Welcome  to the premiere editions of COLORADO-DIRECTORIES.NET and COLORADO-ARTS.NET.  These are free public services that will become major sources of information about entertainment, the arts, cultural activities and other public services and opportunities throughout Colorado.  This is an extensive project that I am currently launching, and this enormous undertaking has taken several additional months to launch, even in an abbreviated incomplete state.

           This service is advertiser supported; however it is my policy to present advertising non-obtrusively.  Advertising includes expanded listings that provide detailed information about a listing, updated calendars, display ads and some banner ads.  The empty yellow space on the right side of directory pages is reserved for display ads and also other free benefits for people visiting these web pages.  No obtrusive pop-ups will be included.  Businesses listed will also be offered various web design services including building and maintenance of full web sites, and also individual web pages that are hosted and updated by COLORADO-DIRECTORIES.NET, and various website promotions.  These various commercial services will enable COLORADO-DIRECTORIES.NET and COLORADO-ARTS.NET to continue to be free services for Colorado residents, tourists and visiting business people, and to afford being promoted in other media, ranging from fliers and ads in commuter buses to magazines on airlines, public service announcements and television spot ads.

           The main focus is to present a collection of information that most people, including residents, tourists and visiting business people are interested in.  Another philosophical belief is that many of the current print media will become progressively overly expensive as the available supplies of disposable paper continue to dwindle.  Telephone directories are already becoming obsolete because they only serve those who lease their own proprietary telephone lines, and there are now many telecommunication opportunities and more occurring.  The nature of retail marketing is also undergoing considerable changes.  There were general stores in olden times, and then specialized mom-and-pop stores, and then chain stores and malls and now mega-stores that are like the olden day general stores only vastly larger and surrounded by parking lots the sizes of small lakes.  There are also now electronic and virtual stores and telecommuting and also an ailing and struggling national economy that is forcing resurgence of self-employment, small business and individual entrepreneurship.  These directories promote businesses, including storefront and virtual businesses, and also promote professionals and entrepreneurs, including individuals who are one-person businesses and independent professionals.  In these difficult times, when businesses are curtailing health benefits and retirement benefits for employees and are requiring free overtime work, self-employment is becoming not only a necessary alternative but also a preferable alternative for anyone who can manage being an entrepreneur.

           COLORADODIRECTORIES.NET is a combination portal and ezine with a growing number of individual, separate directory websites.  You may enter this portal through the home page or through any of the individual, separate directory websites and then navigate the overall sites using navigation buttons.  You may also enter through other websites that are hyperlinked through link exchanges.

          Ezine features will include links to online magazines, online news media, weather information, movie reviews, etc.

There is no directory listing service like this.  Telephone directory yellow-pages provide restrictive listings for businesses with business telephones leased from them at premium costs.  In the past, the telephone directory was a complete listing of anyone doing business, but now there are dozens of competing telephone services, at least four different telephone directories in the Denver metro area, and many entrepreneurs with home businesses or Internet businesses who are not being served.  Newspapers and community magazines have token listings of businesses in certain potential-advertiser categories, events, and groups, but these are token gestures and are at best marginally accurate or up-to-date, but are not necessarily comprehensive and are sometimes printed in such fine print that they are difficult to read without a magnifying glass.  Radio stations with serious Internet identities also offer some of the best events information concerning music, special events, and public services that relate the radio station's format.  COLORADO-DIRECTORIES.NET and COLORADO-ARTS.NET are providing 21st century comprehensiveness with 24/7/366 availability (at least during 2004).  In 2005, we will drop back to 24/7/356 availability).

COLORADO-DIRECTORIES.NET and COLORADO-ART.NET are brand new and still under construction.  COLORADO-DIRECTORIES.NET is launching with 28 directories, and COLORADO-ART.NET is initially hosting 32 directories.  We apologize for any typos, out-of-date incorrect information, obsolete listings that are no longer in business, omissions, or broken links, and will correct these as soon as they are discovered.  Any group, organization or professional listed is being requested to submit a request to be listed, and those that do not and are no longer in business will be edited-out.  Additional directories will be added on a regular basis.  The broad focus of these extensive directories encompasses the arts, cultural activities, music, dance, entertainment, tourism, food, and accommodations and a host of related topics of interest to Colorado residents and visitors, including tourist and visiting business people.  Initially the primary focus is the Denver-Boulder-Aurora-Centennial metro area with the directories expanding to cover the entire state.

These directories are provided free to use and basic listings are provided freely to businesses, organizations, professionals and entrepreneurs who belong in each of the directories.

          We also provide basic training and instruction in how to get the most from your computer, how to optimize performance, how to enhance security and virus protection, and a host of other topics.  This training is provided in the GENERAL INFORMATION sub-directory.  In this initial edition of COLORADO-DIRECTORIES.NET and COLORADO-ARTS.NET is instruction in adjusting screen size resolution, downloading free software updates, and performing basic computer maintenance. 

          The GENERAL INFORMATION sub-directory and other subdirectories will also provide free software that you can download to your computer to improve performance and enhance the capabilities and security of your computer.  We strongly recommend that you know the system capabilities of your computer system and the system requirements of software to be downloaded before doing the downloading in order to prevent downloading software that your computer cannot accommodate.  This is generally not a problem, but can be in some cases.  Free software for downloading at this time include current browser versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape,  and some basic graphics and multi-media viewer and virus protection software.  These are basic software that you may already have, but here we are starting at the beginning.  More elaborate software will be provided in subsequent editions within the next month or two...