WyomingNetwork, Inc.
Wyoming Network, Inc. maintains and updates websites for a select group of clients. Here’s a brief history of the company.
Wyoming Network, Inc. opened its doors on August 1, 1998. The internet was brand new… The World Wide Web (the “www”) had only become public five years earlier, in 1993. Companies were just starting to build websites and get on the web.
This was before Facebook, Google, and phones that could surf the web. A local community website, Cheyenneweb.com had launched a few months earlier. Dave Lerner, a TV News journalist, saw the potential in community websites, and approached Cheyenneweb with an idea… Create similar websites that could serve communities around the state of Wyoming. After all, Dave said, if the Governor gave a speech, the story of the speech would be the same in every community. Dave discussed it with the owners of Cheyenneweb, but they said no, and suggested he do it on his own. So he did.
Dave worked with several students from Laramie County Community College and their instructor and designed a test website to demonstrate what the community websites would look like.
He then went to get funding. It was a challenge. The internet was very big news at the time, but it was also very new to local businesses and bankers, and they weren’t sure how it would work for them. Eventually, Dave was able to get a loan and launched Wyoming Network, Inc. on August 1, 1998.
It took about six weeks to design and build what would become CheyenneNetwork.com. Just two weeks after CheyenneNetwork.com went live, Cheyenneweb.com folded.
Wyoming Network, Inc. originally built 12 community websites, representing various communities around the state. They included CheyenneNetwork.com, CasperNetwork.com, LaramieNetwork.com, GilletteNetwork.com and others. Some areas were combined, such as including Powell in CodyNetwork.com. However, we soon heard from the “combined” communities. We received complaints about the combinations, so expanded the initial websites to 17, and eliminated the combined sites. Instead of GlendoNetwork.com, which was intended to include Platte and Goshen counties, we added new PlatteNetwork.com and GoshenNetwork.com. We created PowellNetwork.com as a separate site, and so on.
Here is a list of all 17 community websites:
- BasinNetwork.com
- BuffaloNetwork.com
- CasperNetwork.com
- CheyenneNetwork.com
- CodyNetwork.com
- ConverseNetwork.com
- EvanstonNetwork.com
- FremontNetwork.com
- GilletteNetwork.com
- GoshenNetwork.com
- JacksonNetwork.com
- LaramieNetwork.com
- PlatteNetwork.com
- RawlinsNetwork.com
- SheridanNetwork.com
- SweetwaterNetwork.com
And we also built WyomingNetwork.com.
The launch of the community websites attracted a lot of interest, and it wasn’t long before local businesses came calling, asking about getting onto the internet.
WyomingNetwork, Inc. then began creating websites for businesses, local governments, non-profit organizations, and more. The website design phase of the business grew quickly. The company launched an average of a new website every week for the next 20 years.
There were several reasons for the rapid growth. Dave priced the company’s services low compared to other website design companies. He also offered website hosting and built up that part of the business as well. The hosting was where the real money was. Clients paid a monthly fee to keep their websites on the internet. Many companies offered hosting, but WyomingNetwork, Inc. offered some additional services designed to attract and keep hosting clients. The company would maintain and update client websites, usually for free. It also offered email services, including spam blocking. And WyomingNetwork, Inc. offered search engine optimization at no additional charge and even ran online advertising campaigns for clients.
The most significant difference was printed and mailed traffic reports. Other hosting companies would offer websites where you could log in and find out how many people were visiting your website. WyomingNetwork, Inc. took the extra step of printing out traffic reports and mailing them to clients. It also meant that we were seeing the traffic to client websites ourselves and could make recommendations if we saw unusually low traffic.
Printing out the traffic reports, collating them with invoices, and mailing them out was extra work and expense for company, but Dave believed it was worth it. It created a lot of customer loyalty and many customers stayed with WyomingNetwork, Inc. for years… even decades.
Free updates to websites was another cost to the company but also built customer loyalty.
WyomingNetwork, Inc. built thousands of websites over the years and recorded millions of visits to its network of community websites.
In 2018, Dave turned 66 years old and decided it was time to retire. He listed the company with a broker specializing in website design and hosting companies. In January of 2019, the hosting clients and website design portion of the business were turned over to Jubjub, a company based in southern California. Dave retained the company name and WyomingNetwork.com, and agreements with about a dozen local governments to maintain and update their websites. He is not currently taking on new clients.