Geno Geng creates new Internet business directory
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
There are many ways to promote island products and services, such as through unique newspaper ads, local TV commercials or by composing Web sites, and now Channel 17 cameraman Geno Geng has developed another option with his acksmarter.com bulletin board.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent TV 17's Geng: "The beauty of [this] is that you don't need a Web site designer. In three or four minutes you can go in yourself and make changes."

The concept is most easily understood by visiting the user-friendly acksmarter, but essentially it is a directory of local businesses including those relating to arts and crafts, services and retail merchants who may list their companies for free, provide their own headlines, upload photos and their logo, have a video play and change their information themselves at any time. The free listings also have a location for business Web site links for on-line orders, although having an established site is not a prerequisite for the ordering link.

For no more than $25 a week, businesses may place a headline on the site's home page and have automatic email headline alerts about new offers and items sent to others on the listing or to subscribers the following day, as well as have their business name on the Channel 17 crawl for a week.

"This is fast and all in one place," said Geng, who currently has about 40 business members after just three weeks and approximately 2,500 people who can receive the email alerts. "It is such a new concept. The Internet is definitely going to be the next wave of how we get our information. The beauty of [this] is that you don't need a Web site designer. In three or four minutes you can go in yourself and make changes. People have to get used to using it as a tool. It's simple and clean, and I tell people to use it to entice customers."

Geng said the idea came about as a result of his work at Channel 17 providing tourist information. He said that in the off-season he frequently saw sale signs up in store windows but without any particulars about the events. The concept of acksmarter was a way to provide a promotional incentive to island businesses.

"It's a way to communicate in one place and not spend a lot of money. It's about keeping business local," he explained, adding that his only income from acksmarter is from the $25 weekly sign-ups and graphic ads he places on the home page. "Maybe it will make money one day, but if it doesn't I don't care. I just want it to

help people." I