Monday, April 30, 2001 Issue 6   VOLUME 1 ISSUE 6   WELCOME http://fita.org Here's your latest issue of Really Useful Sites for the International Trade Professional. This free bi-weekly newsletter reviews useful Web sites from the Web Resources database at FITA's International Trade/ Import-Export Portal at http://fita.org, an excellent source for trade leads, news, events, and a link library of 7,000+ sites related to international trade. Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to others. My name is John McDonnell, and for years I wrote a weekly e- newsletter that profiled business-oriented Web sites. Now I'm using my Web research skills to find sites that are useful for international trade, as well as some fun sites that you'll enjoy visiting. E-COMMERCE http://europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/ebusiness/ecommerce/index_en.htm There was a time when I had visions of starting my own dot.com company and getting obscenely rich, then retiring to a hillside mansion in Hawaii. I never did anything about my visions, and that allowed me to avoid the bitter taste of defeat that so many dot.com entrepreneurs experienced in the past year. Although you don't hear as many people talking about getting rich on the Net these days, e-commerce is just too attractive a proposition to go away. More and more companies will find a way to successfully sell their wares on the Internet. If you want to take a stab at e-commerce, there's a great site where you can find the resources you need. Electronic Commerce and the European Union at http://europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/ebusiness/ecommerce/index_en.htm is a European Union site, but it will help anyone, no matter where they're located, get into the e-commerce game. Here you'll find articles, research, statistics, policy papers, discussion forums, an ask-the-expert feature, funding sources, trade and employment leads, and much more. BUSINESS.COM http://www.business.com/ Whether you're researching a country, market, or company, Business.com at www.business.com is a good place to start. This site has so much detail you'll be amazed -- as an example, they have a list of key players in the Condiments, Spreads & Sauces industry. That's right -- if you want to know who's the Big Dog in the salad dressing game, you'll find out here. You can either type in a keyword at the home page, or click through various levels of categories till you find what you're looking for. The information is quite detailed. For example, in the Food & Beverage category you can view editors' picks for research, newsletters available, key players (companies with highest market cap, best stock performance, biggest profit margin, etc), related associations, and so on. The company finder has links to 10,000 US public companies, 15,000 international companies and 45,000 private companies. Information on the page includes stock quote, profile, news, key competitors, and more. My only quibble with Business.com is that the font size is too small, which is hard on my middle-aged eyes. Are your prospects part of the international trade community? If so, here's an opportunity to showcase your service or product to 50,000 subscribers of Really Useful Sites for the International Trade Professional. FITA now offers limited sponsorship opportunities to selected organizations. For information, please contact Barney Lehrer, Director of eCommerce Development at webmaster@fita.org or 1-800-969-FITA extension 4. ASK AN EXPERT http://www.vrd.org/locator/subject.shtml You can find answers on the Web to just about every question you can think of. There are many "Ask an Expert" sites, where you can ask a question and have it answered by e-mail. AskA+ Locator at www.vrd.org/locator/subject.html has a list of them, divided by subjects, so you can find your answers even easier. COLUMBUS TRAVEL GUIDES http://www.columbusguides.com/ The next time I plan a vacation I'm going to use Columbus Travel Guides at http://www.columbusguides.com. This site has all the information I'd need to plan a trip. By clicking on the world map I can get a complete travel guide to wherever I want to go, with information about attractions, accommodations, maps, weather, money, passports & visas, duty- free shopping, overviews of major cities, and much more. This site also has detailed guides to world cities, airports, events, skiing, and weather. There are lots of helpful articles and resources for business and vacation travelers. Published by Federation of International Trade Associations Copyright © 2001 The Federation of International Trade Associations. All rights reserved. ================================================================= Are there topics you'd like to see covered in FITA'S Really Useful Sites? Send suggestions, ideas, or comments to editor John McDonnell at jaymack@fita.org. ================================================================= This newsletter is distributed by the Federation of International Trade Associations (FITA) for the benefit of the worldwide international trade community. If you have a question regarding this service, please contact FITA by email at newsletter@fita.org.