Buy Local: Contemporary furniture (mahogany chair and white oak outdoor futon chaise longue) made in USA right here in the Oneonta Cooperstown area

Are you planning to visit the Oneonta Cooperstown area? Perhaps you’re a baseball family whose children are taking part in one of the upstate New York baseball camps: Cooperstown Dreams Park or Cooperstown All Star Village. Or your musically inclined teen is attending Oneonta Music Camp, the New York Summer Music Festival. If you enjoy combining vacations with shopping for unique local products, you won’t want to miss Nikita Indoor Outdoor Convertible Furnishings at 7 Elm Street (607) 267-4623 (next to Mama Nina’s Pizza), Oneonta, NY.

At the Nikita showroom in Oneonta you’ll find beautiful contemporary furniture reminiscent of Danish Modern style. Nikita beds, sofabeds, chairs, chaise longues are custom made according to your choices of size, style, wood, cushion and fabric cover. Designed and manufactured by Nikita Grigoriev, an innovator of indoor and outdoor furniture since the early 80s, this furniture has a patented lean back design. The Nikita website mantra is “just lean back” and your sofa with infinite recline will morph into a bed. Every piece of furniture Nikita makes can be made for indoors or both indoors and outdoors depending on the materials. Mahogany and white oak are suitable for outdoor pieces and work with outdoor cushions and Sunbrella or Outdura fabrics.

So if you appreciate good design and excellent craftsmanship and products locally made in USA, Nikita Convertible Furnishings will fill your needs for your den, bedroom, living room, deck or poolside. It’s amazing furniture and there is something for everyone: the graduate moving to first apartment who needs a space saving sofabed or newlyweds furnishing their first home to people downsizing who want spare room options.  Have fun shopping in Oneonta and Nikita has a store in Saratoga Springs as well (508 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, 518-796-1887).

Thanks for listening,

Mary Robinson
Nikita furniture customer for over 7 years
now official blogger for Nikita Indoor Outdoor
www.JustLeanBack.com/blog/

This post is for all Oneonta businesses:

Welcome to April. Things are really picking up in Oneonta;  the weather is warm and downtown is  bustling even though the students are on break.  At www.OneontaOnTheMap.com we’re noticing more traffic on our website.  People are looking for coupons as well as information about lodging, restaurants, events and Oneonta children’s events.

Here’s a heads-up — try our free Create Coupon feature today. You will find the button on the white bar just below the OneontaOnTheMap header.  I’ll bet it will take you less than 5 minutes to create a coupon using our automated feature.

The beauty of our coupon feature is customers will click on your coupon link and the coupon can be sent to their cell phones (there is a print coupon alternative). Then they just show you the cell phone screen and voila, you will know that they found you here on www.OneontaOntheMap.com. Both you and OneontaOnTheMap will benefit — you’ll find new customers excited to check out your business and we’ll gain return web visitors looking for more coupons.

We don’t want to disappoint people who arrive at OneontaOnTheMap.com website because they searched using the keywords “coupons Oneonta.”   If your business doesn’t ordinarily use coupons, you may use our CREATE COUPON feature to leave info about a daily special or in store sale.

More coupon benefits for you: coupons mean VISIBILITY on our OneontaOnTheMap website. Your listing will appear in a special COUPON category (top of our business listing bar) and your business will automatically “float” to the top of all categories where it appears. That’s right, we break our alphabetic order code to make way for businesses leaving coupons.  We’re currently programming more features to call attention to Oneonta businesses leaving coupons; and should have them ready shortly.

Stay tuned for further Oneonta promotions,

Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com

e-mail mr@OneontaOnTheMap.com with any comments or suggestions about  our CREATE COUPON feature.

Neverdaunt (N8) is getting rave reviews and Calvin was recently interviewed by a U.K. gaming magazine  (I’ll add the link when the interview is published). This is impressive for a self-taught programmer/artist attempting a formidable task: creating a MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game as his first project.  He’s had the game idea for many years: designing a game around players making up their own games to play, so participants can create and teach each other something new. After three years of full time designing and coding,  Neverdaunt is a reality.

I had hoped to enter the world of Neverdaunt before writing this post, but due to our new location and slow satellite Internet, I am not able to play MMO games from home.  OneontaOnTheMap followers, I am counting on you to check it out and spread the word about Neverdaunt (N8);  I hope to see you in that world shortly. This news is so important, we’ve put the Neverdaunt link on our www.OneontaOnTheMap.com front page, making a new right hand section with news from our blog. Neverdaunt is for ages 13+.

P.S. – If you’re interested in meeting up with Calvin at a local coffee shop to talk more about Neverdaunt N8 or game design programming, let me know (leave a comment or e-mail info@OneontaOnTheMap.com ) and we’ll try to arrange it.

Holler Oneonta,

Mary Robinson
OOTM your Un-official Guide

July brings the Annual Oneonta Hometown 4th of July Celebration and fireworks in Neahwa Park.  Check our event calendar for MORE area 4th of July happenings.

July 6 is a special Oneonta Tigers Baseball game vs. Aberdeen, at 7:05 pm. It’s Sam Nader Bobblehead night: Honoring a Legend. First 1,000 fans with paid admission get a Sam Nader Bobblehead. Gates open at 5:45 pm.

OneontaOnTheMap.com would like to celebrate July Independence & Festivities by turning our attention this month to promoting locally owned and operated businesses. What can be more American?

Here’s a personal testimony about how one can live in a small town for 19 years and yet still discover a gem of a business. In June, Rick & I celebrated our 27th anniversary and Rick went to buy flowers at Wyckoff’s to surprise me. The florist noticed Rick’s hat with SUSE Linux embroidered on it, and they began talking about Linux, which led to Rick talking about OneontaOnTheMap. Flowers were paid for and later that evening Wyckoff’s added their business to our website database.

Wyckoff's Florist, the oldest business in Oneonta, NY still in its original location

Here’s what they entered for their info:

Wyckoff’s Florist is the oldest business in Oneonta still in its original location. We have a 128 year tradition of supplying beautiful fresh cut, arranged and wedding flowers to the Oneonta area.

Wyckoff’s Florist is committed to more that just beautiful flowers. First we must state that money is not everything “For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” [Matthew 16;26]. Taking a lead from Paul Newman, we have decided to give all of our 2009 profits to charities & schools. Yes, that’s right, 100%, … we hold nothing back. ” Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belt, take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or staff; for the worker is worth his keep.” Mat 10;9

Now, in these days, you can go to a grocery or department store and get flowers at cost. You will pay less, true, but by also sacrificing quality and care that goes into every arrangement. As well, it begs the question as to what we have done to the “mom & pop shop”, “family” or “neighborhood business” in America? For the sake of paying a few cents or a few dollars less, we have sent nearly all of our production & manufacturing overseas and we go to a single “mega store” to get everything. The products are cheap, of poor quality (even dangerous at times) and need to be replaced in a year. Spending in this way sends all the proceeds to a corporation that cares nothing about the community, personal relationships & customer care that the mom & pop shop focuses on. When buying your flowers here at Wyckoff’s, you can rest assured that the few dollars extra you might have paid will go to good causes and people in need, not an executive’s pocket or an overseas dictatorship.

Wyckoff’s Florist is also trying to make a change for our country & economy. We’re working hard to ensure all products sold from Wyckoff’s are made in the USA. We are not there yet, but we’re making choices toward this goal. We’ll update this post when we’re 100% in this area too.

Wow, talk about local and green:) and giving to our community (it is almost too good to be true); Wyckoff’s Florist says it all. I think this is part of a new business model of which we are seeing more and more; I am reminded of Go Wireless Community Appreciation Day, The Daily Star Ice Cream Social and Oneonta World of Learning events.

At OneontaOnTheMap, our coupon feature is nearing completion, and we are looking to highlight locally owned/operated businesses by marking them with a star icon, or flag if the product is made here in Oneonta. We’re getting excited about business here and hope you are too. Holler!

Finally, don’t forget the 2009 Oneonta City Summer Music Series Thursday concerts in Neahwa Park, a great way to unwind from hot humid days. Concerts are free; thank you City of Oneonta.

See you around town,
Rick & Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com
YOUR HOMETOWN HOMEPAGE / MADE IN ONEONTA

We at Oneonta On The Map are especially happy when new businesses are added to our directory. You see, we’ve compiled basic listings, but we appreciate it when owners are proactive and add their own details which tell us what brands or products they specialize in. We can then create new categories, grow our database and evolve.

I’d like to bring to your attention some of the new Oneonta (and surrounding area) businesses in our database:

I’d also like to welcome new followers on Twitter and am excited about following businesses such as Tsuga Golf Course & Restaurant. Can’t wait to take that drive in the country … and check out the restaurant. The tees will remain silent for me.

If I have missed anyone, don’t hesitate to give me a holler. And please pass the word about our free listings to friends and businesses.

Thanks for listening,
Mary Robinson
www.OneontaOnTheMap.com
your hometown homepage … MADE IN ONEONTA NY

However, what caught my eye is the free winter dining series at Brewery Ommegang, called Great Beer Deserves Great Food. They are having the finest local chefs work with their finest ales. On March 7 the chef is from Stella Luna Ristorante.

Let’s banish the winter blues and enjoy these events. Don’t forget to tell the sponsors that you heard about them from Oneonta On The Map!

More events to follow,

Mary Robinson

www.OneontaOnTheMap.com

Business Model, Part I

As we’re traversing Oneonta and stopping in at businesses to introduce ourselves and promote our directory website, we’re frequently asked, “Why are you doing this?” or “How are you going to make money from www.OneontaOnTheMap.com?”  Two very good questions, I would say!

Rick has been working on this website for so long that he’s probably forgotten why he started it:)  I think it had something to do with Google Maps making their software available and also his happening upon the business model presented in a book, The Four Hour Work Week.  (Ha, we’ve spent countless hours, not four hours, every week on this site.) But I’ll save the details of the synchronicity that lead to the creation of our site, and instead blog about how we plan to serve businesses, visitors and residents in our area and beyond.

I’ll begin with the three C’s: Community, Coupons and Contests.  Oneonta on the Map is community focused, being for LOCALS, published by LOCALS, and we want the business community to play a starring role by adding and editing their own listings, publicizing events, giving coupons or announcing sales —we want customers to say they  “heard it first at Oneonta On The Map.”

To keep everything in real time — we’ve made business listings DYNAMIC — they can be easily changed, and the changes announced as soon as a restaurant changes a menu or store announces specials or sales. We’re more than just a website, we’re a web presence for your business; if you provide a web page link, we send customers to your page.  If your business does not have a web page,  your listing on Oneonta On The Map can contain your photo, hours of operation and what makes you unique and exciting — your web presence is here. People will find you through Oneonta On The Map. We’ll be talking more about coupons in the near future.

The contest part is about fun and reasons for our audience to return to Oneonta On The Map.  Our first contest — The Gift Certificate Give Aways (to Elena’s and Green Toad Books) ends on April 15.  We’ve got more ideas brewing, so keep following this blog for updates. By the way, if you haven’t entered the contest yet, the odds right now of winning are phenomenal. Tell your friends and customers about Oneonta On The Map and send them our way.

Thanks for listening.