The answer is only a dot.com away, if you ask Eric C. Mudry 28, Steven M. Rinaldi, 28, and Jerry Sofocli, 29, partners in Innovative Internet Marketing Solutions, a Wallingford company that created Web sites to help both Judd and the Wooster Street eatery use the Internet to market themselves.

Whether selling country music or pasta dishes, about 125 clients have hired IIMS to create Web sites since 1996. The company has experienced 100 percent revenue growth since it started, has quadrupled its workforce, and its three partners were recently named regional 1999 Young Entrepreneurs of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

To win that award, they had to be younger than 30 and had to have demonstrated "evidence of success as measured by sales and profit." They also had to have increased employment through the business, used innovative business methods and shown potential for long-term success.

From star to startup clients: IIMS' list of clients is diverse, ranging-from big stars to small businesses. Web sites have been created for the Mariah Carey Fan Club, the Michael Bolton Fan Club, Waterbury's Holy Cross High School, New Milford Hospital, Monroe's Twombly Nursery and Middlebury's Quassy Amusement Park.

Sofocli and Rinaldi, both Wallingford natives, grew up playing soccer together. After graduating from college, Rinaldi and Mudry, a Naugatuck native, while entertaining similar plans for law school, met as paralegals for the New Haven law firm of Early, Ludwick & Sweeney.

Mudry and Rinaldi also had been working part time at a software company, Forza, that Rinaldi had started. Forza is still operating and has an office in the same complex as IIMS.

Sofocli, a computer science major, was working as a network administrator at a utility company when he left for IIMS.

IIMS had its genesis in small side projects such as designing a Web site for a Hamden insurance agent who wanted to use the Internet to sell insurance, and the creation of a site — www.lawforum.net — to build a national attorney database.

"At that time, we were just testing the waters," Rinaldi said. It was only after Rinaldi and Mudry saw the response the Internet was starting to elicit from computer users that they knew they should set their sights on home pages rather than law school textbooks.

"Just seeing the number of users Prodigy had online at that time showed that things were just starting to click," Rinaldi said.

Pro bono work: Building a client base for the fledgling IIMS meant old-fashioned networking, Rinaldi said, — and the partners worked through the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce to make connections. It was during that process that Mudry and Rinaldi learned what " pro bono" really means, as they set out creating Internet sites free of charge.

"We were putting in a lot of time doing work for free just to get our name out," Rinaldi said.

While building their reputations and client base the three cyber-entrepreneurs realized that providing services to a business was " not just creating an Internet site," Sofocli said.

It meant taking a conscientious approach to Internet marketing, he said, working closely with clients to determine how to attract people to the site.

"Sixty-five percent of the traffic (to a Web site) is driven by people doing searches," said Rinaldi, explaining that key words used to find information on Internet search engines such as Yahoo! and Excite guide users to IIMS sites.

IIMS meets with clients to carefully, list the words that might prompt a user to a site. The company also does a return-on-investment analysis to project revenues based on what a client plans to spend on a Web site.

Charges range from $6,000 to $50,000, and many of IIMS' clients are small businesses concerned with spending their money wisely.

Rinaldi said business generated for client Early, Ludwick & Sweeney, shows how keywords provide a vital link between a search engine user and an IIMS client.

The New Haven firm, which specializes in asbestos-related litigation, wanted to reach potential plaintiffs for asbestos lawsuits, who tend to be older, retired workers who don't use the Internet. IIMS studied the issue, Rinaldi said, and decided the best way to reach that audience was by skipping a generation, concentrating on the children, who are more Internet savvy and may be using their computers to investigate health problems related to asbestos.

"Their children were online searching for medical information," Rinaldi said.

Plain talk: Though competing in the highly technical Internet field, where many consultants converse in technospeak that only experts can decipher, IIMS prides itself on its ability to be understood, particularly with customers who are computer novices.

"We explain complex technology in plain English," Rinaldi said.

Customer service is also a major part of what IIMS provides, and the company works with clients to update, and improve the Web sites as needed.

"All of our clients' Web sites evolve over time," Rinaldi added.

Mudry also credits IIMS' "young, very entrepreneurial" staff for much of the company's success.

To keep clients and make new ones, IIMS emphasizes close working relationships. The success of this strategy, Rinaldi said, is reflected in the fact that 60 percent of IIMS business comes from referrals.

"We determine who their target market is and what their goals are," Mudry said.

"We educate them on the Internet and how the solution we recommend is going to be implemented."

The company also measures and reviews a Web site's traffic quarterly to see if the client's goals met.

A satisfied customer: One IIMS customer who said his business has been enhanced by a Web site is Manchester, N.H., attorney David Osterman.

The Web page for his business - Divorce Direct, which provides legal forms and documents used in divorce proceedings " was only 10 days old but had already received its first order.

Osterman said he had looked at many of the Web pages IIMS created for other businesses. He characterized the company's work as "superlative," but said the quality of its sites was not the determining factor in his selection.

Other Web site companies he investigated looked good on the screen but provided little to no support for the Web site or the potential client, he said.

"When I first talked to Steve, he was very helpful," Osterman recalled. "A lot of the others were just too busy and not well organized."

Mudry said Osterman is typical of the client who is looking to the Internet to change or enhance a business strategy.

"He saw an opportunity to expand his business nationally without accruing the costs of opening offices nationwide," Mudry said.

Growing up: Going nationwide, or at least regional, is definitely part of IIMS' own strategy, Mudry said. The company has grown from one office suite in its Main Street location to four suites totaling 5,000 square feet. Plans are also under way to enter the New York and Boston markets within the next two years, Mudry said, but none of the three will forget his Connecticut roots.

"We've concentrated on developing and fine-tuning the business here," Mudry said.

New Haven Register - Sunday, July 4, 1999, By Wayne Travers Jr., Register Staff