What's a "widget"?

CityVoter makes its content (business listings, winner's lists, and recommendations) available to computer programmers who want to create new fun ways for people to explore the best of their city. Our partners have programmers that do some great work showcasing how this can be done. Recently, our friends in Seattle released this "widget":



A widget is a small application that can be put on any page. For example, if a business owner liked how King 5 lets people browse through the photos above, they could click on "Get This Widget" and copy the code into their own site.

Best of Sacramento A-List Style

Our partners, KCRA, in Sacramento are announcing this year's winners for the best of Sacramento. Their A-List promotion again broke all records by topping their totals from last year. This year, more than 121,000 votes were collected and we received more than 70,000 recommendations from local consumers. All this in just 8 weeks.

Congrats to all the winners, and enjoy some local media promotion!

Google Maps and problems with star ratings

I want to make sure you all know that we are aware of the problem Google maps is creating with CityVoter star ratings. Apparently, the last time that Google pulled information from our site, it did so incorrectly. Google is a big company, and despite their error, it is a lot to ask a big company like Google to make changes quickly. We're being told it will be another 2-3 weeks before they can fix the problem.

Therefore, we've made the difficult decision to pull down Google map references to CityVoter (a large contributor to our traffic) until this issue is resolved. We expect that will happen in a few weeks. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Ultimately working with Google helps us get a lot more exposure for our local businesses. We hope to find ways to ensure this doesn't happen again in the future. I apologize for not being able to resolve this more quickly.

Zipping along...naming the best of Spokane

Zeee bestah. It's fun to say...because I picture my Italian grandfather getting excited about pepperoni...after all, pepperoni is zee best. But this month, Z best has less to do with processed meats, and more to do with finding Spokane's favorite local hot spots. Z Best of of Spokane.

Our partner KREM in Spokane has more than 600 businesses competing for this year's title in everything from water parks to pet sitting. In just a few weeks, they've collected more than 6000 votes. The contest ends May 30th, so we expect voting to intensify next month as the end of the contest draws near.

There are some great photos of local businesses. I encourage you to check them out.

Twitter - Revenge of the Nerds

Source IMDb

A quick time-out from local business land to say I've been working in technology long enough to say I've seen a number of trends sweep over the industry. I saw an enormous swing in the late nineties where large companies swapped out green screen terminals with personal computers. I was in the Moscone Center in San Francisco and heard thousands of developers pledge to move to a new computing language called Java. I was amazed like everyone else when a new search engine called Google appeared when we already had dozens of them, and I was blown away when MySpace and Facebook became part of every kids' (now adults) daily life.

This might be a way to say I'm getting old or nostalgic, but it's really designed to put what I'm about to say in context: I have never seen anything like the social response to Twitter. There is a very real pressure to learn how to use this technology even if you don't want to. It's being talked about everywhere. The sheer magnitude of the media's response to this technology has made it a foregone conclusion that this company is going to be enormous. Twitter doesn't need a marketing budget when every media outlet in the country is promoting its use.

Small business owners who have friends in PR and marketing have already begun to take notice, and at CityVoter, we're paying attention to how Twitter is emerging to help local businesses. To be clear, it is very early on and I'm learning. You'll get no specific advice or prognostications from me here. Not yet. Instead, you'll get one recommendation. Learn too. It's madness. The nerds got to Ashton Kutcher. They'll get to main street soon too.

The best of Knoxville HotList style

Our partners Fox43 are generating lots of buzz for the businesses in Knoxville. So much so, that they felt good about extending their HotList promotion another 3 weeks. We spoke with the TV station and they're thrilled that in just a few weeks, they've gathered more than 10,000 votes for local businesses and more importantly, they've collected more than 5,000 recommendations on where to shop, eat, and play in the Knoxville area.

Just this week, we had some new entrants to take advantage of this best of Knoxville guide. Carlene Steenkamp's Mommy's Body Fitness and Wellness was nominated, and Blackberry Farm was nominated for best wedding venue. In all, we've had more than 550 local businesses participate to date.

The most important thing is that we're seeing how much loyal customers love to give back with great recommendations. Jazzcat24 says Lisa Williams' Transformations Massage is number one in her book: "Her ability to release fibrous tissue, realign bodies through muscle work, and to eliminate pains via soft tissue techniques is excellent." And, Wes and Danielle at Hope Photography have more than 5 pages of great feedback.

We hope the next 3 weeks provide even more opportunities for Knoxville business owners to grow their businesses and stay in touch with their loyal customers. That's what this is all about.

Good luck everyone.

Tax Day Specials

Looking for some hot tax day deals...search our local sites for an Insider Deal in your city.

Business owners: A lot has been made of tax day specials from national chains who can spend money to promote their savings. For example, McDonalds is giving away a small McCafe or medium iced McCafe. It's a great idea for local businesses to create an Insider Deal tomorrow called "Tax Day Special" and drive people into your location.

A lot of consumers will search that term tomorrow on Google, and your deal could show up. We'll do our part at CityVoter to make sure local consumers see your deals. See my earlier entry here to learn how. It's free.

The Best of Fenway Park

Going to a Red Sox game? Want to know where to eat and where to spend time before and after the game? One CityVoter has assembled a list of recommendations.

that will help you buy an authentic Red Sox jersey, grab a sausage, and celebrate a Red Sox win (or drown your sorrows).

The best outdoor and recreation businesses in Milwaukee

Our partner, WISN, in Milwaukee has launched Spring Fever -- an exciting four week event to identify the best outdoor and area attractions to help locals plan their weekends and discover new places to visit.

The Spring Fever voting started on April 1st and will conclude at the end of this month. Every Saturday morning the station is highlighting participating businesses on air. Check out some of these categories: festivals, walking tours, marinas, hot air ballooning and scuba diving -- yes scuba diving...in Milwaukee! See, I learned a little something today. Apparently, Lake Michigan boasts some of the top wreck diving in the world with visibility ranging from 20 to 100 feet. If you're up for it, check out these local shops.

Four Twenty...Free Coffee In Orange County!

We just got this press release from this year's winner of Best Coffeehouse in Orange County. To celebrate, they're offering free beverages on April 20th. Congrats, Kaffa and owner Eunsook Kim. Enjoy the free coffee and tea, Orange County.

Voters speak: the best businesses in Orange County

Fox Television, KTTV, is our exclusive partner in Los Angeles. The station just completed its second year best of Orange County contest which they call "The Hotlist". Every Tuesday and Thursday Good Day LA, their morning show, showcases businesses on air.

This year, in just a few weeks, we collected more than 31,000 votes and more than 20,000 recommendations from local consumers. This year more than 600 new businesses joined The OC Hotlist. We really appreciate all the support, and we love working with business owners like Tim at the Tibeca Salon and John at Mammaluccos that really understand how to take advantage of this promotion. It's great to see that even in this economy, business owners were super engaged and received tons of support from their loyal customers.

I try to learn a little about each city when these winner lists come out and the Heat Ultra Lounge seems to be a venue worth checking out -- Sean75 writes "This is a true nightclub everyone in OC should experience. Do not let the name Ultra Lounge fool you. It is more like a mega Nightclub...I visited the venue this past Friday and it was jumpin even though it was pouring rain." But since I'm an old man now, I'm more likely to hit the children's clothing store Nine Months Later in Anaheim Hills (yes, that's how I roll these days). The owner Michele will give you a discount if you mention the Hotlist.

Congrats to all the winners. This will certainly be a guide visitors and locals will use to find the best places in Orange County.

Our print partner VistaPrint

Recently, a local media organization did a report on the partner CityVoter uses to get our local business owners discounted print materials, VistaPrint.

The report alleges that VistaPrint has been involved in some customer disputes that resulted from unauthorized charges to their credit cards. Since the company is involved in legal action, they are unable to respond to these allegations.

Since we don't have any facts related to these cases, I can only tell you what we've experienced at CityVoter as a partner of VistaPrint's since 2006.

1) They have grown quickly. The growth of the company has been compared to that of Google. Whenever a company grows this fast, quality customer service is difficult to maintain. In our early dealings with Vistaprint they sometimes botched orders or were slow to ship items, but most of those problems have gone away.

2) They offer stuff for free in order to sell you more stuff. VistaPrint's model is really about helping you create custom print materials. Once you like seeing your name and logo on a free business card, they expect to sell you a sign, a magnet, a postcard, etc. These additional items cost money, and you should be clear that you are ordering additional products.

3) Finally, they also make money by trying to sell you other people's products (like a salesperson who offers you one last thing as you're leaving the store) -- this appears to be part of the problem highlighted by this news story. As with any website or email, you should not click on special offers or links without fully understanding what you are requesting.

Hope this helps. Until we have more facts, we will continue to use Vistaprint. Our customers love the quality of their products and they are very important way CityVoter helps business owners promote their businesses.

Always happy to hear and respond to your questions/comments.

Sign up for business of the day

Recommendation: Pick a day this month and try "business of the day "advertising. It's a really great product our team just launched that makes sure your business gets seen.

Yesterday, CityVoter made a new kind of advertising promotion live on our site called "Business of the Day". It is an advertising banner that will show up on every single page of our website for an entire day (see how Custom Granite is promoted below).


This guarantees hundreds of local consumers will see your business. The best part is, you can choose the day you want and time it with other special promotions you may be running for your business. We are working really hard to reduce the number of ads on our website so we can increase visibility for local business owners.