Florida's Great Northwest - Hottest Websites

Hottest Websites in Florida's Great Northwest
by
Scott T. Jackson,
Published in Climate Magazine May-June 2001
Vol 12, Issue 3
(Index of Other Articles)

To give a contemporary mangling of the famed quote of Mark Twain, the reports of the death of the dot.com have been greatly exaggerated. In spite of the recent downturn in tech stocks there are enterprises in NW Florida continuing to exploit the Internet and by debatable criteria can be considered “Hot” websites.

The literal interpretation “Hot” may fit squarely with the original Fire & Spice website (fire-spice.com) launched in 1996. The owners, Bill (Fire) & Ann (Spice) Reaves had been working brick-mortar jobs at Eglin AFB but had been motivated by his “craving for fiery foods” to launch their site with Nucleus Communications. From an initial product line of 75 products they have grown to 700 and were swamped with hundreds of orders last Christmas.

From “Hot” sites we go to a “Cold” site in Apalachicola…….cold oysters that is. Pristineoyster.com reflects the contrast of the new work place. A basic hands-on working-the-earth business that reaches the rest of the world through the new age medium of the Internet. A very well designed site that portrays the oyster in a most delicious manner.

The hospitality industry in NW Florida as some very hot sites. One of which had its inception before the Internet became cocktail chatter. Ken Paine, CIO of Dale Peterson Realty in Destin, can arguably be considered a pioneer in bringing the business-to-consumer paradigm to the hospitality industry. Early in 1995 he launched Destinfl.com on a shoestring budget. With his experience with the Internet dating back to his college days in 1989 his fortune was kick started by a fate that affected all of us. With website was already making online bookings of reservations in 1995, Hurricane Opal became an opportunity for Ken to take his business to the next level. With all the property damage done by the hurricane the rental office was swamped with phone calls from absentee owners seeking status of their property. The day after the storm Ken scanned hundreds of aerial photos taken of the property and began emailing them to the owners, hundreds a day. This goodwill gesture earned Dale Peterson Realty untold referrals. Last year their site had 510,000 user sessions. According to Ken they process 2,500 inquiries per day. In dollars it averages $8000 per day in bookings!

But running ahead of Ken’s site is the Fort Walton Beach – Destin Tourist Development Council web portal, www.destin-fwb.com, which garnered 789,000 user sessions last year, according to Darrel Jones the TDC Director.

A unique approach to capturing vacationers has helped Finni’s Grill and Bar on St. George Island attract visitors to their site (www.finnisgrillandbar.com). They have a web camera pointed right out the window facing the beach.

(www.30-A.com) with its array of pictures of the area that can be emailed as “e-cards” to friends. Additionally, the invite visitors to submit articles of interest in order to keep their content fresh and encourage return visits.

It is no mystery that newspaper web sites receive large numbers of visitors. Their constant turnover of content ensures site freshness and repeat visits. Simply stated, content drives site traffic. Clearly the leaders in our region include the Pensacola News Journal (www.pensacolanewsjournal.com), Northwest Florida Daily News (www.nwfdailynews.com), Panama City News Herald (newsherald.com) and the Destin Log (destin.com). The new upstart in the media category is Access Gulf Coast (accessgulfcoast.com). The City Site Manager, Peggy Brockman, states, “We are averaging 100,000 unique visitors per month currently.”

Chamber of Commerce web sites serve as portals to the local business community and are often visited. They don’t have the same number of visits as the newspapers however they are still considered the primary reference point for local business.

Two new “amalgamation” sites with lofty objectives on a grand regional basis are seeking to unify a broad but diverse concept. The economic development coalition of NW Florida, Florida’s Great Northwest, Inc., has launched its new site (brandnewflorida.com) with intent of attracting businesses and relocation consultants to the area. The Pan American Technology Conference (patconference.com) is reaching out to US and international markets to showcase the region for high-tech excellence.

Having acknowledged all these web sites in this manner we still haven’t figure out what “hot” means. A jury of one’s peers might be more appropriate – local advertising federation awards or ADDYs. These annual events nominate and select winners in a broad cross-section of advertising mediums, including the Web.

The West Florida Advertising Federation bestowed its Best of Show – Electronic on the powerfully visual site of Network Telephone (powerlinedsl.com). I advise you to not have your volume set too high when going to the site as the audio is equally moving. It is a very rich media experience that seems to draw you into your monitor. The Emerald Coast Advertising Federation selected Mindvisions (mindvisions.com) seductively embracing site for Silver Shells Beach Resort & Spa (www.ssbr.com).

No doubt there are other worthy sites out there drawing traffic and building revenue. As the dot.com shakeout continues the survivors can hopefully look at more and more visitors to their sites as the world increasingly builds electronic information bridges to communication and commerce.