'A Local Printer Interview'

Name of your website?

A Local Printer

Your name?

Ray Burn

Your Location (city, etc)

Storrington, West sussex

Please give us a short summary of your website?

Offers certified eco-friendly printing for easy order online

What inspired you to launch your own website?

To make green printing affordable for small businesses and to raise awareness of the importance of green printing methods help protect our resources and environment

When did you launch your first website, and what was it?

We launched in February 2006

How did you decide on a name for your website?

Even though we are now an online business we have been a traditional service based "local printer" for 30 years. We wanted a name that reflects the fact we still provide a personal service, even yhough orders are placed online

What makes it different from other, similar offerings?

We are the only certified eco-friendly printer selling online in the UK at this time. We hold Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody Certification

What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)

To keep it for income

How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?

After 2 years online the sales and profits generated have repaid the considerable development cost

If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?

We only supply the UK at this time, as it's not cost or time effective to ship overseas. We'd like to take it international and print in other countries

If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?

Sure - print is a scalable industry and it's easy to add capapcity

What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?

Building traffic and site promotion was a lot harder in the early days than we anticipated

What has been your biggest challenge?

Getting enough visitors and conversions to generate target income

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

We enjoy high organic visibility on search engines now, so I guess that's the best promotion

How has running your website differed from your expectations?

The amount of time it takes to add new stuff and promote the site is much more than I anticipated

How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?

We've been online for 2 years and this is a long term project

What is your website address?

A Local Printer

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