Business Exchange Help

Business Exchange Help

If you own a business or offer a service, as a member of the Online Community you may place a listing for your business in the Business Exchange. If you are a member who needs a product or service you may very well find it in the Business Exchange listings for products and services offered by fellow members of your own community and members of other Online Communities as well.

The Welcome page offers two ways to begin. If you wish to start by searching existing Business Exchange listings (your own or those posted by others), use the "Search" menu on this page to find the listings that meet your needs. If you have a business or service you want to promote and are ready to create a new listing you may scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the Create an listing link.

To search for listings, enter the criteria for the desired search and press the Search for Listings button at the bottom of the form. If you specify more than one search argument, the search will return only results which meet all of the criteria you specified. For example, if you select "Lawyers" from "Business Category" and "Illinois" from the State/Province drop-down list, the search will return all listings by lawyers located in Illinois. By selecting multiple search criteria, you refine your search and increase the probability that you will quickly find the listings you want and no others. Be as specific as you can be.

To return only the listings you have created, check the box labeled "Find my Listings only." This can be combined with other search criteria to narrow the search if you have created a large number of listings and want to find one quickly.

As is explained in greater detail below under "Choose Target Audience," you may not be able to locate or view all listings. The "Choose Target Audience" function allows the individual who placed the listing to specify the audience allowed to view the listing -- one or more Online Community and/or one or more geographic area. If you are not in one of the specified communities or areas, you will not see the listing.

The owner of an listing is always able to search for, display, modify or delete their listing.

If you wish to send a question or comment to the administrator of the Business Exchange service of the Online Community, click the Feedback link at the bottom of the page. This will start up your email application (e.g., Netscape Mail, Eudora, or Microsoft Outlook) with the "To:" address already set to the administrator's email address, and with the "Subject:" preset with information which will help the administrator to identify the service to which you are responding. [Note: for best results, do not change the "To:" or "Subject:" settings.]

Enter your Feedback message and post it as you would any other email message.

Listings That Match Your Search Criteria

This page displays the results of a search. If more than 10 listings meet the search criteria, the listings are displayed in groups of ten. You can proceed to the Next or Previous pages by clicking the Next or Previous buttons as the bottom of the page.

If you are not satisfied with the results of a search, or if you have finished viewing all the search results want to do a new search, click the "Back" button on your browser, enter new search criteria, and launch a new search.

If you wish to create an listing you may do so on this page by scrolling to the bottom and clicking the Create Listing hyperlink.

If you selected the "Find My Listings Only" check box on the Search page, all the listings displayed were created by you. You may delete one of your own listings by first clicking the "radio button" next to it in the list, then clicking the Delete button at bottom right.

Details of the Chosen Listing

This page displays a single Business Exchange listing. Between the horizontal rules at top is displayed the business category for which you searched. (This defaults to "All" if you do not select one.) This is followed by the listing itself. Besides containing information in a standard format about the company, its product or service, and its address and telephone number(s), each Business Exchange listing typically contains an email address and, optionally, a World Wide Web home page address (URL).

The email address and home page URL (if present) are hyperlinks. If the email address is clicked, your email application will start, with "To:" address preset to the address shown. If the home page URL is clicked, your browser will display the page indicated, if it is found.

To return to the search results list page, click the Back button of your browser. To execute a fresh search, click the Search Business Exchange hyperlink at the bottom of the page.

If you wish to create a listing, you may do so on this page by scrolling to the bottom and clicking the Create Listing hyperlink.

Create Listings in Business Exchange

To create a Business Exchange listing, you must enter all of the information to be displayed in the listing. Each input field in the form is labeled to assist you through the process.

The Business Category is the heading under which your listing will appear, so it is important to select it carefully. Business Name is the name of your business, which will appear as a heading at the top of the listing. The Business Information/Description is one or more paragraphs of text which will form the body of your listing. Address, telephone, and Internet information will be formatted and displayed below the body text in that order.

If you provide a World Wide Web home page address and email address, these will appear in the finished listing as hyperlinks, and viewers will be able to view your home page or send you email by clicking on them.

When you have entered all the necessary information, proceed to the bottom of the page and press the Continue button. Here you will see listing as other members of the community will see it. If you wish make any changes to your listing press the Modify button.

View Listing Before Submitting

You are allowed to view and modify your listing before posting it. If you are not satisfied with your listing, select Modify and you will return to the input page where you can revise any or all of the content.

.If you are satisfied with the listing press Submit Listing to save the listing. This will also display the Targeting page, where you may select which online users may view your listing.

Choose Target Audience

Once you have created a listing you need to decide which Online Community users will get to view it. The Targeting page gives you the ability to limit the users allowed to view your listing to only members of specific communities or allows your listing to be viewed by members of all of Harris' Online Communities.

By default, when the Targeting page is first displayed for a new Business Exchange listing, the check boxes for "All communities" is preselected. If you press the Target Audience button without making any changes, the target audience for your listing will be all users in all communities. If you wish to restrict the audience, go to the desired list box and click on each target grouping you wish to add. (When you click the first specific grouping, the "All" check box will be automatically deselected.)

Update A Business Exchange Listing

The update form for Business Exchange listing is in most respects identical to that used to create a listing (see "Create Listings in Business Exchange," above). The most obvious difference is that when this page is first displayed, data for an existing listing is shown rather than an empty form. Make any changes you wish to the information shown, then click the Update Listing button at bottom left. Your changes will be made permanent and you will be taken to the Targeting page in case you wish to change the targeting criteria as well. (See "Choose Target Audience," above.)

Delete A Business Exchange Listing

If you selected the "Find My Listings Only" check box on the Search page, the search results list which is returned includes only listings created by you. If this is the case, an extra button, the Delete button, appears at the right end of the row of option buttons at the bottom of the search results page. You may delete one of your own listings by first clicking the "radio button" next to it in the list, then clicking the Delete button at bottom right.