Treat these sites - the bayprep Sites - as directories.

I can save you doing a who is check by telling you that at present these sites are registered to Danby Data and Danby Data di Richard Robson a sole trader identified by his UK - GB National Insurance number WM114531B Danby , 13, Tees Rd., Redcar TS10 1QD UK - GB.

Not VAT registered not a registered company - at present.

Few organisations would avoid a listing in Yellow Pages or a Thomson Local on the grounds that they would be listed alongside their competitors...

These sites are Web Portals but unlike 'shopping comparison' sites such as kelkoo //

they have editorial content. They're interesting, attractive....

This link to TradeDoubler is designed to help you put on your site the sort of advert that appears on this site BUT

If you would like to know how these ads. appear and perhaps place one of your own on this or other sites then these are the obvious people to go see... Not necessarily the only or best option...

This page is directed towards the principals of small local businesses but is not password protected. Pass word protected pages will probably come in time.

Redcar in North Yorkshire is a town of around 60,000 people including those living nearby who feel an allegiance. It is being used as a test bed for the Danby Data project.

As of mid summer 2004 all the advertisers on the sites are large corporates with the back office capability to automatically calculate and pay commission - normally around 3 per cent or in the case of the post meter from Pitney Bowes a fee for sign ups of around twenty to thirty pounds GBP as they say when they mean £.

Small businesses will find that if they approach web designers they will be quoted between £2,000 and £4,000 for a web site unless they are getting a loss leader deal from an 'enthusiast' or unemployed graduate.

It may be a fine site but it will probably have an obscure web address and where do you promote it anyway?

Two small business support services are proposed for the D-D sites.

You will probably find that the typical local junk mail leaflet will claim to delivery to around 20,000 addresses.

This business has been up and running - but not taking revenue - for around three years and this

is a graphic generated by the web hosting company 1and1 Internet for the traffic on D-D's sites. So, last we we bought a packet of chocky biscuits to celebrate going over 17,500 hits. This is not anything we do. We put up the sites and people visit them and the hosting company records the traffic.We don't send e-mails we don't do JUNK of any kind. It was 19,300 by mid August 2004.

Well, I'm no longer so sure. I mean can't keep a good thing to myself can I. I may send some emails because

well because we've moved onto a whole new scale of operation here. Actually that's a blip. That blip is my advertisers checking the site out. I will tell you some of the people who have turned me down.Churchill Insurance, Cancer Research.

Actually, so far as I can tell the sites now have a recognised niche and it's unlikely that a merchant aiming to attract the over 45s will put a link on these sites.

That slight blip being over the September 17th data are more encouraging..

The middle weekend of September 2004 showed an important change. It was the first weekend to have over one thousand hits - and over 1500 individual pages served - but it was a WEEKEND. This means it was customer hits and not maintenence hits. Not publisher and advertiser and over 'work related' hits.

That spike was Saturday.

As of the third week of September 2004, the sites are on yet another level.

New hit rate graph..

The two services proposed for small businesses are essentially to pay around £50 for either a small ad of the sort in the junk mail leaflets or around the same amount for a link to your site.

Please note we are not being paid for links in existence pre July 2004 and we reserve the right to link for free to really interesting sites which enhance our site and promote the local area.

Please e-mail me if you'd like an appointment for Richard to visit you.

Thankfully nobody has done that yet and really these sites are intended to be as automated as possible. In theory, as the different sites around the country are differentiated - made distinct and not mirrors of the prototypes - items of local interest will be e-mailed to an editorial team who will use these Press Releases - expected to come mainly from advertisers - to provide the editorial content. That's the plan anyway.

This will be the address for press releases.

Oh and by the way don't rush off and try to registerwww.yourtown.biz and try to sell it to me. From now on the towns will be sub folders within the regions like www.north-yorkshire.biz/Whitby OK.