Internet Yellow Page Ads - Are They Worth A Try?Written by Neil Street
INTERNET YELLOW PAGE ADS – ARE THEY WORTH A TRY?By Neil Street, Co-Founder, Small Business Online, Wilton, CT Most small businesses do not yet advertise on internet. But with undeniable growth in internet traffic, it’s only a matter of time before many businesses will need to consider online advertising. Everyone is familiar with traditional Yellow Pages phone book. Less familiar is internet extension of print book – hodgepodge of advertising options that can loosely be termed Internet Yellow Pages (IYP). A range of companies are jumping on IYP bandwagon, all chasing elusive, and thus far unmaterialized, local advertising dollars. Companies like Verizon, with their SuperPages directory, or like Yahoo!, with their Yahoo! “Get Local” directory, and assorted publishers of print telephone directories, are all players in IYP field. Basically, they all offer variations on a basic theme: structured, directory-like indexing of information on internet, with added features unknown in print books, such as mapping, keyword searching, and website links. The most compelling reason for a website owner to advertise on IYP is increasing consumer usage of internet for finding local products and services. Actual figures vary widely, but well-known analysts such as Kelsey Group have noted growing boom in “local search.” Given this growth, IYP becomes an advertising opportunity worthy of consideration. Where does a local business begin? The best place to start is with your local phone company – investigating what online options are available from print yellow pages companies. In many regions, local phone company yellow book will not be only player in town – one or several print yellow page books may serve an area. All are worth checking out for their options and pricing. In addition to local phone or yellow page companies, a business can consider some of biggest names in world of directories and information. Yahoo! Get Local, Verizon SuperPages, SmartPages.com, Switchboard.com, and YellowPages.com are some of major players, and can be contacted by a business directly. Be forewarned – they each have their own unique systems, and figuring it all out takes some time. My own experience with Verizon SuperPages, for example, indicates that they are “rushing to market” with their online advertiser sign up – to date, I have been unable to get their program to work as it is supposed to, and customer service doesn’t seem to know how to help.
| | Internet News Services Explode OnlineWritten by Jim Edwards
It seems no matter how much information comes available online, people thirst for more. To illustrate this point, just take a look at all online news services sprouting up on web like garden weeds. With click of a mouse you can instantly search thousands of news sources for specific and timely information on virtually any topic you choose. Heck, if you're a real news junky, you can even get up-to- the-minute news emailed straight to your desktop! Now, I'm first one to say that nothing beats a good old-fashioned newspaper you hold in your hands. Few things rate as relaxing as a cup of coffee, a quiet morning, and today's newspaper ready for my inspection. In fact, my day doesn't officially start until I walk to end of my driveway to retrieve paper (occasionally from under a bush). But as much as I love paper, it rarely contains stories on highly-specialized subjects such as latest email marketing laws, html parsing, and search engine promotion. Of course, it doesn't make sense for virtually any local newspaper to carry news about email marketing laws (other than how they affect consumers) because market demand simply doesn't exist on that level. However, around world, thousands of people just like me want to know instant a news story breaks on latest "Can Spam" legislation, and that's where online news services come into play. Log on to http://news.google.com, http://news.yahoo.com and www.news.com to search thousands of different news sources from around world.
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