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 Is the Chamber competing with local business?

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LittleDeb
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PostSubject: Is the Chamber competing with local business?   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeSun Apr 26, 2009 9:49 am

This week a letter arrived from the Big Stone Lake Area Chamber. In the letter it stated that the Chamber website had "many thousand of hits a year." (sic) It would be difficult to tell how many hits the chamber gets because they have no counter on their home page, so how many hits the chamber gets unknown. The issue is that they were trying to promote selling ads to chamber members on their website.

They are selling ads for their website for $12.00 a month. ($144.00 per year.) They are setting a price range to compete with local internet sites. I was informed that this is below the newspapers charge for ads on their website. Now the Chamber is competing with local business.

They sent out this letter to all members, but not all members are treated equally because the Chamber Board has refused to allow this member to have a link on the Chamber website. The internet is this business. This website is the access to the public, there is no building with a door. The Chamber denies a member to link to the internet on their site and then they rub salt on the wound and sell ads on their site in direct competition with the member and do not allow them the chance to have an ad.

On the Chamber business pages they list the name of The Big Stone Lake Area Community Forums and don't even list the web address. How is anyone supposed to find it? It is not descriptive of what The Forums are and it doesn't even list the email address. How reasonable is that? An internet business and they give no internet information.

After trying to relegate this website to obscurity then they go into competition and set prices low because they have plenty of money coming in form all the membership and the cash that the City of Ortonville keeps funneling to them along with the money they get from soliciting area communities under the auspices of being the Big Stone Lake Area.

http://www.bigstonelakeareaforums.com/city-and-government-f1/yo-ho-ho-the-chamber-and-a-bottle-of-rum-t635.htm
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LittleDeb
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PostSubject: Discrimination?   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeSun Apr 26, 2009 11:37 am

I'm sorry to hear that. Do you not pay for services like the rest of the businesses? How can they discriminate against a business and not the others but yet you pay the same in dues? Does the Big Stone Lake Area Chamber discriminate against other businesses if a business disagrees with them? Are they (Big Stone Lake Area Chamber) trying to control the media or a business and telling them only to print the positive because I believe they have said you print negative stuff about the area? How many residents in Ortonville knew about trying to get rid of the police department, the funds being used out of the sewer fund, for examples, if it wasn't for this forum? I have seen many informative discussions on this forum, then are you not promoting a "positive business enviroment"?
What happened to the 1st Amendment, the freedom of expres​sion(and religion)? Did it stop at Ortonville city limits?
I know these questions will never be answered and it's sad.
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ApplianceJunk
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PostSubject: Re: Is the Chamber competing with local business?   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeSun Apr 26, 2009 4:04 pm

Quote :
This week a letter arrived from the Big Stone
Lake Area Chamber. In the letter it stated that the Chamber website had
"many thousand of hits a year."

IMHO: that's not all that many.

On average we (ApplianceJunk.com) get 10,000 hits/page views a day.

You can see this yourself by viewing our stats at this url.

http://appliancejunk.com/forums/index.php?action=stats

We also get more detailed stats from google that show we get over 1,000 unique visitors a day. I can't easily show you that google stats as you need a username and password to log into my google account to view them, sorry. Smile

My point is not to brag as our stats are nothing compared to other Do-It-Yourself type websites, but I just thought it would be nice to have another example of website stats.
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mouthpiece
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PostSubject: Is The Chamber Running Business out of town.   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeSun Apr 26, 2009 7:22 pm

I was very troubled by the attempts of the Chamber of Commerce to solicit advertising and concurred with the questions Appliance Junk was asking. It dawned on me that the Chamber is inflating their statistics. Although the letter was not fraud, it was close.

The statistics regarding this site is that there has been about 27,000 hits over 52 months. This means that this site is getting only about 5000 'Sleep'hits per year compared to this site at over 22,000 hits the first year.

What was more troubling is that this new business has solicited every governmental agency for money. Even cities who get precious little from the Chamber, i.e., Big Stone City, Clinton and Big Stone County. This chamber has money in a savings account.

This means that this Chamber is close to misrepresenting what cities they claim to represent. Two cases of at best puffing.'guilty'

Then I went into at least 30 Chamber sites throughout the state of Minnesota and the State of Minnesota Chamber site, which Big Stone Lake Area is a member.

Not one other Chamber site advertised and many sites were more original than the Big Stone Lake Area site, see Brainerd Chamber of Commerce and Detroit Lakes Chamber of Commerce.

I concluded that the creator of the site continues to brag about her site and even mandates that she be allowed to advertise as the creator of the site. In essence, bragging about her site on the site. At least Liberty does not need to brag about herself and displays some ability to be humble.

Vicki Oakes is attempting to run the city, the chamber and the internet.

I think that this group is a bad business example and would like to complain that the Big Stone Lake Area Chamber is conducting bad business practices. Who do I report this conduct to? Big Stone Lake Area Chamber of Commerce?

If so Donnette consider this an official letter complaint? Who is going to investigate, David Lang? Sleep
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nascargirl
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PostSubject: Question?   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeSun Apr 26, 2009 7:56 pm

Do those businesses who join the Chamber already pay dues to belong? If so, what do they get for their money? Wouldn't it be reasonable to think that if you 'belong' to the Chamber, your business would be listed on their website without having to pay any 'more'? money

Mouthpiece, when you were looking at other Chamber sites, did they have counters to actually show their hits their individual sites?

On Computer
nascargirl
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Zorro
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PostSubject: Re: Is the Chamber competing with local business?   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeMon Apr 27, 2009 3:34 am

I am a member of a Chamber, and served last year on the board of another. To sell ads seems bizarre -- not the standard way a Chamber operates. There are well established ways to put some businesses up front and make a little cash in the process, and it isn't by "selling ads." One thing a Chamber should not do is push any business aside or hinder their ability to do business (I can't believe I have to say that in relation to the business of a Chamber!). It's more than slightly disingenuous to take a business' money with one hand and deny them the benefits of membership with the other. People and power...ignorant combination sometimes.
Here's my recommended solution -- advertising laws. The BSLACR should buy one of these coveted 'front page' Chamber ads. PM me and I'll write the first check!
What a bunch of knuckleheads....
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mouthpiece
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PostSubject: There were no counters and no authors named   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeMon Apr 27, 2009 7:41 am

When I was examining these sites I could find no counters; although, I did not go into every page of every site and Big Stones was the only site where the author of the site advertised.
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ApplianceJunk
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PostSubject: Re: Is the Chamber competing with local business?   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeTue Apr 28, 2009 3:31 pm

mouthpiece wrote:
When I was examining these sites I could find no counters; although, I did not go into every page of every site and Big Stones was the only site where the author of the site advertised.

Simple counters can be easily fooled. PHP type generated stats or google stats are easier to trust.
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ApplianceJunk
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PostSubject: Re: Is the Chamber competing with local business?   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitimeThu Apr 30, 2009 11:22 am

I sent this email to the Chamber, chamber@bigstonelake.com last Sunday (April, 26th) and have yet to get a reply.

Quote :
Hi,

I read about placing ads on the chambers site at
this URL.


http://www.bigstonelakeareaforums.com/city-and-government-f1/is-the-chamber-competing-with-local-business-t777.htm#1925

Is this just for Big Stone Lake Area Chamber
members or could I place a ad for our .com on your site too?


I would also be interested in getting some
information about how we could join the Big Stone Lake Area
Chamber.


Best Regards,
John R. Pahl

Milbank, SD
AJ Enterprises LLC
http://ApplianceJunk.com
info@appliancejunk.com

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Is the Chamber competing with local business? Empty
PostSubject: Re: Is the Chamber competing with local business?   Is the Chamber competing with local business? Icon_minitime

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