition to a very basic free listing which anyone can sign up for.

The primary goal of the company is to assist consumers in their search for local goods and services and for small businesses which want to attract local consumers who may be leaving the area when they don’t have to. Mr. Graffio states that large retailers often have virtually unlimited advertising budgets that small to medium sized businesses simply cannot afford. He also states that small businesses can always create a web site, but they often find that the initial and ongoing expense and lack of control over their own content distracts them from actually spending time on their own business. This is simply too great a burden for a small business to bear, and an unnecessary drain on their time and money. Mr. Graffio believes that small and medium sized businesses deserve a more level playing field when it comes to advertising and communicating with their customers, so FindItByMe.com was born.

The company plans to offer the same benefits other to communities in the near future and is drafting a franchise plan that would allow area specialists in other areas to make very comfortable incomes affordably serving the needs of their own communities. Mr. Graffio observes that the news is full of announcements of large companies happily shedding tens of thousands of “positions” at a time without regard to the domino effect their actions have on actual “people” who now can’t pay their mortgage or feed their family. Mr. Graffio adds that small businesses always have employed the majority of people, and we need to get back to that. FindItByMe.com will play whatever role it can to make that dream a reality.