Networking and neighborhood are the keywords for this innovative new business website called Front Porch Folks. As promised in my last post I am going to share some insights about a powerful, user-friendly up and coming site. This site is great for Baby Boomers who have a small business.

Of course I went to the About Section of the site. This is an excerpt below explaining the site. Please note that it is not exhaustive.

No other online networking venue encourages the gathering of so many friendly, hardworking, ethical small business owners in one place. We aren’t here for chit-chat, or fluff, and we aren’t here to feed off one another. We are here to leverage the community to grow our businesses, and to help one another for mutual benefit. If you aren’t a nice person, you can’t do this successfully. So we tend to attract a lot of very nice people! You’d like living next door to a lot of your neighbors here.

Of course, we have the usual networking venue features in addition to that:

• Networking Forums
• Personal Blogs (in WordPress)
• A Business to Business Directory for your listing
• Featured Members
• Personal Guestbooks
• The ability to add image, video, or audio files to your listing
• The ability to add a download to your listing – so you can drop a promo here if you want
• An article database that you can contribute to
• An organization you can volunteer for, to gain greater exposure
• Discounts on marketing related services
• A progressive and responsive organization that responds to your needs

All of this in an easy to use system that you can use right away, just by exploring a little. Detailed instructions are there for anyone who prefers to use them.
Big business doesn’t really know the needs of very small businesses – they don’t even DEFINE them the same way. If you are a sole proprietor or have less than 5 employees, they don’t consider you to even be in the small business category, so they aren’t producing resources or tools that fit your business.

Front Porch Folks is ALL about the little businesses with big dreams. We offer real help, for a very small price, just for the smallest of businesses.

The Sign Up Process

Most of the pages have the sign up invitation clearly visible in large fonts on the left side of the page.

You are told right away that the registration is currently free because it is in beta. For those of you who do not like tech talk, beta means it is new and now being tested. That is a good thing because you can be part of the formation with your insights and comments.

As you fill out the really simple and helpful form your will notice several graphic symbols on the right. As your mouse goes over it the icons let you know which fields are visible to the public in your profile and which fields are required.

The form takes about 60 seconds and 120 if you are a slow typist. It is important that you indicate who referred you to the site. Please use my name if you sign up. If you refer someone else ask them to use your name. Why? Because they are doing a contest until they reach a certain number of members. Be sure to go to the contest page to see the prizes.

I was also very impressed with the Terms and Conditions. I actually understood it! Words were used like “respect”, “friendly”, “small business”, etc. You must read them and not just check off the box.

Ads are not allowed on the site, nor spamming of other folks sites. Emphasis is made about the vast opportunities to network, use your signature line and other great times and places to strut your stuff.

Layout

Kudos to the website designers.

Kudos to the logo developers.

Ethics Statement 

These days the word “ethics” has taken  on an interesting meaning when it comes to business. I am impressed with this site’s statement.

Ethics and Philosophy Statement: We do not endorse, or support, any “Internet Marketing” tactics which rely on hype, or a “system” for marketing your business. Training materials teach tried and true techniques, and are personalized to your business. All recommendations are made specifically for microbusinesses and shoestring startups, with simplified steps to help you succeed no matter what your starting level – this is not impractical corporate stuff that takes a high budget or a large staff. There are some optional upgrade services that you can purchase, but your basic membership includes everything you need as a do-it-yourselfer to successfully promote your business online, we are not trying to sucker you in to more and more fees. We feel that it is inherently American that you can succeed if you have a good idea, the willingness to work, and an intelligent approach to growing a business. Our site is here to help level the playing field to keep that possibility alive in the web marketing world.

Well that is all I have to report right now. I am going to my email to complete the sign in process and get more instructions. Hope to see you on the front porch with the other folks 🙂

Rosie Horner