Donnelley & Yahoo Partner For Local

Caught this on The Kelsey Blog;

"R.H. Donnelley announced today that it will partner with Yahoo! to give its advertisers a more substantial presence on Yahoo! Local. This will come in three flavors.

From the release:

• Featured Listings — Sponsored listings with guaranteed placement on the first or second search results pages for broader exposure in a specific geography or category
• Enhanced Listings — Sponsored listings that offer the ability to add a detailed business description, photos, tagline and coupons to create greater online visibility for businesses and enhance their appearance within organic results
• Yahoo! Maps Business Listings — Sponsored listings within the context of a map-based view"

Smart for Yahoo and Donnelley, bad for the individual who is looking to get a Yahoo! Featured Listing with little competition as Yahoo! is working hard to fill every vacant sponsored spot.

When Bob the carpet store owner goes to place a featured listing on Yahoo! Local he will be jousting for one of the top three spots with big ticket advertising clients from Donnelley and SuperPages .

If you are a small business and you found your way this far you know you must expand your Internet footprint to stay with or rise above your competition. It's confusing as no blueprint for doing it right exists.

Your options are as follows:

• You can place your money with an IYP rep from R.H. Donnelley or SuperPages or your local print directory sales rep and let them guide you. (the same guys who have been roping you onto their print books since the beginning of time).
• You can learn the search marketing angles yourself. Cut out the agents and reps and have some fun learning this fascinating end of the market. (do you have the time?)
• You can hire an independent marketing agent to educate and guide you through the Internet marketing maze. (and save you a ton)

Option #2 is the best if a person has the time. Option #3 is the best if you want your business represented across the board, with a full presence on all the local directories, search engines and review sites. Option #3 also brings you a full time one on one Pay Per Click practitioner dedicated to making your business grow.

Yahoo Local Gets Makeover

Yahoo performed a makeover on their local search site and it's for the better.
They improved the maps, made reviews more prominent and in general modernized the site. The single best bargain in the local search marketing space is the Featured Listing.

If you don't already occupy one of those spots please consider if it fits your plans and then get into the rotation.
If you need help we can guide you for no charge.

Jobs At Google, Starting Pay $40 Per Day

In truth the work detailed here is worth closer to $100.00 per business. I fully understand what Google trying to do but Mumbai factory workers make more for less work.

" As a Google Business Referral Representative, you'll visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords. You'll also take a few digital photos of the business that will appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information. After the visit, you submit the business' info and photo(s) to Google through your Local Business Referrals Center, and we'll pay you up to $10 for each listing that is approved by Google and verified by the business.

All you need to be a successful Business Referral Representative is a passion for helping local businesses succeed, a love for the Internet (some knowledge of Google is great, too), and access to a computer and a digital camera."

Realistically a person could probably knock down three or four in a day. Factor in time on site, 1/2 hour per business (if the merchant is not busy), gasoline at $3. per gallon and and least 1/2 hour to input each business correctly which includes coordination with the merchant for verification and it really is working for tip money.
Not even minimum wage when it's all said and done.

A VC View of Video Ads

VC blogger and (recovering) entrepreneur David Stern on his blog The Commute offers insights on the emergence of video advertising and small to medium business, (SMB). David is also keen on small business as they see online advertising.

"...Even though we consistently hear how wonderful Google is for the SMB market, the lion’s share of the SMB advertising spend isn’t online. For them, Google is still a mysterious black box. For them, online marketing still isn't tangible enough to adopt right now as a compliment for or replacement for their current more traditional spend. This is an emotional objection, not a rational one, clearly. But it is real nonetheless. This class of advertiser does already advertise in the Yellow Pages and many of them have done a local television ad or two. But for them, it is more important to be able to SEE their ad run, or certainly see their ad run on something that is accessible and known to them or something like it. It is an emotional response, full of vanity, and fear. Having something tangible is important and it is the gating factor for many in determining whether to advertise online. .....

I believe video advertising has the promise of being able to lure not only the early adopters of online advertising, but also and more importantly, the largest portions of local SMB advertising dollars, the portion that has resisted text-based online advertising, online. I believe that this is the next big trend in advertising that has the potential to produce venture scale returns for investors...."

He's right about Google being a black box for the small business advertiser, they can't find Google on their own and even when they do get to the platform they see the directions but can't read them, it's braille or Russian.
Those who have maneuvered through the obstacles in rare air enjoying little competition. My job is translating the braille on Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Superpages for small business and opening their eyes to "this other one half" of the advertising pie.

VC's like David point their firm's money to businesses focused on delivering the product that will bring his firm the best return. The term "follow the money" comes into play here. As David and the venture capital people point to the direction of the future those of us providing service to small business must take note. MediaPost's article on the growth of video advertising supports David's view with exciting figures.

"ONLINE VIDEO AD SPENDING WILL register its greatest year-over-year growth in 2007--rising 89% to $775 million, forecasts eMarketer. Even more significant, the researcher says, the growth rate will remain near or above 40% through 2011, when video ad spending will reach $4.3 billion.

Next year (2008) will be a watershed for online video as more than 50% of the U.S. population--155.2 million people--will be watching it, eMarketer forecasts."

The only directions the SMB operator needs for video is show them where it will be seen and tell them how much it will cost. again, early adopters will be richly rewarded. Where does the small business go to get started? Turn Here is a good place to start.

The Venture Capital people are not in the business of placing the SMB online. They seek out the companies providing the platforms and distribution channels. On that front I have one company in my portfolio in that arena, Roo. (RGRP.OB)

Definitive Online Marketing Blog List

The Power 150 Online Marketing Blog List is the most comprehensive online marketing blog list on the web. Other marketing blog lists I have seen are generally biased and the assigned blogs are in many cases added to curry favor or to raise the list organizer's own status.

Not this one.

About the list Author Todd Andrlik.

Industry News; Digg.com Chooses Microsoft For Ads

Yeah I know this has nothing to do with local search but as our business evolves to providing blogging services the scope of what I watch is widening. As such search industry news relating to blogging tools and shifts in industry winds become more important to follow.

Digg is in the blogging tools arena. Used correctly Digg.com can bring a ton of traffic to a site.
In Digg.com news, Microsoft will serve ads for Digg. This seems to be another loss for Federated Media who may yet still be a part of the site delivering ads on some side pages.

With the apparent loss of Wikia to LookSmart and now Digg you have to wonder how badly the scandal brought to light by ValleyWag.com in June and summarized by the NYTimes, (who uses use the word payola) when describing the practice employed by FM and some of their Bloggers hurt their reputation.

Update; FM Responds

Quick News On The Local Search Front

Local.com (LOCM) buys PremierGuide for a fire sale price of $2 million.

"Premier has directories on over 350 sites including Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., GateHouse Media, Inc. and Washington Post."

Valley Yellow Pages goes digital in 2007 with the launch of MyYp.com. I have to say this is a terrible debut for the company already late to the digital table. The search is clunky, the layout is terrible and look at this messy page. It looks like they simply scanned their own pages. Simply amazing this is the best they could come up with. Disappointing frankly and makes me think they should consult with the people at Local.com?

Wikia Chooses LookSmart AdCenter, Tech

I've been busy with clients and my hobby blog and also following my investments and this one caught my eye.

Wikia Chooses LookSmart ad Serving Platform for management display and text based advertising.

TMC Net writes;

"Wikia will use the ad platform to grow and manage both display and text-based advertisers in its wide-ranging collection of communities. Breaking new ground for LookSmart, Wikia is the first implementation of the company's ad technology for managing and serving display ad units which utilizes CPM-based pricing...."

""We did a lot of due diligence to find a flexible and intuitive ad serving technology that nets the highest revenue and yield," said Gil Penchina, CEO of Wikia. "We discovered in the process that LookSmart's platform and services not only provide dynamic optimization of both our advertisers and backfill networks, but the white label aspect of it fits perfectly with our brand strategy.""

The market has not caught wind of the significant impact this news will have on LookSmart stock.

Recall it took almost a week before the market became aware of the patent news that shocked Local.com (LOCM) stock awake.

Update: After cruising Wikia I attempted to place an ad and was directed to Federated Media, who currently sells banner ads for Wikia. I wonder if FM will continue to feed Wikia or will this LookSmart contract place them on the sidelines.

Hyper-Local Backfence Closes Down

Search Engine Land reports Backfence is closing down;

Quote from Backfence (Reston community site),

"Backfence Says Goodbye to Reston
We are sorry to announce that Backfence (insert city)will be ceasing operations within the next few days. We have been honored to have been members of this vibrant local community over the past several months. Thank you for your interest and participation in Backfence. Hopefully, we'll see you around the neighborhood.
Posted by Backfence; updated 07/05.."

Shame really, perhaps they are a few years ahead of their time or maybe expanded too quickly?
The failing underscores how hard it is to break in to this genre. It seems more and more social networks giants like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace will form and define local community in cyberspace. Given that I do believe spots like super hyper-local Fresno Famous will always find a corner in the room to hang a hat on.

More On Local.com (LOCM)

The stock market finally took notice of the patent award announcement on June 25th due to a blog post on Seeking Alpha on June 29. The stock responded by rising roughly 80% .

Today the company announced they were awarded an additional patent that may hold a deeper meaning for the financial future of the company and indeed all paid local search.

Pay attention to the last line below;

Quotes from Local.com CEO Heath Clarke via From Sys-Com Media;

"In our view, the burgeoning free 411 marketplace is being underwritten by a variety of advertising supported models. Our patent 7,200,413 is directly related to a referral advertising model such as pay-per-click or pay-per-call listings, which are delivered to consumers as a result of an enhanced directory assistance inquiry or local search, where the results can be provided to consumers via many mobile channels, including voice," said Heath Clarke, Chairman and CEO, Local.com.

"Our recently announced patent 7,231,405 was related to the methods used to deliver our highly relevant organic search results. Patent number 7,200,413 is complementary to our local search patent in that it provides us with intellectual property coverage for what's now a widely accepted monetization method -- pay-per-referral -- within the directory assistance marketplace. Local.com believes that ad-supported directory assistance is the future of 411 services in the U.S., and we look forward to working with a variety of companies to deliver innovative new products and services to the marketplace," continued Clarke. "We encourage directory assistance and free 411 companies that are interested in using our intellectual property to enter into licensing agreements with Local.com."

That could be industry changing. The stock responded today by moving up another 55% as of this posting.

Oddly none of the prominent local search marketing industry writers have chimed in with opinions on this second patent yet.

Local.com Announces New Local Search Patent

I don't know how it came to be that I find reading local search patents interesting. This patent issued to Local .com contains some interesting passages and pretty fantastic claims;

"Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) have been used in web sites that provide some local search capabilities. Such conventional web sites organize information according to location and store it into a relational database. Online yellow pages, such as Superpages for instance (www.superpages.com), store local business information in a relational database and utilize SQL language for searching. The database contains business name, address, and telephone data. The web page content of a business is not searchable since it is not stored in the relational database. Thus conventional services such as online yellow pages are not a true local search engine."

Small business isn't served well by the major search engines, paticularly the way Google Pagegank measures the value of a website.


"Other conventional systems provide a ranking of search results in relation to the user supplied search words. Ranking web pages is an important part of conventional search engine operation. As an example, a typical user tends to provide one or two keywords to a conventional search engine. As a specific example, the keyword "java" by Google returns 65,800,000 web page hits. The same keyword "Java" by Yahoo returns 53,900,000 records. There are so many hits with conventional web sites that a user is unable to realistically visit the web pages of every one of such hit. Using conventional search engine technology, any web document containing "java" will be included in the hits. The first hit of Google is http://java.sun.com. The first hit in Yahoo is http://www.sun.com. Both Google and Yahoo provide results that indicate java is a programming language from Sun Microsystems. However, the word java has many other meanings. People that are not familiar with java programming language would be surprised at the search results. The reason why do Google and Yahoo rank the java programming language first instead of a coffee shop is because of the ranking algorithm used by these web search engines. As an example, a ranking system called PageRank is considered the foundation of Google. U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999 entitled "Method for node ranking in a linked database" described a page rank system used by Google. The entire content of U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999 is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The PageRank system calculates recursively the rank score of web page by looking at its linked web pages--that is, those pages that link to (i.e., that contain a hyperlink that reference the URL of) the page being ranked. A higher ranked web page has a higher weight in the ranking equation. Because of the way in which the PageRank algorithm operates, some companies hire so called search engine marketing experts to build web pages linked with each other to boost the score by increasing the number of remote web pages that reference a particular companies web site.

For a small business's web site that has only a few sites linked to it, or for businesses that do not have the money to boost PageRank by search engine marketing experts, search engines that use page ranking provide results that contain the small business site referenced deep into the search results, often resulting in consumers missing those small business sites. Since the small business web site's PageRank is low, even if it can be searched by a traditional search engine, the results indicating the small business web site will be hundreds of pages away in the search results. Embodiments of the invention significantly overcome this problem using a unique ranking system that incorporates geographic location as well to rank a page based on other pages of other sites that are local to the page being ranked.

Another system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,540 entitled "Method and system for providing a web-sharable personal database", the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein, details a system for providing a web-sharable personal database with proximity searching capability. The system described in this patent is not a local geographic based search engine. Instead, it focuses on create a personal database and stored address information in database. Furthermore, it did not address the challenge of mixing the power of conventional search engine with geographical awareness."

I confess I don't know how this makes Local.com any more important than it was yesterday. What is clear is Local.com feels the heat from the Geomas lawsuit.
For the record I like Local.com. I use it and I root for it, I even own some stock. I like the David v. Goliath stories in life, cheering the underdog.

Google Pay Per Action Will Change The Game

Google Pay Per Action (CPA) being expanded according to Google;

"Google announced today the worldwide expansion of its pay-per-action advertising beta. Pay-per-action is a new pricing model that allows advertisers to pay only when a pre-defined action is completed on their site, such as when a user makes a purchase, signs up for a newsletter, or completes any other clearly defined action. Since the initial launch of the pay-per-action advertising beta in March 2007, many advertisers who have used the new pricing model are pleased with the opportunity to have more ways to promote their products and services online."

Click fraud concerns will all but disappear for merchants adopting the CPC model. (CPC defined)

A key question for adopters is how much are you willing to pay for a fairly qualified lead, one that has at the least given you their phone number or email?

Mark Cuban's Message To Newspapers Unheaded

I'm pointing to an 8 month old Blog Maverick post by Mark Cuban where Mark talks about the power of local search advertising with Google. His message to the newspaper people is one I have pondered more than once since I formed this business. I'm amazed Cuban formed such visionary conclusions considering he is not in the local search business.

"Which leads us to Newspapers/Local Media companies. Whether you are a standalone newspaper, or a local media conglomerate with Paper, TV and more, the one thing you have without question is a salesforce. A salesforce that goes out into the business community and sells them on the benefits of advertising on your properties. The job of each salesrep, when done well, is to create a return to the customer that exceeds their investment. Of course its not always easy to define that return, but the salesrep hopefully has a close enough connection to the customer that they can evolve the strategy to fit their needs.

The "touch" methods of selling for local media, as opposed to the "self service purchase" of Google Adwords and its competition have been viewed by some in the Web2.0 world as a disadvantage. I think it creates an amazing opportunity to pull one from the Google Playbook.

"There are couple certainties in the advertising world today.
1. Google isn't going to send a salesrep to visit, or have an inside salesrep call on the local 5 store pizza, dress, toy, laser surgery, dentist, whatever chain of stores. You are.

2. Some percentage of those small to large localized businesses you call on will have a website and of those, the vast majority of them will have no idea how to properly use web services like AdWords or AdSense to either generate foot or phone traffic (the 2 Fs of brick and mortar) for their businesses or make some money from advertising.

3. Local traffic is worth more per click through than national traffic is.

Which creates a phenomenal opportunity for your company. Just as Google arbitraged its selling ability between its ability to monetize traffic and AOL and Myspace, why not use your sales force to arbitrage the ability of your salesforce to sell locally and all the Google Adsense/Yahoo/MSN networks to sell locally ?

You are already selling display and classified ads for the paper, or commercials for your TV station, why not expand that effort to include Search Engine Marketing? Why not hook up with a local SEM expert and make that a service that you offer to your customers ? There is very little chance the local Pizza chain or Body Repair shop knows how to use SEM correctly and those that try more often than not waste a ton of money trying to figure it out. Why not offer it up as a service, even if they don't buy ads for your newspaper or TV station ? In otherwords, you put yourself in the position to become the dominant force for local advertising in your markets, NO MATTER WHAT PLATFORM those ads appear on.

Why not buy a media planner that specializes in your market ? Or put together the resources to compete with them ? Selling locally is a core competency. Optimizing advertising in a comprehensive campaign is a skillset that all local businesses need and many don't know how to find."

My experience with my local newspaper has been cold, actually they view me as the enemy. I'm not of course. McClatchy, Fresno Bee, call me I have some great ideas!

All Major Search Engines Use Geo Locators

We know this but the local merchant doesn't. Local search guru Greg Sterling summarizing his recent Search Marketing Now webcast includes this question and answer from the webcast.

Q: If I search for a "dentist" with out any geo qualifiers, it is my understanding that the search engines now use the IP of the router to deliver results (businesses) within that region. True?

"Yes, all the major search engines are using IP targeting to serve ads when they can sufficiently identify the computer's location and they "infer" the user is conducting a local search. It's a fairly safe bet that queries such as "dentist," "lawyer," "plumber" or "sushi" are local because they are typically "fulfilled" locally. Google, for example, will serve a mix of local and non-local ads in such situations. And on Yahoo's Panama platform, local ads, with local content, will potentially get a higher quality score than more “generic” national ads."

The webcast was informational and well worth an hour spent. Honestly Greg could have filled 2 hours easily I feel. So much happening in this space.

I highlighted this particular question because I when I present this issue to prospective customers they are generally surprised and often express doubt.

New Facebook Feature; Facebook Polls

"Facebook Polls lets you pose questions to other users and rapidly delivers results."

"Facebook Polls are an easy way to get quick answers to your questions. Facebook Polls allows you to ask detailed questions, target them to specific user segments and receive real-time responses. You can target Facebook users based on gender, age, school, location, or profile keyword." Facebook Polls FAQs

I'm imagining how small business can design polls for both local brand development. Target the local college network with polls/questions like.

How Do You Prefer Your Pizza?

• 1. Loaded Combination
• 2. Thin or Thick Crust
• 3. Large for Under $10.00
• 4. 30 minute delivery
• 5. Call 555-5555

We are beginning to see what Facebook means by sponsored listings.

New Google Page Layout Results In More Local Searches

Google Maps (Local) up 20% since Google implemented "Google Universal Search."

FaceBook To Yahoo!, Rumors Round 2

Mashable is first out of the gate with talk of the second round of rumors that Yahoo! is talking to Facebook.com about a buyout. Rumor has it he turned down 1 billion from Yahoo! earlier in the spring but if Yahoo! ponies up 2 bil. will Zuckerberg give in?

Would Rupert Murdoch sell MySpace for 2 billion today? Not a chance. As Facebook builds out their "Marketplace" by adding contextual sponsored ads and giving national and local advertisers access to individual profiles and networks earnings will soar quickly.

Their approach to delivering ads has been measured. So far there are no user revolts or e-riots caused by the system wide display ads supplied by Microsoft and there won't be when the sponsored ads show up.
My guess is once members see how relevant the local targeted ads are the ads will be viewed as more a service than advertisement. Facebook won't make the mistake MySpace made allowing Google to broadly deliver AdWords. I have never been served a relevant contextual ad on a MySpace page amazing as it seems. Facebook will be all about relevancy and if they deliver the right ads to the right demo their earnings metric will shake convention.

This subject is important to me because I have clients who will want get in front of our local University network base. If my pizza client could buy into select FB networks or profiles their spend goes up as do my revenues!

Zuckerberg will eventually be forced to feed his angels, surely some are pressing for a quick turnaround on their investment now. At some point the SEC will require financial disclosure, (the reason Google's IPO was forced) but that is some time away.

Mark would be smart to wait for the cards he has on the table to play out. If his earnings double from the rumored $150 mil. to $300 mil. and they IPO'ed and netted a GOOG like market cap. it would be near $12,000,000,000. If earnings triple?
Yahoo! knows this.

Mark Zuckerberg is redefining social networking before our eyes and his vision is only now being realized. I'm rooting for him to hold out as long as possible.

Local Online Advertising Growing At 31% Clip

Borrell Associates published data on the growth of local online advertising.

" Local online advertising, approaching $7.5 billion, is growing 31.5%, but traditional media companies are struggling to keep up with Web sales. Some have seen growth slip below 20% as they scramble to maintain share. We gathered revenue data from over 2,800 local online media properties for this report." Purchase full report.

More coverage at The Kelsey Group Blog

(Image: Borrell Associates)

Next To Email Local Search Most Popular

Piper Jaffray & Co. 2006 Online Media Survey

IYP Sales People Hitting the Streets

YellowPages.com joins Citysearch in beefing up local sales reps so reports The Kelsey Blog.

"TKG estimates the sales offices will have between 20 and 25 field sales reps and between 8 and 10 telesales reps. With field sales earnings averaging $70,000 and telesales reps average earnings around $55,000"

They are coming buy to support these salaries local merchants can expect some some hard sells coming there way.

This will make independent search marketing services like mine more attractive to local merchants. Those reps are not agnostic, Citysearch reps will be pushing the IAC product and the YellowPages.com people will be pushing their single site. An "independent" like me can offer the full range of local search options placing clients where they are best suited.

Multiple directory submissions, judicious use local targeted PPC, site development and consulting is my business. I can afford to charge less for my full suite of services for less than the YellowPages.com guy or gal will charge for most top category placements.
I was approached already by a very slick YellowPages telerep. Though he was preaching to the choir (and knew it) he was undeterred and convincing.
His persuasive manner was impressive as he quoted user stats and neat demo information. Only $400. per month for a top three spot for my category. Ouch! Didn't he know people go to Google? We had an interesting conversation.

Same tactics as the print now employed online. Local business will embrace the independent alternative!