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JOE'S CORNER
85% of the websites are useless, according to a recent article in the New York Times about using the internet.
This is a rather shocking number considering the high interest in surfing the net and the huge number of companies with websites. If 85% of the websites are useless then most trips to the to the web are useless. I must say that my own experience supports this thesis. Often times little information is provided beyond the company name (which you probably already knew), address and phone number. If you are lucky there may be a way of forwarding e-mail. Usually there is some catalog information but if you had a catalog you wouldn't need the website, and it would be a lot easier to find and read the information.
GAMPRODUCTS, INC. decided that it would have a website a little over a year ago. We spent almost one year working on the presentation so that when we were 'up' it would be functional and useful, providing far more information than we could in our standard catalog. One of the criteria we had was that it had to be fast. Lighting Designers and other professionals needing information want to get to it quickly. They will not be patient with long tedious downloads of spectacular swirling graphics which are of no importance to them. Having said speed is essential, the first thing we had to do is put 500 graphics on our site, the GAM pattern collection. It is interesting to see how GAM managed to display the patterns so quickly and provide information that is far more extensive than the printed catalog.
The www.gamonline.com website will quickly help find the interesting pattern you are looking for. You are able to search by number, by name, by keyword or by category. Having found the patterns you are interested in, you can list them and determine what sizes are available. You can link to the pattern size chart and find which pattern fits the instrument you are using.
Many months of careful planning went into making the Great American Pattern section of the gamonline.com website extremely useful and easy to navigate. It provides information much more quickly and in greater detail than the printed catalog.
The gamonline.com website was developed to enhance dealer sales and to make it easier for the professional designer to find products that they need. The necessary information can be easily printed out and a requirements list can be put together that can be turned over to a supplier. Local dealers can be easily found by clicking on the maps which graphically show where the dealer is located and lists address and phone number. (Have you checked yours to make sure we have it right?) gamonline.com is a great sales tool. It will help you promote more business. Turn your customers on to this interesting website and they will be pleased with the information they can get. This is one site that is truly among the 15% that are very useful! You and your customers will be glad they paid a visit to gamonline.com
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