"The Increasing awareness about the personal, community and economic benefits of choosing local, independently owned businesses FIRST."
~~~~~~~~~~~

The combination of 'Big-Box Influence' and 'Organic Influence' is creating an awareness of the importance of buying local.

I think there is a real opportunity to sell landscapes where the plants are locally grown (and I don't mean locally distributed).

I have sat through a number of consumer focus groups that say they are willing to pay a higher price if their 'purchase power' positively influences the local economy and the environment.

The day is coming when the consumer will ask for (or we graciously offer) a 'Carbon Footprint' value on the products supplied.

We as an industry need to be able to provide the answer, as well as the 'Oxygen Footprint'value as an antidote.

Steve

The Carbon Footprint drum is beating louder and louder. Do we really hear it? I read an article this weekend in a green industry trade pub that makes me think that we are.

I think we need to have a consumer marketing campaign about our industry and call it Oxygen Footprint.

www.OxygenFootprint.org

Oxygen Footprint is the antidote to Carbon Footprint. It is about plants. Sure, but more.

It is about clean water. Abundant water. Water run-off. Recycling. Sustainability. And yes, plants.

Oxygen Footprint.org is a parking lot for an idea. Let's grow it out and make it a kitchen table term like Carbon Footprint is.

What'ya say?

Steve

I sit here in the Marriott Residence Inn in Mountain View CA tonight in preparation for a visit to Google Headquarters tomorrow.

10-20 Media is an Authorized Google Adwords Reseller. That means that 10-20 Media (me) is receiving 2 days of training from a team of Googlers on their home turf.

I feel like I am representing and industry tonight. I wonder how many other pure-bred green industry genentics have been in the door at the GooglePlex?

This is a big deal for this reason: The power of an aggregator.

You see, Home Depot and Lowes can build sophistecated web advertsing applications and deploy them across the enterprise at a low cost per location. Need a materials calculator? Sure, they have it on their home page. Use it and then contact your local store.

A message board - sure. Ask the Big Box expert, get the answer, and buy locally the solution.

One critical part is missing though. Relationship.

The web is interactive. The Big Boxes are not using the web to build relationships with their users (atleast not that I can tell). And I don't mean "Sign Up For This Newsletter". That is one directional.

So 10-20 Media and our Lawn and Garden Search site is an aggregator. An aggregator of many, many localized small businesses that have lots of knowledge and willing to share. They also have LOTS of products (how many plant names are there? Whew!).

There is no way that your local garden center and nursery is going to be able to build a page for every plant and product that is worth selling and search engine optimize it. Ain't happenin'.

So Lawn and Garden Search, as the aggregator of said information, can build content and commerce pages and send the searcher to the local business for the information. It is a practical reality and a need within our industry.

To tie this thought together, this visit to Google is going to fill my head with the means to bring the local searcher to the local enterprise to find exactly what they need, and build a relationship with the customer along the way. Great things ahead for this industry of ours.

This is no small task, but I'm up for it.

Starts tomorrow.

Steve

We finally got it right. It's only taken 7 years. (:P)   www.GreenIndustrySearch.com is working.

We've had 24 companies sign up today. They get it. The industry is supporting the notion that our industry needs ONE database that aggregates what is fragmented, at a "no brainer" cost of $99.00 per year to subscribe, and FREE to use (no passwords).

Here is how we got to this place:

In 2001 we launched a web product called Green Industry Yellow Pages (www.GIYP.com). It was way ahead of its time in regards to Internet Search. We had trade-only businesses on the site and could not keep the consumer out of it. Wholesale businesses being contacted by Harry and Henrietta Homeowner looking for a pretty tree. Yikes!

Then, in 2004 - 2005 we partnered with a magazine publisher in an effort to provide a web product that integrated content and commerce, at the same time closing off the search engines (consumers) from finding the site.

Well that didn't work either. The magazine sales team had no interest in selling interactive and couldn' speak the speak, so it sat on the shelf of the magazine. The Green Industry Yellow Pages customers suffered.

We decided that we owed our GIYP customers something, so we extended their listing through 2007 to make up for "our bad".

During 2007, we changed our corporate name to 10-20 Media, Inc. (from Green Industry Yellow Pages) because the Yellow Pages mindset was "I don't use it or need it, and it's too expensive". We were pigeon-holed into a yellow door stop.

So here we are kicking off 2008 with www.GreenIndustrySearch.com, a search engine for green industry trade products and services, at a low barrier to entry, in an effort to create a true resource for finding products and services on the Internet.

We have recently opened up an opportunity for trade shows to sponsor their exhibitors for FREE, as the shows are the existing marketplaces where a friendly smile and a handshake still counts.

For those exhibitors who want to add text and links (called a Standard Listing) to their listing, it is as simple as filling out a form.

Here is an example of what a Standard Listing can be.

I appreciate the words of encouragement you have given me along this journey. I want you to know that I listen to your praise and your constructive criticism and take both seriously.

Thank you green industry friend,

Steve

I had a fascinating 2 weeks in December as I traveled to Los Angeles for the Kelsey ILM:07 Conference and then to Chicago for the Search Engine Strategies Conference.

Without question, there is a growing movement of the SMB (Small-Medium Business) to the Internet. At ILM:07 one of the speakers (CitySearch) noted that they are finding that marketplaces with advertisers that traditionally spend little on advertising, are finding that Internet Advertising is an effective channel for them.

Well H-E-L-L-O.

For the first time ever, there is an affordable vehicle for getting your advertising message out to the "local masses". Every form of traditional media is invasive - it interrupts your mission. Watching TV ? - Interrupted by advertising. Reading a magazine ? - Interrupted by an ad.

Internet Search is totally different. So I go online and search for something to address my (immediate) need, and behold, there are potentially advertisers on the page that can address my need (at least that is how it should work).

Enter niche content, or vertical publishing or however you want to say it. Bottom line is that now there are web sites out there that address a theme, hobby, interest, business etc.

While the big search engines fragment into their "universal search" experience, the niche players refine - creating silo's of information that meets the very need of its users. Cool.

There is an unprecedented opportunity here for brands and local companies of all shapes and sizes (and budgets) to be heard.

What are you waiting for?

Steve

I recently attended the Search Engines Strategies Conference in Chicago and learned a ton.

One of the take-aways was the fact that consumers are increasing the number of searches they are doing at the rate of 17% a month.

One gentleman said that their web site had an 84% increase in product quieries on Black Friday over the same day last year.

In store transactions makes up 95% of retail sales (eCommerce is only 5 percent), and that number is holding steady.

This has huge implications for your lawn and garden business:

~ Is a garden center / nursery web site able to give the user the product information they are looking for? Or will the user have to search for the brand, only to be lead away to a store locator (possibly a dead end)?

~ Does the garden center / nursery have a means to communicate in a timely manner about the product or service they are looking for?

~ Does the garden center / nursery have a mechanism in place to take the online order and have it picked up in the store?

The answer needs to be yes to all the questions above in order to provide a satisfactory experience to that customer.

Garden Centers and Nursereis that do not embrace the new shopping paradigm will be struggling with one arm tied behind their backs.

What are you waitning for?

Steve

As I reflect on 2007, I can’t help but notice a sound - a sound that is growing louder by the day.

The sound is the beating drum of environmental awareness. In the last week I have heard of plans at the University of Maryland to engage ‘sustainability’: turning the campus into an arboretum, working on the rooftops with plants, recycling etc.

Also, our allies at Maryland Cooperative Extension are proposing a Green Building at the Central Maryland Research and Education Center. Howard County Executive Ken Ulman wrote a $250,000.00 dollar check to kick off Howard County’s support of this Green Building.

When completed, Stanton Gill and his team will have the “real deal” of an environmentally constructed facility. Here are some of the features (terms): a breeze funnel, rain collection, living roof, daylighting, earth sheltering, reflective paving, greenhouse, solar chimneys, bio-filtration, earth tubes, silo wind generator, wind blocks.

It is time for us, the green industry, the stewards of the environment, to join the beating drum with our instruments and make some music!

It is in this spirit that I offer a thought for your consideration: The excessive consumption of fossil fuels, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and its negative effect on the environment has all been boiled down to one phrase: Carbon Footprint.

I know you’ve heard it before. It is a “kitchen table” term.

Our green industry has an opportunity to be a lead instrument in the environmental ensemble. In my opinion, we need a simple message. The consumer is not going to understand what a “green building” is, and certainly isn’t going to understand the “terms” listed above. I don’t understand the terms above, but I know they’re a good thing.

How do we say: plants, purification of water and air, water usage efficiency, energy efficiency, recycled waste, efficient use of natural resources?

What phrase makes it simple and a kitchen table term?

I submit for your consideration: Oxygen Footprint.

Oxygen Footprint is the antidote to Carbon Footprint. Might we develop an Oxygen Footprint calculator? Architects currently do an energy consumption calculation on buildings. Ideally, an Oxygen Footprint calculation on a building should offset the Carbon Footprint, and the excess sustains life. The thought of consumers being aware of the Oxygen Footprint of their properties would be a good thing.

In an effort to spark discussion, I built a web site: http://www.oxygenfootprint.org/ - my desire is that our green industry takes ownership of this idea and leads it to an encore performance at the kitchen table.

May God bless you, your family, and our green industry.

Steve

Have you looked for yourself lately. You may be lost.

You may be lost in the search engine world, while others are being found in your place.

Go to a major search engine and do a search for one of your high margin products or services and see if you show up. Add a geographic qualifier if / when necessary and see if it helps.

The more keywords you add to a search string the higher the odds are that you should show up.

If you don't show up, you're lost. Lost in on the web. To get out, or to be found, you need a plan, or a map of keywords and pages that are 100% relevant to what you are searching for, and the pages will have to be Search Engine Optimized.

First things first, make a list of words you want to be found for, then do some searching on the web for them. Take note of who is being found first for the query, and take a look at the pages to see "why" they are showing up first. Can you do the same. Can you beat them with some good creative?

Time to start learning how to do this now, as it takes a few months to get results.

Steve