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He drives so you can simply click

Looking for information on a local business or product? This traveled Web entrepreneur wants his site to be your source.

By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
Published September 15, 2006

PEBBLE CREEK - The little red Scion zooms through town, making its way from one business to the next. "Best of New Tampa" screams from its body, which has been wrapped as a moving advertisement.

Its driver has logged more than 33,0000 miles in about five months, schmoozing with everyone from the interior designer to the fruit basket arranger, the car mechanic to the tea room manager.

Sometimes, he's up till 4 in the morning, clicking away on his computer. He's been a gemologist and a pilot, and even spent years in insurance. This is more work than he ever imagined.

Kip Niswonger has found his dream job.

Niswonger, 48, of Pebble Creek is the president of BestofNewTampa.com, an online site that links New Tampa and Wesley Chapel's businesses and communities. Along with a silent partner, Niswonger hopes to build the site as the place to go for everything New Tampa.

With tape recorder, laptop computer and BlackBerry in hand, Niswonger drives all over the area selling space on his sites by seeking out potential advertisers.

Businesses that pay a fee - and meet this churchgoing man's moral code - get glowing writeups on the site, complete with words like amazing, the best and breathtaking to describe the products and storefronts.

"Our goal is to become the ultimate community Web site and resource for the community," Niswonger said. "We hope at some point to have a large company, to be all over the city and all over the state and all over the country."

But first you have to be all over New Tampa, all the time. Niswonger is constantly updating the Web page, right down to the level of an advertiser's new product.

The Web site, launched last year and funded by a silent partner for an amount Niswonger won't divulge, mentions about 1,800 businesses. It was an idea Niswonger had entertained for years, he said.

As a married father of two who coaches soccer and is active in his church, the thought of being his own boss is what prompted him to launch the project.

To attract businesses, he allows owners to input contact information about what they offer without paying anything.

There are also sudoku puzzles, real estate listings and movie times. Groups can set up community calendars and photo galleries featuring such images as their neighborhood trick-or-treaters and their kids' soccer matches.

His stickers adorn shop windows all over the area and his business cards sit nestled in holders across New Tampa's lunch counters.

While he builds his staff, Niswonger does the bulk of the work, jetting up and down New Tampa's busiest thoroughfares, taping interviews, shooting video and taking photographs.

Then he's off again, Niswonger and his little red Scion, in search of their next amazing story.

Dong-Phuong Nguyen can be reached at 813 269-5312 or nguyen@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 14, 2006, 13:05:15]