One of the National Service Projects our Scouts participate in is our Make Your Own Website Service Project.  Our Scouts go into communities and set up a Make Your Own Website seminar in a place such as a school.  The Scouts choose, organize, and lead the event.  Our Scouts invite family and friends, community members, as well as local business people, to the event, and everyone gets a computer to work on.

Consumers spend billions of dollars a year on goods purchased online.  Even if a company's goods and services cannot be purchased online (such as a dry cleaner), many people look online to find businesses with a good reputation before deciding on a store to purchase from.  Business owners get the chance to put much more information online than they could put in a small ad in a directory such as the Yellow Pages, and it is less expensive.  Business owners get the chance to tell consumers about their products, give directions, list customer testimonials, and tell the customer how the business got started.  Customers like to put a face with a name and business owners can put pictures on their websites.

The best part is that the service is free and business owners, as well as family and friends, can get three months free and an inexpensive price to continue to have the site online.  At the end of the event, the web site builders will have:

* A usable website
* A free domain name
* Email
* Tips on how to constantly improve their website

Research has shown that even the smallest business can increase their profits by $400-$500 per month with a website.  Growing businesses can afford to hire more employees, increasing the benefit for the entire community.  This is a service provided by our Scouts to be of assistance to communities!