Newspaper Page Text
is your web site doing all
it can for your business?
b >
rjiy
t"r.,po, you’ve joined the ranks of
businesses establishing a pres
ence on the Internet. You’ve cre-
- at,ed a dynamic web site with
.great graphics and original con
. kept, but are you taking full
advantage of the information
opportunities this interactive
- medium provides?
The web is much more than a
bulletin board for company press
< releases, product catalogs and
Wnual reports, states Gary Arndt,
president of Creative Internet
Solutions based in Minneapolis,
Minn. “What most businesses fail
t<? realize is that the real power of
Afte web is in gathering and dis-
information at a very
... low cost,” notes Arndt.
- -the real power
of the web is in
gathering and
distributing
information at
a very low cost
Arndt has used that angle to
♦ carve a lucrative niche in the
.Internet services field. “It’s
become very clear that there is a
real distinction between having a
corporate presence online versus
what we’re doing building
data management systems,” he
explains.
What that means, in layman’s
terms, is that Creative Internet
/Solutions (CIS) provides clients
//with software tools that allow
'Jithem to manage their own Web
3 J sites, whether it’s updating con
.’,tent or gleaning statistical infor
mation about visitors. And, it’s
/ this ease of management which
£ < allows companies to present Web
y sites that continue to draw cus
? , tomers and increase revenues.
“There are lots of companies
'■‘out there (offering Internet ser-
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vices), but most of them are com
ing at it from an advertising, mar
keting or public relations angle
their background is in exposure,”
Arndt says. “We come at it like a
software design company. Our
background is information man
agement.”
Such management tools have
been a boon for companies like
Article Resource Association, a
feature news release service that
operates via the Internet. “In addi
tion to updating the content of our
site and distributing articles to our
members easily and efficiently,
we can gather critical information
on exactly who is accessing our
material and when,” states Ted
Yoch, president of ARA.
The biggest benefit, Yoch adds,
is that all the information man
agement can be done in-house.
“With the administrative tools
provided by CIS, staff members
can manage our site without hav
ing to know HTML program
ming. There’s no need to hire a
webmaster, so the cost savings of
maintaining the site ourselves is
significant.”
Such self-sufficiency also pleases
Linda Peterson, who manages a
web site for the Hazelden
Foundation, a chemical dependen
cy counseling center in
Minneapolis. “When we started
out, we just wanted a web pres
ence, and we found that the site we
set up was much more limiting
than we wanted it to be,” she
explains. “It was harder than we
expected to add new material; we
couldn’t work with it freely.”
Enter CIS. Working with
Peterson, Arndt and his crew
refined Hazelden’s web presence
to give Peterson full control. She
can easily access the site and add
and edit, all while remaining a
self-proclaimed “non-computer
person.”
See WEB, Page 8A
AARP Tax-Aide begins Feb. 5
The AARP Tax-Aide program will be providing
free tax assistance to middle- and low-income tax
payers aged 60 and older in Forsyth County begin
ning Feb. 5.
AARP Tax-Aide is proud to be celebrating its 30th
year of service. Begun in 1965, the program has
operated under a cooperative agreement with the
IRS as part of its Tax Counseling for the Elderly
program.
Susan E. Holzweiss is in charge of the local Tax-
Aide effort. Beginning Thursday, Feb. 5, Holzweiss
and volunteers will be at the Forsyth County Public
Library to provide help to individuals preparing their
income tax paperwork.
Tax-Aide hours will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through
Thursday, April 9.
Since its birth, AARP Tax-Aide has helped over 25
million individuals file their taxes. The program is
Consumer group offers budget counseling
U.S. consumer debt hit a record
level of $1.3 trillion in 1997. In
Georgia alone, personal bankrupt
cies filed last year rose 13.9 percent
from 1996, to 61,572, making the
state the fifth highest in personal
bankruptcy filings in the nation.
However, many people are finding
relief by turning to Consumer
Credit Counseling Service (CCCS)
for help managing their personal
debt and regaining control over
their finances.
All told, 36,608 individuals and
families met with CCCS counselors
in person or by telephone for per
sonalized budget counseling in
1997, an increase of 24 percent over
1996.
According to Suzanna Boas, pres
ident of CCCS, CCCS made a sig
nificant effort in 1997 to make it
easier for consumers to access the
agency’s services. “Last year, we
added a telephone counseling
option and launched a new website
(http:// www.cccsatl.org),” says
Boas. “Georgians have responded
enthusiastically to these new ser
vices. We’re now able to reach a
whole new group of people: those
BUSINESS
who need the services we offer, but
who prefer to receive them from the
privacy of their own homes or
offices.”
The numbers tell the tale. Since
CCCS began offering the telephone
counseling option in March, 1997,
many people have enthusiastically
responded to this service. Since its
debut in June 1997, the website has
likewise attracted much interest,
receiving an average of 12,000 hits
each month.
In addition, 11,000 clients partici
pated in debt management plans as
away of repaying their creditors at
a manageable level. These clients
returned more than $37 million to
national and local creditors and
businesses, $9 million more than in
1996. This is money that might oth
erwise have been lost to bankruptcy.
Twenty-seven thousand con
sumers attended a CCCS educa
tional seminar in 1997, parallel to
that in 1996. The CCCS education
department provides civic, commu
nity and workplace education semi
nars about credit, money manage
ment and debt-free living.
“We encourage people to call us
managed and run by an annual volunteer force of
31,000 dedicated individuals spread across the
United States, whose mission it is to help older tax
payers.
Volunteers are specially trained, in cooperation
with the IRS, on the latest changes in tax laws and
those provisions of the tax code most important to
older people.
AARP Tax-Aide provides more than 10,000 sites
annually where older people can get their taxes pre
pared free of charge. The AARP Foundation is an
affiliated 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) nonpartisan charitable orga
nization, established in 1961.
The Tax-Aide program is successful because of the
more than 31,000 volunteers who give freely of their
time and expertise each year. More volunteers are
always needed as are coordinators responsible for
recruiting, promoting the program, planning training
as soon as they suspect that they
might have a debt problem, rather
than waiting until they are com
pletely overwhelmed by it,” says
Boas. “By taking control of their
financial situations, consumers can
get on the road to financial recovery
and stability.”
Consumer Credit Counseling
Service was established in 1964 as
a nonprofit, community service
organization that provides free bud
get counseling, regardless of
income or amount of debt owed,
and debt repayment plans for con
sumers who are overextended.
Headquartered in Atlanta, CCCS
has offices in Athens, Carrollton,
Decatur, Douglasville, Fayetteville,
Gainesville, Marietta, Norcross,
Rome, Toccoa and throughout the
metropolitan Atlanta area.
Telephone counseling is also avail
able. To schedule an appointment
for counseling, call (404) 527-7630
in Atlanta. Outside Atlanta call
(800) 251-CCCS. Consumers can
also visit the organizations web site
at http://www.cccsatl.org. The
agency’s TTY number for the hear
ing impaired is (770) 716-9666.
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Bunchy, F«brwry
Phone ‘cramming 5
is latest scam
The Better Business Bureau
(BBB) cautions consumers about
an emergency phone scam
known as, “cramming,” services
added or “crammed” onto con
sumers’ phone bills without their
knowledge or consent. Similar to
phone slamming, long distance
or local phone service switched
without authorization, cramming
occurs when consumers or busi
nesses are charged for optional
phone services without prior
agreement. These charges for
services such as paging services,
voice mail, and a personal 800
number, are assessed by third
parties and billed through local
phone carriers. Oftentimes, the
company names that appear on
the phone bills in connection
with the charges sound like they
are services from local carriers,
when they are actually middle
men for the real providers of the
unauthorized services. \
The 888, along with the
National Consumers League,
offers the following tips:
• Be careful when calling
unfamiliar 800, 888 or 900 num
bers. Be especially wary of fol
lowing instructions to “enter
activation code numbers” or of
answering “yes” to questions
that many unwittingly result in
authorizing unwanted telephone
services.
• Before filling out any contest
form or coupon offer, read the
fine print. By signing it, you
may be agreeing to new or addi
tional phone service.
• Carefully review your phone
bill each month to make sure
there are no unauthorized
charges. If you have doubts
about a charge, call your local
phone company and ask for an
explanation.
• If you feel you’ve beeh
crammed or slammed, contact
your Better Business Bureau,
your local phone company and
the National Fraud Information
Center (800) 876-7060, to report
the problem.
PAGE 7A