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!

 

I have found a number of recent articles that I think are worth your time reading.

5 Tips To Get More Online Customer Reviews by Andrew Shotland. Andrew offers some great advice on how to get customers to review your business.

Harnessing The Power Of Online Customer Reviews For Local Business Growth by Myles Anderson
“But when it comes to customers’ opinions and the public sharing of those opinions with a huge online audience, there is little businesses can do – except make damn sure their service is as good as it can be and to engage with their customers more than ever before.” “About 49% of local consumers are more likely to use a local business having read a positive online review.”

6 Steps to Building Buzz for your Small Business
“Take an hour or two and claim and optimize the pages that will be most important to your customers and then ask your customers to post reviews about their experience with your business. This can be done by adding links to these sites on your website and putting up signage in your business. Not every review will be stellar but that is ok – take the negative reviews as an opportunity to grow your customer service skills or enhance your product offering”

Nuking Local Competitors A Dirty, Rotten Trick byMiriam Ellis
Miriam talks about the new feature about stating a business is closed on Google. (Something to keep an eye on)

 

The goal of this infographic was to provide a foundation for that understanding from the perspective of long term investment in their marketing efforts. It is not so much a guide to those marketing priorities as it is a guide to understanding the trade offs in loss of control as you move your efforts onto the platforms controlled by others.

Download the graphic, read it, take it in. Thanks to all involved in putting this together

Web Equity by Mike Blumenthal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.blumenthals.com.

 

Connecticut-based YouGottaCall.com Awarded Patent for Online, Word-of-Mouth Referral System
June 7, 2011 South Windsor, CT

YouGottaCall.com is a Web-based word-of-mouth referral service for consumers and businesses. Today, YouGottaCall.com, LLC announced that it has been granted a patent by the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) on its novel process for sharing and monetizing word-of-mouth referrals. (Patent No 7,953,644)

Local search is being revolutionized as consumers use social and mobile media to connect and share information. Social media is ideal for conveying word-of-mouth referrals which consumers trust over all other forms of advertising. Word-of-mouth is credited with 80% of new customers for small businesses.

Founder Tim Tracey of West Hartford, CT says, “Other services like Yelp, Yahoo Local, Google and Angie’s List support local recommendations. YouGottaCall’s process is a step forward for the social economy. It benefits not only consumers and local businesses, but not-for-profit organizations as well. So each referral benefits the community.”

Tracey adds, “The US local advertising market is estimated to be $100B annually. Word-of-mouth is not yet considered in this, but as the social economy evolves it will become a significant contributor.”

YouGottaCall allows consumers to recommend their trusted businesses to friends and neighbors. Members can also search for businesses trusted by their friends. Participating businesses choose the amount they pay for each newly referred customer. The fee benefits the favorite charities of the members involved in the referral.

According to Tracey, “This patent is important because large social network sites are searching for ways to monetize their services. YouGottaCall converts social capital into charitable donations. We look forward to helping more not-for-profits organizations generate donations from activity their supporters are doing anyways – sharing trusted recommendations.”

YouGottaCall.com serves over 500 members and 250 trusted member businesses in Connecticut and western Massachusetts. Like Facebook and LinkedIn, it is free to join and use. Businesses may claim and manage their listings or have them added for free.

About YouGottaCall.com, LLC
YouGottaCall was incorporated 2007 and launched in 2008. It is based in South Windsor, CT and has been funded from private investments. Foresite Technologies of East Hartford, CT is a technology and development partner.

In 2010 YouGottaCall was a CT Technology Council “Company to Watch” and finalist for the Hartford Business Journal’s Strateg-e Award for “Best Use of Social Media”.
YouGottaCall Press Contact: Tim Tracey info@yougottacall.com 860-546-8468

Tim added to me:  We view the direct conversion of social capital to cash as a way the social economy will function in the future. This patent is an indication of the uniqueness of YouGottaCall’s ‘intrinsic monetization’ model.

Congrats Tim!

 

For a website to function and work for the small business it has to be properly designed, optimized, and promoted but it also needs to UP! How many times do you go to a website and get that 404 page error?! Web hosting is just as important to the small business and too many business owners really do not understand or realize this. Recently the small web hosting company that I run, got an award for great service and support so I had to share it here! LOL

Yeah I want to brag some but I thought it would be a good opportunity to discuss web hosting.  So today interviewed Jeff Raybould of  Bluehost Coupon and  Best Web Hosting and asked him some of the key questions I get from clients regarding hosting.

Q. Jeff, tell us a little about yourself.
A.  Larry, I have been in the web hosting industry for a few years and my partner/cousin has been in for over a decade. Together we run several web hosting review sites with our primary goal of finding the best web hosting for each of our readers. The thing that separates us from others is that we understand what might be the best for reader A isn’t the best for reader B. That is why we do so many reviews and spend countless hours researching stuff.

Q. So, how do you define web hosting?
A. This is a question asked by many people when we tell them we are in the web hosting business. Web hosting is a service provided where a “host” stores user’s files on servers in a datacenter. These servers are configured to serve up these files when requested through the internet. There are many different types of web servers, but for most individuals and small businesses these are shared web servers that run on a Unix/Linux or Windows operating system.

Q. What  makes a good web hosting company?
A. The factors in determining a good web hosting company are many. These include cost, support types (email/phone/etc), support hours, and server uptime. The cost of a good host shouldn’t be more than $10/month for entry level hosting in our experience. Good hosts typically offer phone support with low hold times and should be available during the hours where you, the user, will be working on your site. This doesn’t mean you need 24 hour phone support as you might not be working on your site at 4 AM (this is usually done more by hosts with international focus). Server uptime is obviously a big one! You can search the web for user reviews or look for uptime charts on each host to see if they have reliable web servers.

Q. Why should a small business be concerned about web hosting?
A.  Small businesses need web hosting to expand their business reach/customer base. The internet offers a low cost way to reach millions more potential customers. In the old days it was good enough to be listed in the yellow pages, but the internet is now most people’s yellow pages. If you’re not on the internet, you’re not on their radar. A website is a good idea for all businesses – not just those selling products. People want to find you for contact info, hours of operation, history, etc as they don’t want to have to pick up the phone and dial.

Q. What are the key components that are in a web hosting package?
A.  The most common features that people look for and are provided by a good web host are things such as disk space, email accounts, databases, and FTP access. The disk space is important because this will determine how many files you can save to the server – unless you’re doing lots of photos/video – 50 MB is a good starting place. Email accounts – we’ll this depends on how many users you need to setup. Most small businesses use under 10 email accounts. A majority of websites are now using dynamic features driven by a database so this is increasingly important. Most sites can run on 1 database. FTP access is still the preferred method for file upload (including through programs like Dreamweaver).

Q. Does it matter if you use Windows or Unix server?
A. Some people have a preference for Windows or Unix, but the choice should be made based on your needs. Unix/Linux hosting can be much cheaper than Windows due to the licensing costs, but Windows servers can offer different tools than a Unix server. Unix/Linux servers usually run leaner and cleaner than Windows in that they don’t use up as much system resources so they can perform better for serving web pages. If you’re looking at using other Microsoft products such as ASP scripting and remote access features – you may want to opt for Windows.

So my company, Touchstone Hosting was awarded:

so if you need web hosting, let me know. Thanks again Jeff for your time

 

Target Local Customers with TXTio.com Mobile Text Marketing

My good friend Eugene Belenky, has let me know that he is launching a new service to help small business market to local customers. It is called TXTio.com.  Another good friend, Andrew Shotland commented on TXTio a little while back and I too was able to try it out some. Overall it looks to be a really useful tool for small businesses.

I asked Eugene for some highlights of the new service.

Overall 3 distinctive features:
a.Local Phone Numbers (no short codes) , You can operate the site from your Cell Phone (both customers for subscription and business owners to send out promotions),
b. Pay as you go model,
c.  Sync with social networks (once you blasted promo it will be posted to Facebook, Twitter, Showmelocal and Txtio)

Customer highlights:
a. Subscribes via Local Phone Number – no more confusing short codes!
b. Use any SMS-enabled device or application (cell phone, Google Voice, etc.) to subscribe
d. No Internet Connection Required – SMS
e. Easily opt-in and opt-out
f. Can Call, TEXT or scan QRCode

TXTio and your small local business highlights:
a. Deliver your text message(s) to your subscribers
b. Provides business with delivery confirmation
c. Maintains your subscriber list with verified SMS enabled numbers
d. Post messages to your TXTio, Twitter, Facebook, ShowMeLocal and any site of your choice

From the press release:

“The most effective way to reach local customers is to market your business as being local. Our service allows companies to pick and choose their SMS messaging number so they can appear local to every customer and develop that trust and consumer loyalty.”

So if you are looking a for a new way to reach your customers and keep in touch on things, look into TXTio.com. Once you try the service, let us know what you think. Good luck Eugene with this new venture.

 

Small Business News: Small Biz Beginner’s Guide This is a great primer article, covering topics like branding, management, social media and so on.

Small Business News: Starting Your New Business In A New Year. Another nice overview article

2011 Trends Driving Rural Small Business – “Local foods, shop local, local business. Local, local, local. This collision of trends into an entire movement is reshaping small town economics. It must be big, because big businesses are trying to get in on it.”

The last article, I want to mention is from my buddy Andrew Shotland.  Do You Know What Your SEO Consultant Is Doing To Your Online Reputation?

This is an article really about what small business folks need to look for or out for when hiring for online marketing assistance.  There is no manual, no fee structure, no one right way to do things. This can be very confusing for the small business owner.  Andrew’s advice and mine, ask questions.  Here are the questions he thinks one should ask:

• Are you doing anything that can get my website banned/penalized in the search engines?
• Are you buying links?•Are you comment spamming?•Are you writing fake reviews?
• Are you creating fake addresses and profiles for me on Google Places and other local search sites
• Are you doing anything that might result in my having a huge black eye in the SERPs for queries for my business’ name or my name?

I have worked with many small business that have really been lead down the wrong path due to “SEO experts” “doing stuff”.  One of my resolutions for this year is to help small business owners better understand online marketing. I have some ideas on how to do this and will let you know next month/year. If you have any things you would like to see here, let me know.

 

When I filled out my paperwork, one question was “how did you find us?” and one of the answers was “search engine” with a space to fill in the name of the search engine.  Now this question is totally ineffective. When I have asked folks how they found me online, they rarely can remember the terms they used, let along the search engine. LOL Do not get me wrong, I was excited to see they actually thought enough to ask it.

The other area where they really missed it was, in customer satisfaction survey or review. I found myself sitting in their lobby for some time, with nothing to do but watch cable.  Why not have a computer there and actively ask folks to sit down and review them online?! I had the time, was happy with the work and how they handled my car, setting up rental car, etc. I was a captive audience with nothing but some time on my hands.

When I got my keys back and thanked them for their work, the rep did not ask me if I was satisfied or not with their work, did not do any follow up survey with me, nothing. Again another missed opportunity.

Local customer reviews (especially for service type business) are key these days. Reviews at Google, Yelp, etc. will pay dividends for your business. Be proactive, ask folks to provide a review if they were satisfied, if not see how you can improve them. Ask them to put the review online, provide links to your Facebook, Yelp pages on your site or paperwork. You can’t make customers write reviews, but I have no problem encouraging or reminding them.

As a side note: I have never seen or looked for the company’s website, I have no idea what sort of reviews they have online, not even sure they are on Facebook. Did a write a review for them online? No, why? I just forgot about it.

So does business do anything to help encourage online reviews?

 

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.

 

Online Video Marketing Basics: Part 1 – The Case For Online Video & Why You Should Get Involved

Online Video Marketing Basics: Part 2 – Choosing A Video Style

Online Video Marketing Basics Part 3 – Self-Produce Or Hire A Professional?

Online Video Marketing Basics: Part 4 – Choosing The Right Video Production Equipment

There is also a nice glossary section they put together to help with the terms:  Online Video Dictionary – Glossary of Online Video Terms

Thanks for a great set of resources Mark and ReelSEO!

Just as I was finishing up this quick post, Mark came out with another awesome summary post of some of their more popular posts: Video SEO Guide – VSEO Tips & Techniques For Online Video .

So if you ever wanted to know about video, SEO, and online video promotions, check out these posts!  (FYI: This is not a paid advertisement! LOL )