Hicksville, N.Y.—As Floor Covering News embarks on its 20th anniversary it continues to seek ways to help its readers be more professional and profitable. With that, the publication has teamed-up with One Source Flooring, the industry’s leading Web-based source of advertising, in an effort to connect retailers and installers directly with local consumers who are ready to purchase flooring products and/or services.

One Source Flooring is technically the first online phone directory dedicated solely to linking consumers with flooring dealers, installers and even inspectors. In a sense, it is the Internet’s “Yellow Pages” for the industry. What makes One Source so special, and why FC-News has partnered with it, is three-fold: it costs little to no money to be listed with your own custom Web site and directory listing; One Source does not sell any products to consumers, rather it educates them on the value of flooring professionals and why it is to their advantage to visit a local store instead of buying over the Internet, and One Source is endorsed by some of the industry’s biggest companies and brands, including Mannington Mills, Invista’s Stainmaster and Solutia’s Wear-Dated.

In the short time since One Source went live, it has not only garnered the support of the above companies, but also one of the industry’s major buying groups is encouraging its members to take advantage of the service, and some of the industry’s top distributors have worked with their suppliers to allow them to sell the service with the benefits of the above reference companies. At press time, more than 1,300 businesses have signed on.

Of course, the manufacturers and distributors would like to see every dealer and installer taking advantage of the program so as to give the consumer a complete resource when she is deciding to make a purchase. “Floor Covering News sees One Source as a powerful marketing tool,” said Matthew Spieler, managing editor. “The entire industry can benefit from it. And, considering that some of the industry’s most reputable manufacturers, distributors and brands have already aligned with it says it is a good bet those who participate in and take advantage of it will reap tremendous benefits.”

Mark Farnsworth, who has spent almost his entire life in flooring is One Source’s president and director of marketing. He said the service was developed after it became apparent the industry needed an online database that services consumers, retailers, distributors and manufacturers of all products relating to flooring. “The Internet is fast becoming ‘The Yellow Pages’ for most people,” he explained.

“When they need a service or goods to purchase they turn to the Internet to find what they need and where to get them. And consumers for flooring products are doing the same.” By now, most businesses recognize the need to have a presence on the Web. Unfortunately, Farnsworth notes, most spend far too much money developing and maintaining a Web site and then never get their full money’s worth because no one is visiting it.

“Not only is it important to build a site that is easy to use and is appealing to the eye,” he said, “but it doesn’t do anyone any good if consumers can’t find or get to that Web site. This is the exact service we deliver.” As noted earlier, One Source does not sell products; instead it spends all its resources working with the Internet’s three largest search engines—Google, Yahoo and MSN—along with others, and making sure it buys the top ad spots on the first page that comes up when a consumer is looking for flooring.

“This ensures our members get a chance when a consumer is looking for flooring in their area,” Farnsworth added. In addition, members have access to their listing through a protected password and can make changes to make consumers aware of new products, promotions, sales, etc. They can also link to sponsoring manufacturers to get more product info. “When setting up One Source, we worked in tandem with the search engines to determine the most frequently used key words the consumer uses when trying to find a flooring product,” he said.

“These are the words we target for maximum exposure, but we continue to work with our account reps from the engines with regularly scheduled meetings to analyze the words and make necessary changes to keep us at the top.” In October 2005, just as an example, there were more than 345,000 search results from Overture/Yahoo on “carpet,” “carpet cleaning” and “rug carpet.”

Along with working with the top search engines, One Source’s technological power comes from its other partnership. “We employed the expertise and technology of Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp, the two largest companies providing software technology to the World Wide Web,” said Darlene Geiger, One Source’s vice president and director of technology, “to build a service, database and Web site that works.

“This technology expertise and financial backing,” she added, “provides a recipe guaranteeing One Source will always deliver a search result on the first page of any search engine.” What does all this mean? Using the above example, when those 345,000 searches were done, One Source would have appeared on the first page of listings that came up each time. So, if just 5% of the 345,000 clicked on One Source, the 1,300-plus businesses listed would be exposed to more than 17,000 consumers getting ready to make a purchase.

And this is just for those who searched using the three carpet “words” from only one search engine. Once a consumer visits One Source’s home page, she can select whether she is searching for flooring products or services such as an installer. She enters her area code and is instantly presented with the appropriate listing of businesses in her area along with information to contact them directly.

It costs $400 a year to get listed on One Source, but this is where the sponsoring manufacturers and distributors come into play. You can use your co-op funds so no money has to leave your business. In the case of Stainmaster, One Source is the only approved site for dealers to utilize their co-op funds for advertising. And, you get full access to One Source.

This is important, because the Web site goes beyond just allowing consumers to search out a local dealer or installer, it has categories for retailers, distributors and manufacturers, along with educational components for the consumer. “We foresee our site will in fact be the ‘one source’ anyone can go to,” Farnsworth said, “whether you are a consumer or provider of flooring products and services. We refer to it as the ‘Online Encyclopedia for the Flooring Industry.’

“The Web is here,” he concluded, “and it will be the very tool that will grow your business to whatever level you wish it.” To learn more, stop by either of FCNews’ two booths at Surfaces—121 and 7146—where Farnsworth and his team will be to sign people up or call, toll-free 866/449-1797.