This web site began in April 1999. B.E.S.T. (now E.T.C.) registered the domain name to start a web site to give small, local businesses the opportunity to have a web presence without going to the expense of a full domain name and hosting arrangement.

At the time B.E.S.T. was engaged in Internet training under the Federal Government's Networking the Nation initiative. B.E.S.T. opened Internet access and started this web site to complement their training training activities.

Part of the conditions of funding were to set up lines of business that would be self-sustaining. In January 2000, Bellingen Now (now defunct), in partnership with the Department of State and Regional Development, gave $3,000 toward promoting the site and ran Internet workshops in Dorrigo, Bellingen and Urunga.

Subsequently, B.E.S.T. sold the domain name to Peter Mitchell in 2001. Peter has developed and maintained the site's content from the beginning. The site is paid for from hosting, advertising and email accounts. No money is asked for links. As the information supplied represents a community, the community has been asked to input ideas on section categories and how links are displayed and at times, what order links are placed in. However no guarantee is offered that sites seeking links will get them or that links provided are current.

Today Bellingen Online is home to 55 web sites and has 65 email users. The site gets between 650 - 800 unique visitors each week. People who are linked from Bellingen Online get excellent traffic. Since March 2007 it is now possible to adevrtise on the Bellingen.com homepage.