For the last few years, Mike as asked some of the key players in local search to provide what they thought were the best articles published for the past year.  Mike describes it as such, “Would you be willing to share the 3,5 or 10 articles that influenced your thinking or actions the most over the past year? The articles could be yours, or from others and could cover any topic that you think relates to Local ie local mobile, phones, mapping, Local VC, Local companies, Google, trends, marketing, best practices etc….but articles that you found of importance in one way or another throughout the year.”

This year Mike asked:

Loci 2011- David Mihm

Loci 2011: Ted Paff

Locai 2011 – Jim Moran

Loci 2011- Andrew Shotland

Loci 2011 – Darren Shaw

Loci 2011- Nyagoslav Zhekov

Take a few minutes and see what the experts are saying. Thanks Mike for a great series.

 

Q.Thanks for taking the time today Eric, can you tell us a little about yourself?
A. I’ve been working in online media since 1994 when I led the launch of the online part of Windows NT Magazine (now Windows IT Pro) which grew to a multi-million dollar business. Since then, I have served at various consumer and business-to-business media companies in both executive and consulting roles. As part of my career, I’ve had to become intimately familiar with web, email, social media, SEO, online advertising, analytics, lead generation and more. I still work in online publishing as Senior VP of eMedia for Thomas Nelson, but local SEO has become a personal passion of mine for the past several years. On the personal side, I’m the husband of an amazing wife, father of two beautiful girls under the age of four, a private pilot / aviation enthusiast, musician, and adoption / orphan care advocate.

Q. Why did you write the book?
A.  Working in publishing, many of our magazines’ readers and distribution partners were local businesses (self-storage, welding, natural product retailing, restaurants, hotels, tanning salons, yarn / quilt shops, etc.). Every time I talked with them, they wanted to know how they could better market their business online. I wrote articles in our magazine and spoke at our conferences to local business owners about online marketing and it became clear that local SEO was the biggest need they had … and the biggest mystery to them.

I see a big gap missing in the information for local business owners. There is a lot of great, free information on the web around local search, but much of it is written in language designed for SEO consultants, not business owners. It’s also scattered on various sites and not organized all in one place. And, of course, there is a lot of misinformation out there as well that could actually hurt a local business owner if they didn’t know it. I also see most business owners focusing exclusively on Google Places. They feel all they need to do is claim their listing and everything is fine. Of course, that’s not true … there is so much more.

I wrote this book to be a plain-English guide to local business owners that will educate them on the fundamentals of local search optimization … both Google Places and beyond.

Q.  Who should purchase this book?
A.  I truly believe that every owner / operator of a local business should buy this book. It doesn’t matter what geographic market or industry you’re in or whether you have one location, several locations, or a national chain. The information in this book is applicable to any business marketing to local geographic regions.

BTW, this book is an excellent resource even if a business owner plans to hire or is currently working with a local search consultant. It will help educate the owner on the fundamentals of local search and know how to better research and work with a local search consultant.

Q. Where can you get the book?
A.  You can buy the book in PDF format directly from my web site, LocalSearchHandbook.com. In the next month or so, you’ll also be able to buy a print or Kindle version of the book directly from Amazon.

Q. Are are the future plans for the book/updates?
A.  Absolutely. As you know, the local search landscape changes continually. I plan on releasing updates to the PDF version every six months or so. Anyone who purchases the PDF version through my web site will get free lifetime updates every time a new version is released. Unfortunately, because of the costs involved with print / Kindle, I can only update that version every 12-18 months and cannot offer free lifetime updates.

Q. Why is local search important for small business?
A.  First, I want to clarify that this book is written for local businesses, not necessarily small businesses. There are some small businesses that are trying to market nationally and local search is not appropriate for them. There are also some very large businesses with hundreds of local locations … local search is totally appropriate for them. Of course, there are a lot of small businesses who also focus on a local region and local search is what they should focus on.

To those owner / operators of local businesses, I would say that there are people online right now looking for a business like yours in your area. They’re using computers, mobile phone and GPS devices and they’re using Google, Bing, Yahoo, Facebook, or hundreds of other sites and services. Will these potential customers find you? According to a BrightLocal survey done about a year ago, over 80% of U.S consumers use the Internet to find a local business, but only 41% of local searches are done on Google Places. That’s why local search optimization is so critical for local businesses and it’s why I wrote this book.

Q. Where do you see local search marketing going in the near future?
A.  One thing’s for sure, local search is only going to get bigger … and it’s going to expand in all different directions. Enabling local search for mobile devices is already getting big and will be an even bigger focus on 2012 (like Siri on the iPhone). Local search will also see greater emphasis in social media outlets like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. There will continue to be changes to Google Places, Bing Local, and all of the internet yellow pages, review sites and online directories. And there will be more and more web sites and services that integrate local search. New services will also be developed or expanded to help business owners manage local search. However, I truly believe that while there will be specific tactical adjustments that business owners will need to make, the fundamental strategies behind local search that I address in this book will continue to be the same.

Q. Anything else you would like to add?
A.  Just three things …
1)      I have a free blog / email newsletter on my site, LocalSearchHandbook.com My goal is not to break every big story or talk about everything that a search engine consultant would want to know about. There are some amazing people out there like you, Mike Blumenthal, Linda Buquet, and David Mihm who already do that. Instead, I focus on the major changes that a business owner should know about, try to explain it in plain English, and always end the post with a “Bottom Line – What You Should Do About It” that tells the business owner what action they need to take if any.

2)      If you’re a local search consultant and would like a free complimentary copy of my book, please contact me via my web site. I’ll be glad to send you one. I’ll also be launching an affiliate program so that if you want to refer your clients to buy the book, you’ll get a nice commission.

3)      If you see anything in the book that you’d like me to expand upon in the next edition … or that you think should be covered differently … please let me know!

 

Today I have a cool interview with Sander Daniels of Thumbtack.com. I just recently learned about this directory and thought you would appreciate learning a little bit more about them.

Q. Tell us a little about your Thumbtack.com. How long have you been around?
A. Thumbtack is an online marketplace for local services. You can find and book most types of local services on our site.  We try to do two things:

1. Help small businesses and independent professionals easily market themselves online. We create a nice-looking profile for anyone who signs up on our site, and we centralize all of the easiest tools that small businesses can use to make themselves seen online.
2. Be a trusted destination for consumers who seek to book local services of all kinds – plumbers, wedding photographers, math tutors, magicians… anything.

We launched the site in December of 2009 and are based in San Francisco. 150,000 small businesses have now listed themselves on our site.

Q. Is Thumbtack.com national or regional?
A. Thumbtack is a national site – anyone from any state can sign up.

Q. I looked up my city Augusta, GA and there were not alot of businesses listed- why is that?
A. The small businesses that sign up on our site are located all across the country. The biggest proportion of our members are in big cities, and a smaller proportion in smaller towns and cities.

Our signups mirror a population density graph of the U.S. For example, 2.7% of the U.S. population lives in New York City – which would mean that about 4,000 New Yorkers have signed up to use our site.  It looks like about 100-150 small businesses in the Augusta metro area have signed up on Thumbtack, which sounds about right.

It’s clear that we have a lot of work to do to get people all across the country to sign up and become active users – but that’s part of the fun of building a small business!

Q. How does a business get added to your website?
A. We have tried to simplify the signup process as much as possible. Most people find the signup process pretty straightforward.

First, you enter basic information about your business. Then you can enhance your listing, like add photos, video, or audio to your account, connect your account to Facebook or Twitter, and answer some interview questions about your business.

The signup link is here: http://www.thumbtack.com/welcome

Q. Are there any costs involved?
A. Most of our services are free.

For example, we have a tool that allows you to easily post a nice-looking ad on Craiglist. Lots of people use Thumbtack just to use this free service. We also optimize your post for search engines, and we send you any jobs we find on Craigslist that we think might work for you. Those are free too.

We offer an opt-in leads program, which costs money. Every time we get a job lead on our site, we email you about it. If you’d like to respond, you have two choices. You can either pay a flat fee to respond (currently $4). Or you can pay nothing to respond, but you agree to pay a commission if you get the job. The commission amount is currently 8%.

Q. Are you similar to Angie’s List?
A. We are similar to Angie’s List in that both sites are a useful tool to find local service professionals.

We are a younger site than Angie’s List, so we don’t yet have as many customer reviews as Angie’s List does.

However, we cater to professionals of all kinds, not just home service contractors and doctors. Audio/video professionals, limousine services, calligraphers, and most anything else you can imagine have listed themselves on our site.

You can also post a job, receive bids, and book a service all through our site. We’re aware of only one or two other companies that provide these transactional features.

Q. Why should a small business list on your website?
A. You get a nice looking listing, you get some good ways to market yourself online, and you potentially get some good leads that turn into long-term clients.

Q. Is your website searchable by Google, etc. What sort of SEO do you do for the businesses?
A. We try to get your Thumbtack listing on Google as high as possible and as quickly as possible. We’re seeing some success with this. Thumbtack listings appear at the top of Google’s listings for many different search queries (like “portland house cleaning”, “henna tattoo omaha ne”, or “iphone repair wichita ks”). We want to boost your listing as high as it can go in Google.

We believe that small businesses should not need to learn the complex nuances of SEO. Rather, they should leave the heavy SEO lifting to other companies who have invested significant resources in learning about it.

Q. Are the future plans for the site?
A. In the future, we hope to provide complete back-end support to local service professionals. This includes customer relationship management, appointment management, email marketing, and invoicing services. We want to make it as easy as possible to manage the logistics and marketing of your business, so you can focus on your work with clients.

Q. Where do you see local search marketing moving to in the future?
A. Over the last decade, local search moved from the offline Yellow Pages to online directories, like Yelp, Angie’s List, and Google. We see this changing in the future to be focused on the transaction itself – where can a consumer go to receive 3-5 bids on their job within 24 hours? Where can a small business go to pay only for jobs they receive, rather than for blanket advertising with an uncertain return?

A number of companies are seeking to become the transactional platform where consumers can find and book trustworthy professionals – the “Amazon for local services.” We hope to become the one that stands out from the rest.

Thanks for your time Sander and good luck with the site/service.

 

Q. So Tim, lets start with the basics, what is YouGottaCall?

A. YouGottaCall.com is a free, web-based word-of-mouth referral service that benefits consumers, the local businesses they trust and the community. Our unique process has pending patent protection.

Q. When and why develop the site?

A. We incorporated in 2007 and launched in 2008.  I started YouGottaCall.com because I saw the potential for consumers and local, trusted businesses to use social media as a superior form of advertising. At the time other web sites were not addressing the $100B annual local advertising market with a social media solution that harnessed the powerful factor of consumers’ trusted, real-world relationships.

Q. So do you provide a similar service to Angie’s List?

A. We are aiming for the same goal – to connect consumers with trustworthy businesses. But our means of achieving this are as opposite as can be.  YouGottaCall.com is more similar to other word-of-mouth social networks like GigPark and LikeList. But we are unique in our voluntary intrinsic monetization and our cause affiliation.

Here’s how we stack up with Angie’s List -
Fees:
Angie’s  List collects fees from consumers. This is their primary revenue source.
YouGottaCall.com is free to join and free to use for consumers and businesses.

Trusted relationships:
Angie’s List features written testimonials about the businesses. But the testimonials are written by strangers.

The starting point for YouGottaCall is our members’ trusted relationships. Recommendations are filtered by the members’ social connections so they personally know the people recommending the business. Because we are integrated with Facebook our members can log-in using their Facebook ID. We plan to expand the integration with Facebook to achieve more referral and search utilization within Facebook.

Effectiveness:
Angie’ s List does not guarantee consumer satisfaction for the subscription fee. In our model consumers are not charged a fee. Our revenue comes from our business members who select the amount they want to pay. For businesses, this is performance based. They choose whether they want to pay for either ‘referrals’ or for ‘new sales’.

Cause related:
YouGottaCall.com enables members to select a not-for-profit organization their referrals will benefit. Eighty percent of all fees go to these charities.

Q.  You are currently only in Connecticut. Are there plans to expand to other market areas?

A. Connecticut is our first market and is where we are proving our concept. Our 200 “Trusted Service Providers” and 400 members are distributed across Connecticut. We plan to scale to other metro areas.

Q. Do business add themselves or do the consumers?

A. Consumers can add themselves and their trusted businesses. Also, business members can invite and connect with consumers who give them referrals (customers, neighbors, associates, etc.).  YouGottaCall.com business members also get a free, powerful, CRM tool box to manage communications with connected members, and stay in touch via promotions and email updates.

Q.  Can you provide an example listing?

A. Here is a popular business that provides home and office PC support. They epitomize ‘word-of-mouth’ with strong business networking and loyal customers. http://bit.ly/YGCWeCare We Care has leveraged their YouGottaCall membership by incorporating it into their social marketing mix.

Q. Looking over the site, I see that a business can claim a listing…

A. Yes – businesses can claim their listing or request that a listing be created. No charge.

Q.  Are your pages/listings, search engine friendly? Do they get indexed by Google, Yahoo, etc?

A. Confession: I initially requested that our developers not optimize our site for search. That’s when I was convinced the viral nature of our community would create overnight, meteoric growth. Now we are planning to optimize. One way will be by adding pages displaying results for commonly searched for terms (ex. ‘plumber’).

Q.  How are businesses added to network? Do you use a service such as Localeze to populate your database?

A. Each member or business owner can request to add a business listing. We add them and notify the owners of their new, free referral page. That is how we reached our 200 active “Trusted Service Provider” accounts. Our 4,000 business listings were acquired locally. As we expand into other markets we will initiate a relationship with a national service.

Q. What sort of traffic and interest are you getting?

A. Traffic is light with unique visitors in the hundreds each month. The metric we most closely watch is utilization – member referrals and invitations. As a social community, growth in utilization will drive traffic. The small size of our network presents a utilization challenge as networks become exponentially more effective as they grow numerically. (http://yougottacall.blogspot.com/2008/10/its-law.html)

Another challenge to building traffic is related to the frequency with which people share word-of-mouth referrals. The average member gives/gets 6.5 referrals annually. This low frequency creates an infrequent need for using the site, and consequently an unfamiliarity with it.

Contrast this with Facebook whose users go there several times per day, creating strong familiarity and increased utility. This is why we are exploring deeper integration with Facebook – to remain “front-of-mind”. Network size will grow toward a critical mass where we experience cross-pollination and self-perpetuating buzz.

Q. How do you feel a service like this would do in smaller towns or larger cities?

A. YouGottaCall’s model will do well in any area, large or small, that can support 2,000 users. This is our estimate for the number of members for achieving a sustainable buzz that leads to cross-pollination. Our strategy for approaching not-for-profits may be effective for uncovering veins of loyal and motivated members who want their valuable referrals to benefit their charity.

Q. Final question, and one I like to ask at all of my interviews, where do you see local search moving in the future?

A. Good search mimics natural behavior. And the ultimate natural behavior is ‘word-of-mouth’. Mobile-powered social technology will soon make search more seamless with the natural way we find information. This will rapidly obsolete traditional advertising as well as algorithmic search.

The Web revolution is based on better ways for people to connect, find information and benefit the community. YouGottaCall’s model occupies intellectual property at the intersection of these trends.

Thanks again Tim for your time. For those in Connecticut go take a look at YouGottaCall.com. Good luck Tim and let us know how things go.

 

Q. What is schmap.me?
A. Schmap.me is a simple way to share map links using a meaningful, memorable, custom url.  For locations that you share frequently this can be a much more effective way of communicating location than sending a cumbersome google map link. For example, you can see the schmap.me url for Donald McMillian, VP of marketing. It includes additional information related to the location, such as phone numbers, directions, and photos – schmap.me/donald.mcmillan

Coincidentally, venture capitalist Fred Wilson recently commented on exactly this issue on his blog – http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/06/linking-to-google-maps.html (we’ll have to get him a schmap for Union Square Ventures)

Q. I see you have a limited number of preloaded cities on your publish or widget programs. Will those cities listed be expanded at any time?  What if someone like myself wants to publish or schmap about something not in one of those cities?
A. We do plan to expand those cities for which we offer browse-able guides, but do not have a release schedule at this time.  However, our services, including schmap.it, schmap.me & geotweeter, are designed for the sharing of information from any location.  And in fact we have seen schmaps created for places in all corners of the world, in cities as wide ranging as Singapore, Moscow, New York, Reykjavik, and many many more.

Q. So how can a small business benefit from using schmaps?
A. Many small businesses are already using Twitter for local marketing: bars tweeting happy hours, stores with discount sales, restaurants promoting lunch specials, realtors marketing property – these are examples of local businesses trying to drive foot traffic from Twitter for commercial gain. Schmaps give these same local businesses a much better way to do this – extending a 140 character tweet into a rich local marketing resource.

Q. Are they any costs involved in using your site/services?
A. The basic service is free, with an optional $9.95 /month PRO account for power users. The PRO account has some nice additional marketing resources, including tweet scheduling, direct message and @message marketing campaigns, and the ability to track campaign metrics. We’re currently offering a limited number of free PRO accounts – details at www.schmap.it/PRO-account-for-FREE – if any of your readers would like to take advantage.

Q. Where do you see local mobile marketing going in the near future.
A. Right now, we’re seeing an epic commercial migration taking place at the intersection of ‘local’ and ‘social’. The same local restaurants, bars, shops etc. that took ten years to discover the Internet are now adapting to Twitter and Facebook with much greater speed, finding some great opportunities to engage local consumers with a blurred mix of content, service and local marketing. Local consumers are increasingly accessing social networks and local content from mobile devices: we see the future of local mobile marketing being driven by these two trends – local businesses going ‘social’ and local consumers going mobile.

Again, I want to thank Paul for his time and insights.

 

Mobile-local and social-local are growing areas small business needs to understand and areas where they can reach more potential clients. Schmaps is one of those companies doing some interesting and cool stuff online in the mobile-social-local market. I wanted to learn more, so I reached out and was able to interview CEO, Paul Hallett of Schmap. Below is part 1 of that interview. (The more I investigated their site and business, the more questions I have. I hope I covered everything you might have a question one.)

Q. Good day Paul, can you tell us a little about your company?
A. We started out in 2004 – at that time, there were just three of us, developing a platform to combine maps with local content (reviews and photos) in a compelling and dynamic way. This platform became the foundation for our popular Schmap guides – www.schmap.com – a series of desktop and mobile local guides for 200 worldwide cities.

Q. What is schmap currently doing?
A. Our current focus is at the intersection of local and social, making it easier for local businesses to reach local consumers, and help these same consumers discover vibrant, real-time local content. One aspect of our rollout here is the geoparsing of content shared on social networks. Taking Twitter for example, at any point in time, there’s a wealth of vibrant local information being shared in tweets: people tweeting about great restaurant experiences, bands tweeting about gigs, bars tweeting about happy hours and so on.

The challenge is filtering and deciphering: if someone tweets ” Cool bash tonight at Joe’s”, has that person just returned from a private party at a friend’s house, or is there some kind of event coming up at Joe’s Bar? What is the event, where is Joe’s Bar, and who might this information be relevant to? The second aspect of our local/social rollout is http://schmap.it – a Twitter app for event marketing and local promotion.

Q. I recently signed up for that app,  can you tell us what this new tweeter app does?
A. Our schmap.it Twitter app basically allows the user to add rich local content to a tweet, in the form of a schmap – a map with text, photos, hash tags, and functionality that allows the recipient to retweet, add comments and RSVP to local events. The app is designed for commercial users – event promoters, marketing professionals and local businesses trying to drive folk from Twitter to real world locations: we saw a gap for this type of service left by the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla (services that focus on individuals sharing their current location).

Q.  After looking at your website, can you tell us a bit about your mobile apps….Schmap GeoTweeter?   Any Android or Blackberry versions coming out?
A. Geotweeter is an app that allows users to share their location via twitter as a customized map that can include photos, notes and custom icons. It was among the first iPhone apps to combine GPS coordinates with Twitter’s service.  We are currently developing a new iPhone app that uses many of the concepts from Geotweeter, but will integrate with our offering of real time local information.  We are considering Android and Blackberry platforms for development following the release of the iPhone app, but have no firm plans at this time.

I will end Part 1 here.  Tomorrow I will finish up the interview but if you are interested, you can sign up for a Free PRO account at  http://www.schmap.it/PRO-account-for-FREE.

 

After I reviewed the book, I contacted Yodle to get a few questions answered. Below are my comments, thoughts, and answers (in italics) to questions I had.

Before I get into the book, thought it was important to know who Yodle is.

“Yodle is a leader in local online advertising and named fastest growing local online advertising company by industry analyst Borrell Associates. Yodle connects thousands of local businesses with consumers in a process so simple and cost-effective that business owners can’t imagine any other way to advertise. Yodle has developed an integrated approach to signing up and serving local businesses that are transitioning their marketing budgets online. Yodle is headquartered in New York, NY with a presence in 25 major cities across the United States.”

On to the book. ..
This book came out a few months ago and is one of the newest addition in the “for dummies series”.  The book does a good job providing definitions to many terms we in the search market know and use all the time. Thus it definitely will help small business owners understand what we, local search marketers are saying. 

The book is broken down into 20 chapters and many, many sub sections within each chapter. For a list of the chapters and purchasing info, you can head over the official dummies site. This is also where you can purchase a copy if you wish.

I liked how the book is organized and does a very good job breaking stuff down into bitsize pieces.  It is very “readable”,  not too boring and dry.  The material is presented in way (or order) that if one follows it, they would have a “reasonable” and “obtainable” marketing strategy. What I am saying is that the books gives good basics on the main and proven marketing techniques, no “do this and you will be #1 overnight” material.

As I was reading though, my first question was, “why a book? wouldn’t it get outdated soon?” A lot of this information is online. So I asked them.

“While there is definitely a lot of information available online that may be very “up to date,” no one has ever vetted all the information that local business owners need to know about online advertising and put it one place.  A book seemed like a good vehicle through which to “bundle” all this information and make it available to the average local business owner – who themselves may not be all online savvy such that they would otherwise be able to find this information.

Additionally the opportunity to create this book in conjunction with a brand so universally recognized as the “For Dummies” imprint, was an opportunity we just couldn’t pass up.

The last thing I’ll say about the book becoming “outdated” is that we really tried to write the book in a way that empowered local business owners to think about local online advertising broadly as opposed to just making it a laundry list of tools and resources.”

I also asked if any updates were in the works. “If we sell enough copies.  Did we mention that the book is available on Amazon?”

The majority of the book is about local search, but it covers other areas like email, analytics, paid search, banner ads, budgeting, web design, hosting.  It does not go into huge details on all of these areas, but gives a nice intro to each.  All are areas small business owners need to know about.

Throughout the book, there are many references to websites and companies, that they recommend. Now being “nosy” I asked if these references asked to be put in the book or were paid. You might think it a silly question but I wanted to know.

“We absolutely did not receive compensation from any companies other than Wiley (the publisher) who paid us to write the book.  Any time we may have listed specific companies, it was a product of us asking ourselves the question: if we were acting as a business consultant for a small business owner who was a friend or relative of ours, which resources or companies would we tell them to check out?

Also, it’s worth mentioning that Wiley was very stringent about being as “non-biased” as possible.  I put that in quotes only because we have a natural bias which is that we believe in online advertising for local businesses – however, I think there are quite a few stats that would back up that bias as well.  In fact, more along the lines of being non-biased, if you look through the actual text of the book (outside of dedications and the like), the word “yodle” only comes up perhaps two or three times.”

So what else can I say? I could go on for a long time commenting on each chapter or section. What I will do is open up the floor to you — send me any questions you might have about the book and I will do my best to answer them.

In conclusion, should a small business owner buy this book? If he wants to understand local online marketing better, I would have to say yes!  The material in the book is current, accurate (best that I can tell   ), nicely organized and easy to understand. It provides good solid advise and resources. Could a small business owner  do all the work themselves? LOL (see my previous posts on that one)

Thanks Yodle for a good local search marketing resource.

 

How does anyone learn things, these days-school of course. In continuing my topic of local search DIY (do it yourself),  I interviewd my good friend David Mihm about his GetListedUniversity. This appears to be an excellent opportunity for small business owners to get some hands on training in local search.  Getlisted, just recently expanded to include a UK branch. If you are interested in see if a class is coming near you, David has provided his contact info below.

Q. What is Getlisted University?
A. Local University is essentially a four-hour crash course for business owners in local search engine marketing.  We bring in Google Places and Bing Local reps for the day, along with some top-notch experts in Local SEO, and try to get business owners up to speed, as best we can, for how to get found online.

Q. Why did you start it?
A. Mike Blumenthal, Mary Bowling, and I started tossing around the idea of a Local roadshow at SMX East last fall–an idea that Pat Sexton and I had discussed internally since before we even started what became GetListed.org.  All of us were committed to getting beyond the search marketing community, right to business owners, to cut through the snake oil and bogus internet marketing sales pitches they receive every day.

Q. Who should attend?
A.  Our seminars are definitely geared towards business owners themselves, but we’ve had considerable interest from chambers of commerce, offline media, and online marketing agencies who have sent their clients or member business owners–and in some cases junior employees or account managers.

Q. What should one realistically expect to get out of the course/seminar?
A.  We hope that attendees leave with an overall idea of how the search engines work–especially for local keywords–and a few tactics they can implement immediately to get their business to rank better.

Q. Is it just another sales pitch?
A.  We’re 100% sales-pitch-free.  Every tool, product, and service we talk about in our presentations is a legitimate recommendation, and none of the speakers are shilling for more clients.  In fact, our goal is to partner with local marketers and agencies so that business owners have someone to talk to in their own area after we leave town.  I think we all have a pretty good reputation in the search community, but outside of our little world, we’re not exactly known entities .  So we’re really proud of the number attendees who have remarked to us “You guys really knew your stuff–it was great that it wasn’t a sales pitch” or something along those lines.

Q. Where will you be having your next seminar(s)?
A.  We’re geared towards less traditional (and more affordable) venues than those of the typical SEO conference circuit.  So next up are Cleveland/Northeast Ohio (June 30), Denver and New Orleans in the fall, and Phoenix in the winter.  We’d love to do events in towns even smaller than that, but it seems like we need a critical mass of business owners
in order to break even on our travel expenses.  We’re still trying to find out what that critical mass is, though & are open to entertaining ideas from any area.

Q. If folks want more info, where should they go?
A. We put up a landing page a couple months ago http://getlisted.org/university which has some high-level bullet points, but people can feel free to email me at david@getlisted.org if they’d prefer, too.

Q.  In your opinion, how realistic is it for SMBs to DIY local search?
A. I think it’s very realistic for the ones who are motivated.  A lot of SMB’s do need their hands held by a trusted (and trustworthy) advisor but there are an incredible number of low- or no-cost positive steps that they can take to get themselves started.  As the online space becomes more competitive, or more sophisticated, they may need more help, but one of the things that I love most about the local search world is that there ARE so many non-technical things business owners can do to improve their visibility, without even touching their websites.  They just need a push in the right direction–which we hope to give them with Local U!

Thanks David for your time and hope to see GetlistedU in my neck of the woods soon.

 

Local Search Talk Series Part 1: Miriam Ellis Interview
Local Search Talk Series Part 2: Dev Basu Interview
Local Search Talk Series Part 3: Matt McGee Interview
Local Search Talk Series Part 4: Chris Silver Smith Interview
Local Search Talk Series Part 5: Ed Reese Interview

I enjoy always spending some time hearing what others are saying.

 

Q. What is guiaslocal.com?

A.  GuiasLocal.com is a new, non-yellow page, bilingual start-up that connects consumers to major U.S. cities and millions of businesses.  Guias Local translated in English means “Local Guides” (a logical name for Hispanics and search algorithm when searching locally).  The primary language of GuiasLocal.com is Spanish with a secondary language in English.  Currently GuiasLocal.com, is the largest bilingual, non-yellow page in the United States.

Q. What is its mission?

A. Our mission is to change Local search and offer Hispanics a new way to search.  With so many English language local search companies in the mix, we feel we can add value to an emerging market.

Q. You have just gotten beta in El Paso, what is the timeline for other cities?

A.  On Monday, December 7th, we will be launching our second version of Beta for El Paso, based on feedback from consumers and businesses.  This version offers more in regards to search and features.
Our full launch of our 200 major U.S. cities is scheduled for early 2010.  This version will include additional enhancements to GuiasLocal.com including white labels, private labels, and mobile versions.  We will be adding additional cities growing quickly.

Q. Are you looking at producing any iPhone or Blackberry mobile apps or site for the directory?

A. Mobile versions of GuiasLocal.com are currently in development.  As more Hispanics adapt to mobile applications faster than non-Hispanics, mobile apps are a top priority for GuiasLocal.com.  Our mobile versions will offer easy navigation and a fast search.

Q. Are there any other bilingual local search directories out there?

A.  There are no other bilingual, non yellow page, nationwide, local searches in the U.S.  There is a yellow page company named Seccion Amarilla Usa, a Telmex company, which offers results in two languages.  Yellow page companies tend to focus on print and not on the Internet or mobile applications.  Our enhanced version of GuiasLocal.com will offer our consumers an easy to use local search in two languages as well, GuiasLocal.com offers businesses the opportunity to reach consumers with various levels of advertising available at a significantly reduced rate as compared to yellow page companies.

Q. Why should small business be concerned with bilingual listings?

A. Hispanics are the largest growing minority in the United States.  As well, given  that  almost  half  of Hispanics  speak  only Spanish  at  home,  products  that  offer easy  directions  and  a  bilingual  user  interface will  gain  faster  adoption.   What’s more, one-third  of  Hispanics  feel  that  Spanish-language  Web  sites  enhance  their  user experience — a clear message for online retailers and marketers.  Why not offer the consumer the opportunity to search in both languages?  GuiasLocal.com offers Hispanics a choice, their choice of which language to search in.

Q. How can a business get listed in your directory?

A. Businesses can either contact GuiasLocal.com directly to place their business in our search.  Upon launch, we will offer a business submission where the business can add all of their information via GuiasLocal.com as well as manage their listing.  This will be available in early 2010 with our full launch.

Q. Where do you see local search marketing going in the next year or so?

A.  Local search marketing is growing at a rate of 17 percent according to Forrester Research.  GuiasLocal.com knows the true value is in becoming a brand and an information provider not just a local search.  We are currently working on this with: Private label (powered by GuiasLocal.com), Apps, API’s, licensing, desktop, mobile, and business packages.

Q. Anything else you would like to add?

A. We recently added dotcom veteran, Tom Herman, to our board who has been guiding GuiasLocal.com strategically in our money raising efforts. You may remember Tom from the movie, Startup.com. The film followed e-commerce website govWorks.com and its founders, Tom and Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, from 1999-2000 as the Internet bubble was bursting. Under their leadership, govWorks raised $60 million in venture financing from firms such as the Mayfield Fund, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, the New York City Investment Fund, Hearst Corporation, Sapient Corporation and Vignette Corporation.  Tom brings over 15 years of start-up experience leading technical strategy, software architecture, fund raising and mergers and acquisitions of technical assets.

Twitter: We are the most followed Hispanic brand on Twitter World Wide.

–Thanks for that info George on Guiaslocal.com.  Look forward to seeing how your site grows and develops.