2bnMaine

Most small towns in Maine don’t need a web site to fill their downtowns with tourists, or to promote their industries. If they do, the Chamber of Commerce can do that job. And most are operating on tiny budgets.

They need a very simple site that citizens can use to get essential and timely information from the town offices. Things such as permits, meeting schedules, transfer station hours, names of the selectmen, office hours, etc.

Why not use Google for both a web site and a blog, and keep it very simple? And free! (Actually you could just use  just a blog to keep it really simple.)

The web site can contain all the documents — permit rules, meeting notes, history, etc. And the blog can provide all the current information. They should be linked.

Plus, it could even be monetized to actually earn money for the town.

Google offers these advantages:

1. It’s free!

2. It will always be up, no worry about a hosting service.

3. There will be no maintenance or updating the software. It will always be up to date.

4. Sufficient storage for large documents.

5. It’s easy to use.

6. The basic look is more attractive than most sites.

7. Search may be improved because they’re already within the Google world.

Google has these disadvantages:

1. The url or address isn’t a pure ‘TownOfMaine.com.’ But does that matter?

2. It’s not clear if they place ads. But they do offer a premium version so that may be their business model instead of advertising.

Here are examples of a blog, and a web site. And here are links to Blogger and Google Sites.

What else could beat the power of Google and the words — ‘easy’ and ‘free?’

These days, tax dollars need to be stretched as far as they can go.

Update – check out Weebly. They offer a very nice package — all free!

Good idea? Bad idea? What do you think?