About MaineBusiness.com
Maine had the fifth-highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the nation in 2006. MaineBusiness.com seeks to serve this community.
Business people expressed a need for short, usable bits of information. They want ideas they can use. Preferably, they want to know what other small businesses are doing to address their challenges. Because there is an abundance of this kind of coverage in Maine media, the site will aggregate headlines from many sources. It will be a quick snapshot of the day's news.
Maine News Direct is a tool we already have to let businesses keep track of what other businesses are doing.
The Takeaway blog will offer daily advice you can use to improve your business. It needs to be short and concentrate on need-to-know subjects.
Another source of usable information will be advice from our expert bloggers. We have blogs full of advice on marketing, using the Internet, finance and management. We will continue to identify areas and deliver advice on more aspects of running a business.
Networking is another need identified by the business community. A comprehensive calendar of business and chamber of commerce events does not exist. We can keep our calendar full of these events so the site is THE site for business calendar.
FAQs
Q: Where are the blogs? A: http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/blogs.html
Q: How do I log into the site? A: Go to http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/login.html. Use your MaineToday.com registration and password to access the site. Any changes you make here will not be reflected in other MaineToday.com domains.
Q: How do I change my profile? A: At the top of the page is a pull down menu "change your stuff." Choose "Edit your PROFILE" - or go to http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/member-edit.html.
Q: How do I fill in more info about me and my business? A: Go to http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/member-edit.html.
Q: How do I blog? A: You can start a new entry at http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/blogentry-new.html or edit existing entries at http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/blog-edit.html
Q: What can I blog about? A: The blogs on MaineBusiness.com are meant to allow business people to share their expertise and knowledge. There must be information that someone can find useful in their business. This does have promotional value for the bloggers. MaineBusiness.com does not however permit direct solicitations for businesses/services on posts made to the site. You can contact Kevin Qualls in our sales department for Maine Business's advertising rates by email or phone (207) 791-6299. If you would like to use Maine News Direct to distribute your press releases, please contact Dan Sexton by email or phone (207) 822-4078.
Q: How do I change the name of my blog? A: When you edit an entry or add a new one, you can change the name in the box marked "Your blog title:"
Q: What are Categories? A: These are keywords created for interactive content such as blogs or conversations.
Q: What are Tags? A: Tags are keywords you make for interactive content such as blogs or forum conversations. You can add tags as a way to get more specific than a category will allow.
Q: You have a category for human resources but not something specific like labor relations. Why can't I choose a more specific category? A: We are trying to provide a consistent framework for keywords so we limit those choices. To allow you to be more specific, you can add a tag named "labor relations." Just type it in the tags window.
Q: What's the difference between the tags "Labor Relations" and "Labor relations?" A: The tag index is case sensitive. It will automatically capitalize the first word of the tag. But after that, it doesn't touch your tag. You can change your tags to consolidate tags separated by capitalization.
Q: Where's the forum? A: I'm using the word conversations but here it is: http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/questions.html
Q: How do I start a conversation? A: At the top of the page is a pull down box "change your stuff." Choose "ask a question" to start your conversations - or just go to http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/question-ask.html
Q: What action should I take if I am verbally attacked or threatened, or spammed? A: You can use the "report abuse" option attached to each blog, conversation and comment entry on the site.
Q: What happens when a comment is reported as 'abuse'? A: A flag appears with the reported comment to the content producer for review. If the comment is against our guidelines, then it will be deleted.
Q: How can I locate a previous conversation? A: You can use the site's search tool (at the top of the page on the right side is the search box). Enter a key word from the conversation, and you will get a list of results containing that word.
Q: Can I delete a post? A: Yes, you can. Go to the top of the page to the pull down menu "change your stuff." You can edit or delete a conversation (http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/questions-m-edit.html), delete a comment (http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/comments-m-edit.html) or edit or delete a blog entry (http://mainebusiness.mainetoday.com/blog-edit.html).