San Francisco may be 1st city to cut Yellow Pages

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — “Let your fingers do the walking” could be replaced with “let your finger do the clicking” in San Francisco. It’s poised to become the first U.S. city to restrict delivery of Yellow Pages business directories.

The Board of Supervisors cast a 10-1 first vote on Tuesday to ban unrequested home and business delivery of the hefty telephone directories. There will be a second reading and final vote next week.

The idea is to protect the environment, fight neighborhood blight and help the economy. And advocates say the Internet makes the directories unnecessary.

The Los Angeles Times reports nearly 1.6 million Yellow Pages directories are dropped on San Francisco doorsteps each year. The city says they generate 7 million pounds of paper waste and clog recycling equipment, leading to costly repairs.

It’s true. For most local businesses, advertising is only modestly effective – sometimes not at all. Big money is spent with very little return.
The question is why?

Two reasons:

One, most advertising is never tracked for results. It’s just hoped that it will make a positive difference. Without tracking you don’t know what’s working and what isn’t.

Two, most local advertising lacks a strong offer. It’s usually a message that says, “Here we are, please buy from us”. No appealing offer. No reason to act now. Mostly boring, me-too advertising. Usually a copy of what every other business in that niche is doing.

It doesn’t have to be that way. There are FAR better ways.

Any time a consumer types in a key search phrase in the Google Search bar, Google displays the most relevant information for their search: The most relevant business or service for that local search.

As times have changed Google Places has changed as well.

More and more local businesses are discovering what Google Places can do for their business. You should too. …and here’s why:

Over 20% of all search traffic clicks on the first 3 slots in Google places. (A , B, or C) This means if your company dominates the A, B or C slot, you get immediate traffic. And it should be laser targeted for your business or service.

(it’s not just ‘stray’ traffic surfing the internet for fun)

This means more customers/client’s through your door, and calling you today.

So, the question is, if your company was ‘Top-Ranked in Google’, and you were being found by lots more people searching for your type of service or products, do you think your business would improve? Would more calls and visitors mean more sales?

…would that be likely to translate into more profits and better cashflow?

Of course it would, these are active customers looking for your business right now, not later, not next year, but right now – that’s why they’re online searching!

In 2011, the fastest way to kick start your business, is with Google Places. I can GUARANTEE to move you into the top slots in 60 days or less.

Our client companies tell us achieving this position in Local Google Search alone is priceless, but the investment to get there is modest by comparison. You really should explore this option.

Call us to learn how to Recession-Proof Your Business with Google Places today.

Well, Unfortunately I just lost my appetite for Burger King. Nooooooo!

Can a video walk around of a car be a better sales tool than several pictures? Many progressive dealers are saying, YES.

Particularly if the car is not a commodity, like a highly modified Corvette or an expensive foreign luxury model. Ebay now will feature videos of specialty cars and the view count suggests more attention for these models with video.

Dealers will still need to track calls, visits, and sales to know if it pays, but it may be worth trying.

When you do video a car, it should probably be a premium high-line or performance vehicle. Try recording a full walk-around, closeup interior and include motor and exhaust sound clips as well. This can bring some interesting and usually positive feedback on eBay and help to set your dealership apart from the others.

Which works better, full video or merely an animated photo presentation with CamStudio? You’d need to test of course, but some dealers report positive results with both. It’s actually no more time consuming to do one or the other.

As always, quality does matter. Sunny days are best usually, and unwanted noise can hurt if you’re trying to do a live narration on site. Video resolution will never look as sharp as a good still photo, but that may be an advantage in some cases, as well.

A big plus is Search Engine Ranking.

Another advantage to consider with video is your major search engines ranking videos higher in keyword search results. This can be a huge factor to consider as search engines continue to have an impact on your automotive dealer online marketing efforts.

Uploading your inventory videos and dealer commercials to YouTube and other online video hosts could benefit branding, local market awareness and drive traffic to your dealer website. You could also make use of these videos on you dealer blog as well.

So, it still comes down to time and money it takes to produce dealer and inventory videos. But, if the ROI makes sense why not do it?