I love it when a project we’ve been working on for months finally “goes live”.
Yesterday we were at Google’s Dublin headquarters for the official launch of a very cool initiative. (See my Flickr stream for photos)
The launch was a really great event, with representatives from just about every business organisation in Ireland present and the Taoiseach, Mr Enda Kenny (the Irish Prime Minister) was also there with not one, but two other members of the Irish government!
In partnership between ourselves (Blacknight), An Post (the Irish postal service), County and City Enterprise Boards and Google, we are offering a service to Irish business to get them online.
Any Irish business that does not have a website and domain name can signup online for a free domain name, website hosting and access to an easy to use sitebuilder (that we developed inhouse). The service is free for the first 12 months.
What else do they get?
Well look at the list of partners!
Google have oodles of expertise and experience in online sales and advertising and will be giving participants €100 of free online advertising credits (Adwords). An Post will be helping businesses ship their goods both nationally and internationally, while the Enterprise Boards are going to be running regional events to help businesses get online quickly and easily.
Of course some people might see this as being an “attack” on web designers and developers who deal with “startups” and other small business.
Personally I think they are wrong.
The service that we (Blacknight) are offering does not compete with any professional web design / development agency’s offering.
Our sitebuilder service is designed to be quick, simple and easy to use.
It will generate a basic functional website that is (hopefully) aesthetically pleasing. But it’s not aimed at replacing the kind of work that a skilled designer would do for a business.
I’m more than happy to answer any queries people might have about this new service, which we are delighted to be offering.
Here’s the official (and very slick) video from Google about it:
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask via the comments!
About the Author: Michele Neylon
32 Comments
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Thats absolutely brilliant.
Should be extremely beneficial for small startups.
Pratheesh
Thanks
Hopefully it will be 🙂
Michele
Michele,
Its a great iniative to target small local businesses who may not have considered their own web presence previously.
I can understand the concerns that it will devalue the work of web developers but it should generate new business for them in the longer term – at what stage will it be possible to change the site template and will there be a charge for this if it is done within the first year?
Brendan
I’ve been discussing this with some of the Irish design community over here:
http://www.creativeireland.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33017
The service gives the business a domain and a sitebuilder with a choice of templates / styles with a variety of options (I’ll probably do a screencast on this at some point .. )
If they want to upgrade to a custom designed site then they will be able to switch to a “normal” hosting plan, as we’ve designed this from the ground up to allow for expansion / upgrades.
Regards
Michele
Michele,
Its free for the first 12 months but how much will it cost after that?
Pam
The domain will be renewable at our renewal rates at the time (worst case scenario they’ll be the current ones .. )
The hosting (including the sitebuilder) will cost at most the same price as our entry level package – though we are finalising exact details on that we have committed to a maximum price
Regards
Michele
Congrats. Looks like a great initiative to get tiny businesses online and start using the web instead of relying solely on printed directories etc.
Peter
This is a great idea and will hopefully help out a lot of people who don’t know where to begin when it comes to getting a website up and running. I think a lot of small businesses are paying large sums of money for not that great of service so a cheap reliable alternative has to be a good thing.
There is still a real need to educate people in this area though because the potential is huge and it opens up a big market to small Irish businesses who have only known the traditional way.
There are a lot of free resources out there for learning to build your own websites like htmldog.com and Google’s “From the Ground Up” tutorials as well as the very powerful wordpress.org as a CMS.
Hopefully the government see’s this potential and builds on this initial good start.
Gerry Kelly
http://www.bizy.ie
hey michele im a small business trying to use the free servise but its not to easy for me ?how can i get help with it?
ive got a site with ye i think??www.levelaccessshowers.ie
id love some help with getting it on google etc
Peter
Thanks for the positive feedback
Michele
Kieran
If you’re having any issues please contact our support team
Michele
I’m a writer whose first book is due to be in the bookshops by the end of the month. I think I would like a .com domain for a website that would allow me to blog and email. Do you recommend anything in particular?
Thanks.
Hi Michelle,
This is a brilliant idea. Is it available to people who work from home and dont have a business registration number as it would only be a small business.
Regards,
Sharon
Do you get the facility to set up domain specific email addresses as well. That would be important for my project.
A great initiative!
Thanks.
Paul
Conor
If you need a blog facility our Minimus plan would be the best solution
Michele
Paul
We currently aren’t offering email as part of this initiative, but you can easily set it up …
Michele
Can I upgrade to a full professional plan? I have trailed Google Apps mail and it has been a nightmare trying to set it up with this account. This arrangement doesn’t even give access to a file manager or FTP.
Paul
Paul
There shouldn’t be an issue setting up Google Apps mail – though our technical support team might need to setup the DNS records for you.
If you need access to the file manager etc., you would need to upgrade to one of our standard hosting plans.
Michele
Thanks Michelle. I will talk to one of your people on Monday.
Regards,
Paul
Hi Michelle,
If I already own the domain name, can I still avail of the free website facility?
thanks
Mary
Rather than dealing with a company centralized in one area, the enterprise boards should be working with web companies in their own area to get the full benefits for businesses using the internet.
These types of free offers only benefit the companies offering them. In the long run most people become frustrated with the lack of service that comes from the company offering the the service as they eventually start to ask for more and more money.
I believe that most people who use these free services will be put off using the internet as a business tool in the long run because they won’t be getting decent personal advice.
Mary
I’ll have to doublecheck internally. At the moment it’s only setup for people who don’t have a domain name ..
If you could email our sales / support team directly we can look into it for you
Michele
James
Have you or any of your acquaintances actually signed up for the offer?
Have you actually looked at the full list of partners involved and the full range of benefits?
Regards
Michele
Yes I have looked at the partners, but none of these partners (large faceless companies) are going to offer personal advice on seo, marketing your site and generally getting the best out of using the internet as a business tool on a regular basis.
This is why the enterprise board should be working with web companies in their area, maybe in conjunction with this offer, as I accept that it should be made easier for small businesses to access the power of the internet for business.
Already a lot of your answers have suggested that if you want a decent website you will have to upgrade to some other package other than the free offer.
It’s a fine line between offering free stuff to gain customers and offering a decent reasonable service which people will keep using.
James
You seem to have a fixation with the Enterprise boards.
This initiative is being run by Google, ourselves, An Post and the Enterprise boards ie. all of us.
I don’t really like being referred to as a “faceless” company. If anything we are anything but faceless.
You also haven’t addressed my query about whether you’ve any actual direct experience of using what is being offered, yet you seem happy to suggest that the service we are offering isn’t up to scratch.
Please don’t try twisting my words. I’m not sure I even understand what a “decent” website is. One that cost a fortune or one that looks OK?
This offer is to help businesses get online simply quickly and easily. If they want to add a lot more functionality etc., then they *might* need to upgrade to a different solution and they might need to get a custom web design / development solution.
This is a FREE offer that we are giving Irish businesses that are not online at present in order to encourage them to take that first step towards an online presence
Regards
Michele
James,
I detect some negative vibes here. Sure, no free offer is going to make your company a leading internet business but this is intended for those who have no web exposure and no idea how to go about it. Once they are on line they will see the advantage of enhancing the services they require and select the ones they need at a price that suits them and I have to say the baseline service Blacknight offer is very good value.
I do think it would be better if this package included a basic mail service or linked new users to one of the ‘public’ services, presumably Google will link in their g-mail service.
Mike
First of I am all for making it easier for business to gain access to the web.
I work with small businesses on a day to day basis and it is not free stuff they need (there is already plenty of free web services for those who want it and good luck to them) but free and expert advice on what they want their websites to achieve.
Most business don’t have a website because they don’t use internet technology in the first place (this is from talking to business on the ground). So most won’t use this free service without help in the first place. This is where this project is flawed.
The problem I have with the enterprise board is this. The enterprise board are a government funded agency and are set up to help businesses in their regions. But backing this project means they are backing the advertisement of just one internet company and their drive to expand their customer base (good luck to them on this). What about the thousand of other internet industry experts who want to help businesses aswell and are willing to give free expertise.
After all successful businesses will benefit us all.
The enterprise board should be helping people with advice from experts in their regions along with giving them free stuff. Otherwise the free stuff may just end up frustrating them.
James,
I can’t see how you get to that conclusion. My local Enterprise Board (Meath) offer lots of local help and training.
If you want to offer your services or establish a free support service in your area I’m sure your local board would be willing to work with you on that or you cold do as I do and give guidence to anyone who asks on pro bono basis.
Given that, I see no reason for slagging off a good idea. If you have a better idea, get it out there, there are lots of people and business who are willing to help you launch it.
Mike
Well done to all involved, great initiative. Its encouraging to see strong successful companies being active in taking a practicable role in assisting Irish businesses. Irish businesses need to trade its way out of this recession, grow new markets, seize opportunities and create employment. No matter how small the business —being visible online is great step forward.
Great Idea to get Small/Medium business’s onto the world market.. Clearly I would like to be getting some cheap rates from An post with regards to delivery of products sold.. Whose arm do I have to twist??? Certaintly Local business’s need a positive pitch put on getting there own domains, but I guess SEO will be there next expense perhaps? Very difficult to get seen in the market unfortuntaly unless you have money to spend on it… Thats only my own opinion of course!
Excellent! is the simple word I use for this initiative. I hold a Master’s degree in Strategic Management of IT and this offer is amazing. Find it difficult to believe that there is negative feedback regarding it. Projects like these are exactly what the small business sector needs in Ireland. Kudos to all involved and to those smart enough to avail of the offer.
Mick H
Eoin
Keep an eye out for stuff from your local enterprise board. They’re going to be running events around this over the course of the year
Michele