Starting a Business? Online Presence is the New Yellow Pages

Whatever type of business you are planning to start, an online presence is an absolute necessity. The internet serves as the new Yellow Pages...on steroids. Not only do consumers search the web for a specific business or service, but they are able to comparison shop and learn all about their options from the comfort of their living rooms. The online options range from a simple business card style page to a comprehensive ecommerce site, but the important factor is that your potential clients are able to find you with a simple web search.

Depending on the type of business you start, you may need only a basic business card-style website. Something as simple as a home page introducing your business, a contact page to help build your customer database, and a few pages of information to help your customers make the right selection of your products or services will go a long way in marketing your venture. In the information age, it is imperative that you provide useful knowledge to your customers. If you choose not to, plenty of your competitors will...and that's who will make the sale.

The information you provide online does not have to give away the house secrets, but should teach your prospective clients something about what you do. For example, a dog training business might include short article on house-training tips and descriptions of the various dog sports that you teach. A restaurant might include the menu along with articles about the right wine to select with different types of food. A service business might explain how using the available services will save the consumer time, money, or the like. The important factor is to offer useful information in a clear, coherent manner that shows your expertise and builds confidence in you and your business.

More developed websites can include ecommerce, where you customers can buy directly from you through your website. If you sell retail products, making them available online can increase your sales dramatically, often 30% or more. Including products, a shopping cart, and an online merchant account costs a bit more to set up, but the payoff is usually worth every penny. Selling your products on the web provides an opportunity to deliver your sales pitch for each item. Including a short paragraph about each product or service is common, and you can even incorporate a rating system or popularity scale for each. Consumers can find out all they need to know about your offerings without leaving the house.

All types of businesses are finding success using interactive websites. Some restaurants have had great success with allowing their take-out customers to order online. Some salons allow clients to set their own appointments online. And a mobile auto detailer we know fills over 50% of his schedule through online requests. The internet is the present and future of all business. If your startup isn't represented on the web, your growth potential is inherently limited. But if your website is a high-quality, informative, useful tool for your customers, you will give your venture the legs to grow and develop into a thriving company.

-K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke University, is founder of LaunchX and blogs about starting a business. The LaunchX System takes you step-by-step through the process of starting a business, including creating an appropriate web presence. It includes WebPlus website building software and 18 months free basic hosting services. Visit LaunchX.com to find out more about this revolutionary way to start a business.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Starting-a-Business?-Online-Presence-is-the-New-Yellow-Pages&id=3624154

Yellow Pages Phone Search - One of the Reliable Resources For Online Reverse Lookup

Like several major search engines, the Yellow Pages phone search allows you to do a reverse phone number lookup as well. There are several directory companies allow you to use their website and conduct reverse lookup for free. Searching for a telephone number on Yellow Pages provides you with the name, address of the owner, and a map to the address.

There are also a number or websites that offer the same free reverse phone number lookup service. These online directories are quite similar to the search engines like Google and Yahoo! The major difference is that only the phone lookup service is provided by a site like Yellow Pages.

Free Online Reverse Lookup Sites

There are several sites that receive around 37 million or so visitors every month in North America alone. Since 2008, their database includes more than 180 million Americans. These sites offer an option for an international phone no. lookup. Generated results provide the name, street address, map, occupation and even approximate age.

Other online companies are operated by one of the major phone companies in the United States, AT&T. These sites work in tandem with Yellow Pages. They conduct reverse phone lookup by using a database of information from local phone companies. It generates the same basic information when you get results. Just like most companies however, you can opt to get additional information for a fee.

Of course, if these free reverse lookup sites fail to generate the results you want, then you can always consult professional sites to find people by the number of their mobile units. There are possible reasons why free reverse lookup sites fail to generate results. Either the telephone number is unlisted or the number belongs to a cell phone. There are professional reverse lookup services that specialize in locating these types of number, generating the results instantly or in a couple of hours. However, they do charge a fee for these inquiries.

In general, using Yellow Pages and their free reverse lookup service using telephone numbers can help you save money when conducting a reverse phone number lookup. However, if this fails or you need more in-depth information, you can always consult the professional sites to aid you in looking up a particular number for a fee of course.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Yellow-Pages-Phone-Search---One-of-the-Reliable-Resources-For-Online-Reverse-Lookup&id=1669712

Should I Advertise With the Yellowpages or YP Online?

This is a company that's been around for over 100 years, so they seem like a solid company to do business with, right?

Well ultimately I'll leave the decision up to you because they can be good for certain businesses and do absolutely nothing for others. I'll lay out the pros and cons and let you decide at the end.

The Yellowpages, big yellow, grandma's booster seat... and now YP online. Advertising your business used to be as simple as buying the biggest ad in the book, then came the internet, multiple competitors in the phone book arena, coupon books, door to door sales people, community boards... the list goes on.

So where do you spend your money and how much should you spend?

That's a different topic that we'll be writing on in the future, but for now let's stick to the Yellowpages and YP online.

A YELLOWPAGES REP CALLED ME, NOW WHAT?

They're out there in the thousands, scavenging the community boards, competitor websites like Yellowbook online and Craigslist... if your phone number is out there and it's attached to a business you're likely to get a call (or multiple calls) from a YP rep. The best thing to do, even if you're not interested, is to use their resources to learn more about your competition and the marketplace as a whole. They have access to lots of information that normal folks don't and it doesn't cost you anything (monetarily at least) to get it from them.

If you want the goods, you have to play their game (at least little bit)

What this means is that they're not going to give you information if you tell them right away that you're not interested. So you'll have to play along, don't make any commitments and try to stay on the phone with them without making an appointment to see them if you can stand your ground long enough. Beware, they're going to be pushy because that's how they make their living (selling you something), and who can blame them; most of them are good people that are just backed by a not-so-good company (or so I would assume).

USEFUL INFORMATION THAT YOU CAN MILK FROM THEM

Want to know what some of your competition is doing? Ask them and they'll be able to tell you how many calls a lot of your competitors are getting from certain ads. That alone would be a great question to get out of the way early so that you can always combat their sales tactics with this (the call counts are usually low). When they tell you the call count you can also ask them what their program looks like. See if it contains print, internet, direct mail...

They do a lot more than just the book now-a-days, however you'll pay a premium to do business with them. Often times you can do things like direct mail from a local company for cheaper and with MUCH better fulfillment (since they often times outsource their work to other companies for things like web design (for great website design, see the bottom of the article), direct mail, SEO... pretty much everything but YP online and the phone book -as of this writing at least).

Want a free logo?

If you string them along long enough they'll make an ad copy for your advertisement (usually only works for the phone book or direct mail) and you can ask them to send you an e-copy (Their graphic designers aren't the best, but they're alright if you're looking to get something for free) of the ad and use that for your own advertising that you don't end up doing with them (I'm not too sure about how the copyright rules work with this, but if you're a small business you probably won't have an issue *note* We're not saying to do this because it MIGHT be illegal, however if you choose to do it, it's there for you).

SOME OF THE THINGS THEY TELL YOU, YOU CAN FIND FOR YOURSELF

If you're looking to see how some of your competition is doing (or what they're doing) as far as Google AdWords or other Pay Per Click advertising methods you can always check out SpyFu. This is a free way to see how much your competition is spending on a daily basis and what kind of traffic their getting for doing so.

Another way to spy on them is to simply check out their Facebook or Twitter pages to see if they're running any kind of sales to spark traffic.

The old school version of this is to just give them a call and act like a customer.

WHAT THEY'LL TELL YOU AND HOW TO INTERPRET IT

One thing that the Yellowpages has is a lot of information (they've been around forever). There are also companies out there that they hire to do research and make them look good (even though it's considered third party, unbiased information we're pretty sure that they leave out information that doesn't make them look so hot).

So what does this mean for you? You'll be hearing a lot of statistics (unless the rep can't remember them) about things that might not necessarily mean anything to you.

They'll tell you how many people in whatever area you service area searching monthly for the things that you do and it'll usually sound very impressive! But then when it comes down to how many calls are being placed (they have this information for each ad on YP online and some for the phone books) there aren't too many. They'll say that people on average look at 4 to 5 ads before making a call, and the higher you are to the top of the list the more likely you are to get a call... bla bla bla. Sure, that makes sense, if you're first on the list then you'll get the most attention; what they don't tell you is that the majority of the calls will be from solicitors and that the call tracking number they're giving you could have been (and most likely has) used by a different company and that you'll probably get calls for their stuff too and that accounts for some of the calls you should've gotten.

Have they mentioned a "free ad" or a "pay per call" ad to you? They're the same product and it sounds wonderful until you realize that less than 30% of the businesses that sign up renew it (meaning it doesn't work very well). Prepare to now have to pay for the solicitors that call you on that number as well as, as mentioned above, people calling for a business that used to have that phone number.

SO SHOULD YOU GET A YELLOWPAGES AD?

You're probably thinking that we hate the Yellowpages by now, and you'd be wrong (sorry if the first part of this came across that way). We don't hate anyone for trying to make a buck, but we don't like their fulfillment practices.

Think about this, the main guys running this company came from another company that nobody really hears about too much anymore (AOL; think of the 10 free hours you never used). Since many of their products are outsourced, and therefore more expensive, you're never really getting a good deal on anything except for things that are proprietary to them (phonebook and YP online).

Should you get a phonebook or YP online ad? This question can only be answered after answering a few other questions (sorry).

Ask yourself some of these questions before you decide to make the plunge.

    What's the age of your target demographic? Older people are more likely to use the phone book (in some instances)

    Is your business mostly based on the distance from the consumer? Consider restaurants and how you look for them. We LOVE to find new restaurants to go to no matter where we travel to, but when I do a search on my phone (YP or Yelp app) I always set it to a distance search. So regardless of their advertising efforts the business cannot become closer to my current location. Better reviews can skew our decision, however it doesn't really bother us too much as long as there aren't many negative reviews.

    Where is your target demographic looking for your services? This one's really obvious but we figured that we'd put it in there because sometimes people forget the importance of the basics. If you're a restaurant people most likely aren't looking for you in the phone book, at least in our personal experience. We are more likely to first search for coupons in the mail or online (for restaurants) and then if we aren't successful we go to the distance search that we mentioned before. Think about where and how people search for the things that you do. Don't know where to start, ask your friends and family how they searched for a business that resembles what you offer.

If you find that all signs are pointing to the Yellowpages phonebook or YP online then you should do that. Just remember that you're going to be signed to a contract (they're going to try and get you for a whole year but they can do a 3 month contract and usually won't tell you about it until you ask).

For some industries the Yellowpages and YP online is a great place to be.

KEY TIPS!

They have a program called MC2 (don't think Einstein, think last ditch effort) where they'll "guarantee" (but not actually guarantee) a certain amount of leads for your advertising campaign. What's great about this is that they can give you a "cost per lead" and this is a great way to really figure out if your advertising campaign will bring in money for you! If they don't bring you the amount of leads they're supposed to, they'll (they're supposed to at least) do some advertising for you at no extra cost.

Since they obviously don't want to spend money on their own part to cover for what their advertising campaign lacked, they'll usually give you a lower number on this so that they look like they're going to over deliver (can't say whether they usually do or not).

What we're getting at is, compare this number to the amount of calls that they say that you should get before you get into the MC2 information. The numbers will be dramatically different and you'll be able to tell whether or not it's actually worth it for you to move forward with the advertising.

Let's say that each lead costs you $100 and you're a widget seller that makes an average sale of $25 per widget sold. So you'd have to sell 4 widgets to every lead (not all of them are actually leads, solicitors are counted as leads as well) to break even, and at least 5 to make a profit. Would you go for this advertising campaign? We recommend that you run for the hills.

Now let's say that each lead costs you $15 and you close 3 out of 10 phone calls (including solicitors) and your average sale per customer is $100. Let's do the math:

10 phone calls will cost you $150

You make 3 sales out of those 10 phone calls (3x$100 = $300)

$300-$150= $150 left over after paying for the calls

If there's still profit after the $150 then you're doing alright because, if you work referrals like you should, it'll pay off with happy customers getting your name out there. If there isn't, the answer is simple.

*note, this article is in no way affiliated with YP Holdings LLC or any of its affiliates and is meant for entertainment purposes only

If you're looking for Simply Great Websites from a Wholesome company, check out The Cheap Website .

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Thanks for reading

This is a company that's been around for over 100 years, so they seem like a solid company to do business with, right?

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Should-I-Advertise-With-the-Yellowpages-or-YP-Online?&id=8170953

Data Mining vs Screen-Scraping

Data mining isn't screen-scraping. I know that some people in the room may disagree with that statement, but they're actually two almost completely different concepts.

In a nutshell, you might state it this way: screen-scraping allows you to get information, where data mining allows you to analyze information. That's a pretty big simplification, so I'll elaborate a bit.

The term "screen-scraping" comes from the old mainframe terminal days where people worked on computers with green and black screens containing only text. Screen-scraping was used to extract characters from the screens so that they could be analyzed. Fast-forwarding to the web world of today, screen-scraping now most commonly refers to extracting information from web sites. That is, computer programs can "crawl" or "spider" through web sites, pulling out data. People often do this to build things like comparison shopping engines, archive web pages, or simply download text to a spreadsheet so that it can be filtered and analyzed.

Data mining, on the other hand, is defined by Wikipedia as the "practice of automatically searching large stores of data for patterns." In other words, you already have the data, and you're now analyzing it to learn useful things about it. Data mining often involves lots of complex algorithms based on statistical methods. It has nothing to do with how you got the data in the first place. In data mining you only care about analyzing what's already there.

The difficulty is that people who don't know the term "screen-scraping" will try Googling for anything that resembles it. We include a number of these terms on our web site to help such folks; for example, we created pages entitled Text Data Mining, Automated Data Collection, Web Site Data Extraction, and even Web Site Ripper (I suppose "scraping" is sort of like "ripping"). So it presents a bit of a problem-we don't necessarily want to perpetuate a misconception (i.e., screen-scraping = data mining), but we also have to use terminology that people will actually use.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Data-Mining-vs-Screen-Scraping&id=146813

Rely on Internet Local Search to Bolster Your Yellow Page Directory Category

The Internet can promote your services in unlimited relevant areas that buyers are looking for

Even when they both have a website, a service business (like window blinds) has to use the Internet differently than an online business does. For example, a chiropractor needs to provide different information a trucking firm, to supply what customers search for. While they both can benefit from Local Search exposure, what information they need to provide about themselves varies greatly.

Break down the limitations imposed by category thinking

We've been trained by the Yellow Page directory to look for a business within its primary category section. But Local Search allows a person to find what they want under many more descriptive terms. They can search for a sub-category, rather than a generic listing like "contractor". They're able to find a narrowly-defined specific service or product - if a business has said that they offer it.

To be listed in the Directory, a business pays for each category where it appears. But a website has no such limitations. It can show numerous specific offerings - like Dog Training, Dog Nutrition, Dog Books, Dog Toys, etc. And it can promote each area to different buyers.

So your business benefits from showing up in Local Search results as many ways as possible. Go out of your way identify such specific, narrow topics. You might find yourself without any competition in such search results.

Studies show that people who search with specific terms are more motivated, and likely to buy "Minolta camera" instead of "camera". They're ready to take the next step.

Categories that draw the most attention

Not all businesses rely to the same extent on their Yellow Page listing to attract customers. And I'm sure that will turn out to be true with Local Search as well. The following list shows which directory categories draw the most visitors. But if your business isn't listed among the top, you've got even more reason to begin marketing yourself online.

Internet exposure can provide a powerful marketing boost for almost any type of local business. Whether you have a website or not, you need to assure that accurate information about your business gets picked up by every major search engine, and Internet Yellow Pages. I've found the most reliable way to do that is through Register Local, [http://www.localsearchresources.com/register_local.html] For a small annual fee they keep your business information updated and accurate on every online database that matters. And you don't need a website, if you don't have one.

Top Yellow Page Headings (in this order)

1. Restaurants

2. Physicians & Surgeons

3. Automobile Parts - new & used

4. Automobile Repairing & Services

5. Pizza

6. Automobile dealers - new & used

7. Attorneys/Lawyers

8. Beauty Salons

9. Hospitals

10. Dentists

11. Insurance

12. Department Stores

13. Plumbing Contractors

14. Banks

15. Veterinarians

16. Theaters

17. Florists - retail

18. Airline Companies

19. Hotels

20. Hardware - retail

21. Lumber - retail

22. Tire Dealers

23. Real Estate

24. Automobile Renting & Leasing

25. Pharmacies or Drugstores

26. Churches

27. Furniture - retail & non-specific

28. Grocers - retail

29. Rental Service - Stores & Yards

30.Carpet & Rug Cleaners

31. Appliances - HH - Major Dealers

32. Glass - auto, plate, window

33. Electric Contractors

34. Schools - academic, secondary, elementary

35. Contractors - General

36. Government Offices - US

37. Travel Agencies

38. Taxicabs

39. Sporting Goods - retail

40. Roofing Contractors

41. Dry Cleaners

42. Book Dealers - retail

43. Optometrists O.D.

44. Heating Contractors

45. Pet Grooming

46. Computers - dealer

47. Motels

48. Automobile Wrecking

49. Building Materials

50. Government Offices - city, village, township

51. Appliances - HH - Major - Service & Repair

52. Golf Courses - Public

53. Landscape Contractors

54. Home Improvements

55. Pet Shops

56. Pest Control Service/Exterminators

57. Automobile Body Repairing & Painting

58. Government Offices - state

59. Photographers - portrait

60. Electronic Equipment & Supplies - Dealers

61. Movers

62. Carpet & Rug - dealer

63. Motorcycles & Motor Scooters - Dealers.

64. Office Supplies

65. Videotapes & Discs - Renting & Leasing

66. Printers

67. Chiropractors, DC

68. Lawn Maintenance

69. Child Day Care Centers 70. Service Stations - gasoline & oil

71. Television - cable, CATV & Satellite

72. Locks & Locksmiths

73. Apartments

74. Air Conditioning Contractors & Systems

75. Nursing Homes

76. Transmissions - automobile

77. Air Conditioning Equipment & Systems - repair

78. Television & Radio - service & repair

79. Fence

80. Paint - Retail

81. Nurseries - plants, trees, etc.

82. Schools - academic, colleges & universities

83. Clinics

84. Plumbing Fixtures & Supplies - new, retail

85. Employment Agencies

86. Bicycles - dealer

87. Government Offices - county

88. Jewelers - retail

89. Painting Contractors

90. Towing - automobile

91. Windows

92. Newspapers

93. Bus Lines

94. Truck Renting & Leasing

95. Shoes - retail

96. Mufflers & Exhaust Systems - engine

97. Tree Service

98. Bakers - retail

99. Computers - Service & Repair

100. Mortgages

Source: Yellow Pages Integrated Media Association (YPIMA)

Expand your visibility, and credibility with upwardly mobile buyers

Your business is faced with two urgent tasks, if you want to come to the attention of Internet searchers.

1.) Get listed with the resources they go to, so you'll be found among the results they get.

2.) Make sure your business information is consistent and accurate across the board. That's where Register Local can save you a boatload of time and headaches. Don't put this off because the Internet can bring you a steady flow of local buyers.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Rely-on-Internet-Local-Search-to-Bolster-Your-Yellow-Page-Directory-Category&id=134617

Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages - A Whole New Vocabulary for Small Businesss

Buyers want both online and local information about where to buy Most small businesses are local in nature, serving people who live nearby. Their customers found them through traditional methods like the Yellow Pages or newspaper ads. So far, the Internet hasn't figured prominently in their marketing efforts. That's about to change, as Local Search methods become more widespread.

Even for buyers expecting to spend their money close to home, more and more of them go to the Internet to locate desired products and services. They rely on search engines to find suitable vendors in the fastest, easiest way. Local Search combines the search query word or phrase with specific geographic terms, like city or zip code. That way, search results only include enterprises in that local area.

Instead of information about a small enterprise being lost among millions of pages of search results, it shows up in a small pool of local providers. That's good for them, as well as the person looking for what they provide.

Small operations can easily be located by a whole new group of buyers Consumers don't simply go to the Yellow Pages when ready to buy - as they once did. Studies show that an astonishing 36% of online searches are conducted to find local businesses. About a quarter of all Internet users already conduct local searches. They'd do even more of it, if the desired small business data were more complete.

Local enterprises need to prepare for the impact of changing customer habits. An easy first step is to include your business in Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), along with the printed Yellow Page directory. That puts your enterprise on the radar screen.

You'll find reliable advice from experts in Yellow Pages and Local Search so you can get more mileage from your promotional dollars. Start by getting comfortable with search concepts, and improve your odds of being found when people search online for what you offer. You don't even need your own Web site to benefit from Internet Yellow Pages and Local Search.

Learn the Relevant Terms

Search Engine - method for locating the information available on the Internet; a program that searches Web pages for requested keywords, then returns a list of documents where the query terms were found Google and Yahoo, the major general search engines, have both shifted gears to make Local Search a priority when delivering relevant results.

Spider (also called "crawler" or "bot") - goes to every page on every Web site and reads the information so it can be available to searchers; to "crawl" a site it collects and indexes information from it

Specialized Search Engines - narrow focus of information crawled and indexed, like medical, business, or shopping sites

Keywords - word or phrases used by search engines to locate relevant Web pages; words chosen to improve a site's search engine placement and ranking

Search Query - search request, which the search engine compares to the spidered entries, then returns results to the searcher

Search Results - compiled list of Web pages that a search engine delivers in response to a query; the number of items returned is usually overwhelming (in the millions), so searchers only bother to view results on the first pages

Relevant Results - the test of a good search is whether the results obtained relate to what the person wanted to find, without a lot of irrelevant links

Local Search - combining a geographic term in a search query to locate suitable providers in a specific area

Pay per Click (PPC) - method of building traffic whereby site owners bid on search terms (keywords) that link to their site

Geographic Terms - specific information about the local area that can be included in a local search: zip code, town, county, geographic region, state

Top Ranking - sites shown on the first page(s) of search results

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - fine-tuning keywords and page content so the Web site rates high in search engine results

Tags and Titles (on Web Pages) - provide site keywords and information to search engine spiders for indexing a site

Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) - directory of business phone numbers and locations in a geographic area, organized by category; searchable data base accessed on the Internet. Learn how your business can make the most of Local Search by visiting http://www.yellowpagesage.com.

Make your business easy for searchers to find

The public is embracing the convenience of searching on the Internet to find information about local businesses.

However, their searches for desired information are compromised because so many local enterprises don't show up in the databases as yet. Those that do have an edge in their local market. Climb aboard! Make sure searchers can find you. For little or no money, you can expose your enterprise to the whole world.

Whether or not your business has a Web site, you need to provide the information people are looking for in the places that they look for it. Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages open new avenues to buyers ready to spend. Best of all, they support and compliment your traditional methods of finding new business. So you cover all your bases. (c) 2007, Lynella Grant

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Local-Search-and-Internet-Yellow-Pages---A-Whole-New-Vocabulary-for-Small-Businesss&id=1894