*What is a portal?
Our definition is that it's a 'gateway' to further related information.
*How can you claim to be the number 1 dedicated pub and bar portal in London?
Firstly, many of the websites for pubs and bars in London are little more than directories. Lists of names and phone numbers. You can't search for music, food, facilities, events etc. Their fine as a telephone book substitution.
Secondly, those claiming to be portals are not "dedicated" to pubs and bars in London. They also list hotels, restaurants, shops, advertising etc. Many are free and are still worth listing your pub or bar with, but we wouldn't recommend them as an online business solution on their own.
Thirdly, Alexa , a website that ranks millions of websites worldwide ranks citypublife at 81,767. (January 2004,) This doesn't seem to say much on the face of it but when you consider that it ranks sites over 16,600,000 websites based on unique visitors, number of pages visited per user and that we are in the top 0.5% it begins to mean something. There is not another dedicated pub and bar portal for London ranked higher.
*What is the purpose of Citypublife?
You can find more about this on the About Us page. Basically, it's to develop a simple 'search and find' facility for people to preview London pubs and bars which have what they are looking for, in the area and on the date they want.
*What else can it do?
In addition to finding London pubs and London bars with the type of music and food they offer, people can also find the type of pubs and bars, their facilities, style, offerings etc. They can also find artists to hire direct. The new pages we are currently adding in HTML include a job search facility, which we are offering free. A message board, which can be used for comments, suggestions, meetings, updates etc. A links page to sites that users may find of interest. We are also looking at ideas to add suppliers and services to the pub and bar trade and more.
*What do the Green and Blue Buttons mean?
The Green Menu buttons take you to pages with Blue Sub Menu Buttons, e.g. clicking on the Green Music Button takes you to a page with 26 different types of music and 1 "Other". Clicking on the Green Food Button will take you to 25 different food types and 1 "Other" Button. These are the Blue Sub Menu Buttons.
*Why do you need the Blue Sub Menu Buttons?
This will allow you to narrow your search. If we just let you search for pubs and bars with any music you would spend all day searching information from dozens of London pubs and bars that have been returned by the database.
*The areas on the map are large. How do I narrow the search area?
If you click SW on the map and then Click Get Pubs (Location > SW > Get Pubs) it will return pages of pubs and bars in South West London, you will see 3 columns. The left column is the postal code area, the centre column is the name of the pub or bar, and the right hand column is the area. You can then choose the pub or bar in the area you want.
So how do I navigate around the pub and bar portal?
Well, lets say you want to go and see a karaoke on Friday night in Hendon. You click on the Green Music Button and then the Blue Karaoke Button, (Music > Karaoke). Then Click on The Green Calendar Button and Click Friday. (Calendar > Friday) Then, Click on the Green Location Button and then NW. (Location > NW). Putting it all together you would click. Music > Karaoke > Calendar > Friday > Location > NW. It sounds complicated but because it's built in Flash you can do it in a Flash. You can do the above in any order, e.g. Calendar > Friday > Music > Karaoke > Location > NW or Location > NW > Calendar > Friday > Music > Karaoke.
Now that you've made your choice simply click the Get Pubs Button. This will send a message to the database to return all of the pubs and bars in NW London on our database that have a Karaoke on Friday. Choose one from Hendon and click on the pub or bar name.
*Wow! That's cool, now what?
Let's assume you chose to look at the Claddagh Ring in Hendon, just click on the menu links to the left of the grey information area. You'll find all of the information you need to make a decision. Don't fit your criteria? Click on selected pubs to bring back the pub and bar list that your search returned and simply choose another pub or bar.
*What is the purpose of the Green Searches Button?
We added this in August 2002 because of some feedback we were getting. It is used with the Location Button in exactly the same way as before. If you are looking for a Function Room in SW London you simply click Searches > Function Room > Location > SW > Get Pubs.
*And the Green Artist Button ?
This is to help publicans and the public find an artist to book for their pub or event. Same technique to use it. You want to hire a Jazz Band all you do is click Artists > Jazz > Get Artists. Simply go through the selected list and choose one, click on it and read all about the artists. In some cases you will be able to go straight to the artists own website and even listen to their music. You can contact most of them direct too.
*Why is the portal built in Macromedia Flash?
We originally had it built in HTML, it proved to be very messy and slow. Quite simply we were not happy with it. Flash has proved to be more stable, much faster, more attractive and pretty original.
*I always thought Flash was slower?
It can be if it's not built correctly. Our designers, desertstar, are experts in their field and have been very clever in making it quick, even on a 56k modem. There is obviously a few seconds needed while the information is retrieved from the server after you click Get Pubs, however, clicking between Menus and Sub Menus is quicker than turning the page of a book.
What also helps the speed is that we don't allow advertising, banners; pop-ups etc that can slow download time.
*What are the advantages of Citypublife Newsletters?
We send a general Newsletter to everybody once per month. Subscribers are from all walks of life and include government officials, finance officers, the OFT (keeping an eye on us I think), even one from a leading pub and bar publication. As of April 19 2003, we have over 2,300 subscribers. We also send Newsletters for individual pubs and bars that subscribe to the service and build their own databases. This is probably the most effective way of keeping existing customers coming back to the pub, many of these subscribers use the tell a friend link at the bottom of each posting so it also brings new people into the pubs and bars. It works very well.
*I've been using the site quite a lot and have recently found that you have surrounded the portal with HTML pages. Why is that?
Not everything needs to be built in Flash. The portal has a specific function; we don't want to slow it down unnecessarily. Therefore most of the new stuff currently being developed is in HTML, however, the suppliers and services search would probably be better inside the portal so we are looking at ways to deal with that. A lot more thought needs to be put into it because the portal design and development is bespoke, it can't be bought off the shelf.
*I found a pub listed last week but it's not there anymore. Why?
Quite frankly, it's down to the publican, if he/she decides not to keep us updated on changes and we get complaints, we'll remove them from the database. In our opinion, if they can't be bothered to keep their customers and potential customers informed about what they do, they don't deserve the exposure and promotion. What will happen is that somebody that would have gone to his/her pub or bar will now go elsewhere. We know from e-mails that this has happened on a number of occasions.
*Don't you lose money doing that?
Probably, in the short term, but if we don't keep the database information current people wont visit the portal. If people don't visit the portal the good pubs/bars wont subscribe.
*How often are the pages in the portal updated?
We guarantee within 48 hours of being told of the updates, however, we normally do it within about 4 or 5 hours. We try and put new pubs and bars on daily when we can.
*What is the cost to include pub and bar information on the portal?
This can be found in the "services page " quite simply it's £50 to build the site followed by £15 per month per pub/bar.
*You mean they pretty much get a whole website for just £230 for the first year? With promotion too? What's the catch?
No catch.
*How do pubs and bars pay?
Standing order, which is 100% in their control.
*How do you make money then?
Currently we don't. We have put in much more than we have taken out, however, we truly believe that what we do is a service that is both wanted and needed by publicans and the public. Eventually economies of scale will kick in and we'll earn enough from it to take it forward.
Do people actually visit the pubs and bars that are promoted on citypublife?
*If they didn't, we wouldn't bother with it. We have had numerous people who have e-mailed us and told us where and when they went, booked function rooms, accommodation etc. Some will tell the managers and bar staff, which is what we want people to do. People have even met through the portal via internet message boards. That's why we now have our own message board, which we are currently Beta testing.
*Most people wouldn't dare publish their statistics, why do you do it?
Everybody we talked to were shocked that we even considered it because if a particular pub or bars stats were bad then the pub would cancel their subscription.
Our answer to that is, if their promotion doesn't work for them, we don't want to take their money. I once heard something that has stayed with me for many years, it sounds corny but it is the core of our business philosophy.
"Success at the service of others, not at the expense of others".
We even give them a formula to take their statistics and calculate Return On Investment, using their own numbers. If it doesn't work, cancel the listing.
*How many have cancelled the service so far?
From when we started Phase I in February 2002, through Phase II launch in August 2002. Two pubs have cancelled subscription. One because the tenant moved and the other because she quite simply could not measure the success in terms of ROI and she didn't have a computer to check her listing and stats. This is why I try to get people to let publicans know that they found their pub or bar on citypublife when they visit. We have also removed 3 because they wouldn't keep us updated on changes to their information.
*What is Live Help?
We do have shortfalls, the main one being that we do not have information on all London pubs and bars. What you do have though, are books with the latest information. Live Help is there to make up the shortfall. If it's not on the London pubs and bars portal, it should be in one of our books, so we can help you Live and interactively.
*So where does it all go from here?
We are passively looking for consultants to help us build the database further. The position would suit somebody that can live off other means for about a year whilst slowly building an income from the pubs and bars they sign up. As we increase the number of pubs and bars subscribing with more information, more people will visit the portal who in turn will visit the subscribing pubs and bars.
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