Crossmap.com announced today the launch of its new Christian business directory, an online listing of Christian businesses ordered by category. The new section, accessible at http://biz.crossmap.com, fills a marketing need for the burgeoning Christian business sector.

Christian businesses have been booming the past several years. In America alone, there are over 88 million Christians who call themselves born-again. Christian-owned businesses that once operated non-religiously are re-branding themselves as Christian companies.

These days, Christian businesses can be found in almost every sector traditionally dominated by non-religious corporations. Education, insurance, banking, mortgages, and credit card processing are examples of secular industries that today have Christian counterparts.

Michael Zigarelli, the dean of the School of Business at Regent University, a Christian school operating out of Virginia, estimates that there are 500,000 to 600,000 "Christian owned and operated" businesses in America today. This accounts for approximately 10% of all corporations.

The new Crossmap business directory is designed to organize the hundreds of thousands of companies run by Christians, allowing other Christians to find companies that share their values. Other listing services, such as the Shepherd's Guide, have had success building Christian business directories that are distributed in a print form.

Crossmap is taking steps to ensure that all business listings are submitted by Christians. As a requirement for having a listing in the business section, the company owner must acknowledge that he/she agrees with a basic Christian statement of faith. This will help build a sense of trust among those who list in or browse the directory.

Both free and paid listings are available in the business directory. Free listings will allow company owners to list their company name, description, and a link back to their website in the appropriate category. Paid listings come with a banner image at the top of the category, a phone number, and form that allows potential clients to email the company. Paid listings are also displayed before the free listings. Paid listings cost $20/month, and can be paid on a monthly basis or as a 6-month prepay.

According to Crossmap spokesperson, Rick Li, the new service "offers targeted exposure at very reasonable rates for Christian businesses. We believe that the Crossmap business directory will be the first stop for any Christian company that wants to begin a marketing campaign."

About Crossmap

Crossmap.com has been operating in California since 2000, and operates over 15 Crossmap web portals in 7 languages worldwide. Crossmap serves millions of Christian visitors each month, and has grown to be one of the largest Christian websites on the internet. Alexa.com, the website ranking service, ranks Crossmap as the 2nd most visited Christian website, and among the top 2,000 websites in the world. Popular sections on Crossmap include our Clip Art, Backgrounds, Pastoral Resources, and Web Site Directory.

Source: PrWeb