After more than three years in development, the Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce’s new Web site is up and running.

John Kincheloe, the 2009 chamber chairman who oversaw the development of the site, said it greatly will help the chamber fulfill its primary mission: Bringing business to its members.

The site offers new features for members, including space to offer online coupons and advertise job openings. Unlike the previous site, the new one also is updated with positive news stories, calendar information and other information pertinent to members. It also has links to the chamber’s sites on Facebook and Twitter, where members can learn up-to-the minute news.

Chamber CEO Eddie Baysden has his own blog on the site.

“If I had to describe the Web site, it is a newspaper integrated with Yellow Pages,” Kincheloe said.

The main problem with the previous chamber site was there was no one to maintain and update it regularly, Kincheloe said. The chamber has hired Allison Sikes, a Rocky Mount native who owns Strategy Performance LLC, to handle that job.

With the help of Sikes and the chamber staff, business stories continually are being added to the site.

“It’s all good news stories about members of the chamber or organization or community events,” Sikes said.

The new site is light-years better than the previous one, Kincheloe said.

“We had been behind the curve when it came to electronic media,” he said.

The site has a business directory that links a potential customer to chamber members and, in turn, offers them a contact to the person making the inquiry.

Through a referral report, the business owner can learn how many people clicked on his or her business directory entry or online coupon. For example, a person interested in finding an apartment can click on the relocation category to be linked with chamber members who offer apartments for rent.

“The directory is now fully integrated into all the content. That is the real change,” Kincheloe said.

At the top right side of the page, the chamber has a feature story about the Small Business of the Month winner. At the bottom are pictures of recent ribbon-cutting events.

The site also features popular amenities in Rocky Mount, such as the city’s sports complex. 

The chamber got a great deal from Sikes on designing and maintaining the page, Kincheloe said.

“We have paid her thousands of dollars, but we haven’t paid her $100,000,” Kincheloe said. “The bottom line is: To get these integrated modules, if we had to pay to have those modules written, this would be a half a million (dollar) Web site.”

Sikes also is taking calls from members who have questions about how to log into the site to post coupons.

“She is doing all the legwork,” Kincheloe said. “She is bringing together her design talents. ... One of the things that led us to this is we were always disappointed in our Web site, and we didn’t have anybody to maintain it on a real time-basis.”

The finished Web site exceeds his expectations.

“(Sikes) has taken it so much further than I even thought was possible,” he said.

(Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct an error in the original version.)