Involved with the Internet since 1995, Susan Bilenker has seen the Web business grow from its wild beginnings into a major industry.

Initially designing client sites and publishing her own informational Web sites, she learned the business in the dynamic Silicon Alley marketplace of New York City and in Aspen, the community with the highest per capita number of online users in the country, where she established a satellite office in 1995.

Ms. Bilenker's directory Web sites include Rivertowns Online, Aspen Business Journal, and DesignSite, which offers well-organized and easily retrievable architecture, real estate, home improvement, and interior design related information, products, and services to professionals and consumers. On the Web since July, 1995, the site has been designated a "3-Star" site by The McKinley Group, for its "depth of content, ease of exploration, and Net appeal."

In 1991, she founded Susan Bilenker Communications, a marketing and publicity consultancy that worked directly with the principals of New York design firms to improve and expand the customer base for their services. During that time, she published a newsletter, Marketing Strategies (later called Designers Market-Link), and a news release digest, Designers Media-Link.

Along with review of client firms’ goals and capabilities, she offered strategic planning to identify suitable new markets for their services, market research to determine key decisionmakers in targeted markets, direct mail programs to stay in touch with prospective customers, publicity and placement of news and feature stories in the press, and Web site design and construction.