Franchise Web Sites: Have You Seen Some Outstanding Ones?

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you are probably a prospective franchisee, a prospective franchisor, a supplier to the franchise industry, a current franchisor, a current franchisee, or someone who likes and reads small business blogs. {Did I leave someone out}

The internet has changed our lives, and has certainly changed the way we gather information. Case in point: You are reading a cutting edge blog here, folks! How important is it to have a company website? Is it more important to have a company website, than it is to be in some traditional information gathering mediums such as Yellow Page phone directories, and industry directories? Is a company website now the most important part of a company's first impression? Are today's franchise company's diverting some of their marketing and advertising dollars away from traditional advertising such as newspapers, magazines, radio-tv, billboards and the like, to spending more and more of their budgets on the development of their websites?

The old ways of advertising and marketing are going away, folks. For those of you that live in cities that have weekly business journals that are in print, have you seen a decrease in the size of them? In my area {Northeast Ohio}, Crain's Publishing has a Northeast Ohio focused weekly called Crain's Cleveland Business. it is a great publication that reports on and discusses business happenings in Cleveland, Akron-Canton, and Youngstown. There are some op-ed pieces sprinkled in, and interesting stories about local businesses.

It seems that every time I pick up Crain's Cleveland, it is a little lighter,weight-wise. It is getting thinner and thinner. {Unlike me!} If you go to their website, you can read some of the stories that are in the print version, but to read all of them, you have to be a paid annual subscriber. I think they get it. They offer both a print, and a web version of the local business happenings around town. Some people like to physically thumb trough paper versions of publications, and some, usually the time-starved folks, like to view the local business news scene online, at their leisure. IS the print version going away? I don't think so. Crain;s Publishing is probably working on ways to make the paper version "feel" bigger.

How has the franchise industry adapted to all of the new media? Are franchise company websites now the most important part of their marketing efforts? Let's find out...

Have you come across a franchise company’s website that really impressed you? A website that actually made you stop and actually spend a few minutes on the site? If so, please nominate it for a contest that I am co-sponsoring. It will be a chance for them to get some recognition, and maybe even win some great prizes!

“The Coolest Franchise Website Contest” is being launched on Monday, April 21^st. There are several website design awards in the internet realm, but none that have awarded outstanding websites in the franchise category. Does the franchise industry do some cutting edge stuff? Is the franchise industry keeping up with the latest website design and implementation technology?

To learn more about the contest, and find out the particulars, including the prizes being awarded, please go to the official contest website:

The Coolest Franchise Website