What does an organic farmer do in the winter months? This one creates web pages.

Just want to make a webpage yourself? Here's basic info you'll need, and help with writing html code.

Simple but effective web pages are an increasingly useful and inexpensive way for people to promote their business or organization. Yet few folks take advantage of the growing numbers of people who use the web to shop for information about products and services. Sometimes this is because of the percieved expense and complications involved, and this is where I come in.

I have a modest familiarity with the web and the creation of web pages and web sites. I have found that this understanding far exceeds that of many individuals with great causes or products that cry out for promotion. So I offer my services to those who could use a "friend in the business" of web page construction and placement. My fees are quite low and my goal is to draw out from you the best aspects of your project so we can better describe your business or organization on your webpage. After all, it is your web page and needs to reflect you and your operation, not me and any of my fancy expertise.

What I do.

First we sit down together and dicuss what needs to appear on your web page, how many parts of your operation we want to include, how best to describe your business or organization. Any current promotional materials, brochures, business cards, advertisements, etc. can form a starting point.

The idea is to be able to talk to your potential customers at their convenience, and say as much as we want to without thinking about the cost-per-word. There is no cost-per-word on the web so we get to talk about our products in as much detail as we think the customer can handle.

From personal experience with my own website http://www.snakeroot.net/farm and from discussions with clients, I have found that the process of building your own website actually aids in self-understanding of your business and all its components. And unlike a "pay by the square inch" newspaper advertisement, you no longer have to talk to potential customers in sound-bite phrases.

If you have digital photographs or graphics, we can incorporate these in your page. Links that you feel your customers would find useful can be included. If the complexity of your operation warrants it, your page can be split up between a home page and subsidiary pages each dealing with a separate part of what you do—and then you have a whole website instead of just a single web page. The cost for all this is around a hundred dollars for the initial website plus a reasonable amount of upgrading as time goes by.

If you wish, we can, for around $20, create a web domain name for you, so your web page will be located at the web address www.yourbusnessname.com or www.yourorganization.org.

I do not do "web sales" pages, where someone can actually buy something from your web page with a credit card. Such internet sales websites need to be done by someone with greater expertise than I. However, your sales often increase when someone calls you using your phone number on your web page, or emails you from the email link on your web page, or drives to your place using the directions or map on your web page.

So if this sounds like something you would like us to work together on, contact me via phone (487-5056) or email tom@snakeroot.net or drop by the farm using these these directions.

If you like, I'll even teach you how to create your own webpage, or at least share with you some web page basics here.

My Resume.

• www.Plants4Maine.com, for the Mid-Maine Greenhouse Growers Association.
• Maine Feeds Maine, Maine Local Food website.
• Glory Girl Gems, Newport, Maine.
• Newport Farmers' and Artisans' Market, Newport, Maine.
• Downtown Waterville Farmers' Market, Waterville, Maine.
• Unity Market Day, Unity, Maine.
• The Clockfolk of New England, Wilmington, Massachusetts.
• Dirty Air, Dirty Water, a book about pollution from the gasoline additive MTBE.
• Pittsfield Farmers' Market, Pittsfield, Maine.
• Orono Farmers' Market, Orono, Maine.
• Living Acres, maker of compost and potting soil, New Sharon, Maine.
• Pittsfield Historical Society, Pittsfield, Maine.
• Maine Federation of Farmers' Markets, Maine.
• Wilmington High School, Class of '64 Wilmington, Massachusetts
and of course our farm:
• Snakeroot Organic Farm, Pittsfield, Maine.