Community's World Wide Web presence greater than ever

Posted By Marc Zienkiewicz (leader)

March 27, 2009

A popular Lac du Bonnet website is getting bigger and better.

Lacdubonnet.info, which has been in operation since the late 1990s, is growing by leaps and bounds, and now offers information on virtually every aspect of the community — local businesses, historical sites, volunteer organizations, and a lot more.

“It started when I was living in Winnipeg. I was operating a car dealership and I decided to make a little website for it. It took off from there,” Campbell said.

He taught himself web design and decided to do what he could to publicize his home and favourite community — Lac du Bonnet.

Campbell — who also serves as a member of town council — has started another website called datahelps.com, which offers complete website maintenence services. In partnership with a hosting service called Host Papa, Datahelps offers businesses and organizations in the community an affordable and very easy way to have a website of their own.

Campbell has designed websites for nearly 20 community organizations so far, including the Lac du Bonnet Chamber of Commerce, Charitable Foundation, Legion, Arena, Library, and more.

He said the sites will hopefuly be a useful tool for tourists soon to be flocking to the region.

“It’s a great tool for anyone who’s planning to come here and visit,” Campbell said.

“Nowadays everyone uses the internet before they travel. No one just goes somewhere they’ve never been without knowing what’s there and where to find it. I think this is a very handy tool.”

All the websites Campbell designs for the community are linked to lacdubonnet.info. Something especially useful for business owners is a “business directory” feature that offers free listings for local businesses of all kinds.

For more info visit lacdubonnet.info or datahelps.

HostPapa April Edition #4

Bill Campbell is a perfect example of a HostPapa customer making the most of his HostPapa experience.  He originally chose HostPapa because he required more bandwidth and more MySQL databases, which his previous provider would not make available to him without significant extra cost.  He also needed more add-on domains, as his provider only accommodated two domains per site and no sub-domains.

His site, www.lacdubonnet.info, is a non-profit website, promoting the area, events, organizations, and businesses of Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba, Canada.  However, Campbell also hosts a whopping 12 other local websites in addition to a community events calendar, services directory, and classified section—all of which are now hosted with HostPapa.

Campbell admits he was at first reluctant to make the switch to HostPapa as he was “leery of web host promises.”

”Everything turned out to be cost plus with my previous provider once I wanted to expand,” Campbell explains.  “My site, being free to the user, made this an impossible option. So I decided, what the heck, I’ll try HostPapa.  At the price you were offering, what could I lose?  Boy was I surprised!  I now have everything I need.  The transfer of files was smooth, and I now have more room and resources than I will need for a while.  And I’m not yet finished exploring all the tools available!”

While his initial goal for the website was to promote his home town, once Campbell signed up with HostPapa, “I found that my opportunities were endless,” he says.  He now has a total of 13 domains, all under one HostPapa account.  The best part is that he’s only paying $5.95 a month—total!

Campbell, who has ten years of limited experience with FrontPage, considered himself a web “hobbyist”—prior to joining HostPapa, that is.  “With the tools and templates HostPapa provides, I can now create professional looking content that is comparable to most professional sites.”  He makes great use of HostPapa’s web templates, unlimited MySQL databases, Noah Classifieds, unlimited add-on domains and sub domains, and the free extra domain name.

When asked to pinpoint his favourite thing about HostPapa, Campbell can only reply, “Everything!  The abilities, resources, cost, and support have taken my web experience to new heights.”

As for his future plans, Campbell will be expanding into the world of web design, providing others with low cost alternatives and opportunities to promote themselves on the web—“a little guy’s alternative,” he likes to say.

Campbell has a hard time believing he’s only been a HostPapa customer since August of 2007.  “HostPapa makes you feel so at home,” he says, “it feels like I’ve been here for years.”

Here are Bill Campbell’s websites—all hosted under one HostPapa account:

www.lacdubonnet.info - Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba information site
www.rec.lacdubonnet.info - Winnipeg River Recreation District
www.library.lacdubonnet.info - Lac du Bonnet Regional Library
www.legion.lacdubonnet.info - Lac du Bonnet Royal Canadian Legion
www.blues.lacdubonnet.info - Lac du Bonnet Blues Senior Hockey
www.arsenault.lacdubonnet.info - Local trucking company
www.campbells.lacdubonnet.info - Local grocery store
www.r0e1a0.com - Postal code portal to Lac du Bonnet information
www.TP42.com
www.bathcoat.com - Local bath refinisher
www.datahelps.com - Local web host