Woo Hoo! New Yellow Pages office opens in Udupi!

So I got this press release about a new Yellow Pages office opening in Udupi and I'm thinking "Where the hell is Udupi?"

So I read the article, and I still can't figure it out. Could be that I'm a typical American who couldn't find Canada on a map of North America.

Here's a clue . . .

It's in the Vasuki Towers near the taluk office. (WTF?)

I should probably ask the General Manager, Mr. Thirunavukkarasu. OMG!

Try saying that name three times fast.




Yellow Pages office opened in Udupi
Tuesday June 27 2006 12:34 IST

UDUPI: General Manager of BSNL, DK telecom district, Thirunavukkarasu on Monday inaugurated the Udupi office of VPP Yellow Pages, publishers of official DK telecom directory at Vasuki Towers, near taluk office here.

Thirunavukkarasu said that Yellow Pages were a good source of information.

"In addition to its regular directory, BSNL brings out supplementary pages to update the numbers of its new customers. It also brings the directory in CD version," he said. Chairman and managing director of Abideep Group of Industries Vincent Pinto suggested the BSNL to launch the directory on the web site to enable the tourists.

Hispanic Yellow Pages continuing acquisitions

The acquisitions continue in the Hispanic Yellow Pages market. Personally, I think this is really smart. The hispanic market is so underserved in the US by traditional media, that the companies who deliver high quality services will reap rewards for many years to come.

Here's the news release . . .

Hispanic Yellow Pages of America Inc., a portfolio company of Hispania Capital Partners L.L.C., Chicago, has acquired the Milwaukee Hispanic Yellow Pages and Resource Guide, a Spanish-language yellow pages directory in Wisconsin.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Hispanic Yellow Pages of America is a company formed by Hispania and several prominent Hispanic publishers for the purpose of building and operating Spanish-language yellow pages directories across U.S. Hispanic markets.

The Milwaukee Hispanic yellow pages directory, established 12 years ago, is being renamed Paginas Amarillas de Wisconsin. The directory will continue to serve Wisconsin's booming Hispanic community now estimated at more than 200,00 people and growing faster than any other local ethnic and racial group.

Former Milwaukee Hispanic Yellow Pages owner Luis "Lou" Rodriguez will remain as publisher.

Hispanic Yellow Pages of America now publishes Hispanic yellow page directories in Illinois, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada reaching more than 500,000 Hispanic households. Hispania Capital Partners is a Chicago private equity firm focusing on later-stage companies serving the Hispanic market.

Verizon Cuts Residential Listings from Mini-Book

Below is an article that appeared in the Curry Coastal Pilot in Oregon. In the "mini-book", Verizon decided not to include residential listings.

The residential listings are already included in the larger overlay directory, just not in the local directory.

Why, pray tell would they do such a thing?

Money. Residential listings are expensive to publish and there is no revenue associated with them. Since Verizon met the FCC requirements to publish listings by putting them in the overlay book, leaving them out of the mini-book is a no brainer . . . kind of.

Trouble is that consumers USE residential listings, and pulling them out of the directory would normally cause a major problem. The usage will slip, but I suspect that it is a calculated risk on Verizon's part.

The Verizon spokesperson says that they have pulled residential listings out of other markets and are not aware of any complaints.

Huh?

They removed half of the directory and nobody noticed?

Or perhaps they noticed and didn't complain.

Either way, cutting expenses is important when you're spinning off the directory business. Got to boost margins and profits to get highest possible price. The sale of the directory unit is likely to be completed before any advertiser backlash is felt (if there would be any backlash).

Hey, need residential listings? Go to WhitePages.com

CHANGES TO VERIZON YELLOW PAGES IRKS, CONFUSES CUSTOMERS

Published: June 14, 2006

Click this picture to view a larger image.


By Ellen Babin

Pilot staff writer

Verizon customers in Brookings-Harbor are finding some changes in the pairs of bright yellow telephone books being delivered to their homes.

The biggest change: no residential phone listings in the smaller book.

Instead, the 140-page Brookings-Harbor area supplemental phone book contains only numbers and ads for local businesses.

The larger phone book, which covers 16 towns within the entire Southern Oregon Coast, contains the residential listings for Brookings-Harbor. And the listings are in smaller type over five columns, rather than the traditional four columns. It also has 222 pages of advertisements from those 16 towns.

The result was numerous calls to the Curry Coastal Pilot from residents confused or angry about the changes.

The reason for the change, according to Verizon spokesman Karen Testa, based in Dallas, Texas, the content of the business' more than 1,400 directories nationwide occur at multiple levels: from the top brass in Dallas, to "regional and local."

Testa is the area public affairs liaison for Verizon's yellow pages in the western and independent markets.

Testa could not be reached by phone, but in an e-mail to the Curry Coastal Pilot this week Testa said:

"Using a basic model, our local marketing and sales teams provide feedback and recommendations specific to their markets so that the local directories meet marketplace needs.

"The removal of the residential white pages is an initiative that affects numerous markets nationwide. We looked at where we have a large ‘core' directory with neighborhood ‘underlay' products that duplicated listings. In the other markets where we have made this change, we are not aware of any negative feedback.

"We do take advantage of demographic information to develop our products, and we do offer our advertisers options to be in both our large and small books. There is no ‘buy one get one free'; however , we do offer advertisers incentives.''

Testa says her firm does value the feedback they receive from our consumers and advertisers and will take it seriously.

Can two thousand contractors all be wrong?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Small Business Commando News Can two thousand contractors all be wrong? June 9, 2006 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ in this issue -- Can two thousand contractors all be wrong? -- Cool Local Online Marketing Tip -- Answer to Last Redneck Riddle -- Old family recipe -- Papa's got a brand new bag -- Just chalk and a sidewalk -- Wow, that's really low! -- Scientific Research -- My kind of tax man -- Feedback Hotline -- This Week's Redneck Riddle -- Quote of the Week Some good photos this week. Don't miss 'em.

Can two thousand contractors all be wrong? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last Saturday, under the sweltering Los Angeles sun, an angry mob voiced their disgust with the Yellow Pages industry. I was at the PHCC (Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling Contractors) show running a workshop on effective Yellow Pages advertising. Now, I should probably tell you that my business is primarily ONLINE marketing, not PRINT Yellow Pages. However, the convention organizers were not sure how much interest there would be in online marketing, so they asked if I would also run a workshop on print Yellow Pages. Representing the print Yellow Pages industry at a plumbers' convention is like being a George Bush pinata at a Muslim birthday party. It was not exactly a love-fest in the city of angels. Throughout the day, I heard swarms of contractors recanting their distrust of print Yellow Pages publishers and cheering the growth of online advertising as a viable alternative. I realized that the issue the contractors had was not with the Yellow Pages product itself, but with the business practices of the publishers. One Big Scary Dude couldn't pass the opportunity to unleash on a real live representative of the evil Yellow Pages industry (me). Big Scary Dude's shaved head glistened with sweat. Tattoos crept from under his company-issued uniform t-shirt, and his massive Popeye forearms sported an impressive array of scars that I imagine were mementos from his undergraduate studies at the University of Leavenworth. As Big Scary Dude began his ranting, I was glad I was wearing dark slacks, if you catch my drift. Despite his menacing appearance, Big Scary Dude became quite outgoing and friendly after he finished his tirade. He simply wanted someone to listen to his unpleasant Yellow Pages experience. Out of professional courtesy, I won't identify the publisher earning Big Scary Dude's wrath. I'll only say that their name rhymes with A Tree and Tree. (But it really could have been any publisher with similar sales practices.) Big Scary Dude felt that he had been sold a load of dog doo. (It took some serious editing to make that last line family-friendly). He felt bamboozled, railroaded and bum rushed into buying a substantial ad program. "It's (expletive deleted) ink on paper, not rocket surgery." Big Scary Dude said. "Why can't I get a (expletive deleted) price list that makes any (expletive deleted) sense?" "What kind of (expletive deleted) company charges more if you want smaller ads? How can a billion dollar company not know when a phreaking phone book will come out?" Within a month of the directory's release, Big Scary Dude realized that the ad was a total bust financially. (In all fairness, this might not have been the publisher's fault.) BSD took his lumps and vowed that it would be his first and last foray in phone book advertising. The following year's edition of the directory was delayed, and the publisher billed Big Scary Dude for several additional months. He continued receiving bills, but scarcely any customer calls. He was furious, and was told that he would be sued if he didn't pay because it was on the contract he signed. After getting that off his chest and onto mine, our conversation turned to Internet advertising. Big Scary Dude lit up with excitement. He raved about the leads he was getting from CraigsList and ads in several local online directories. I learned that Big Scary Dude had taught himself basic website design. He optimized his site for an array of plumbing and HVAC related terms. He was running pay-per-click campaigns on Google and Yahoo. He had even tested a pay-per-call campaign. I was in the presence of a master local online marketer. I told Big Scary Dude about the launch of our online marketing program, and he made me promise that he would be in the first group of advertisers. Big Scary Dude's disenchantment with traditional print Yellow Pages was echoed by scores of other contractors. Only a few were seriously marketing on the Internet, but you can be sure that those numbers will grow. If the print Yellow Pages industry expects to survive the online revolution, it will have to rethink its approach toward local advertisers and develop programs to deliver quality leads at a fair and sustainable price. That's my opinion. I'd love to hear your comments. Call my feedback hotline and leave me a message. 1-888-334-8891

Cool Local Online Marketing Tip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If want your website to generate calls for your business . . . Put your telephone number (with area code) in large numbers above the fold. It's even better to put a photo of an operator to reinforce that someone will answer the phone. "Above the fold" is a newspaper term that means being visible without having to scroll down the page. Make it easy for someone to call you, and you'll get more calls. Web designers often mistakenly put the phone number on the bottom of the page or on a "contact us" page. Put it on every page near the top. For more great tips on getting pre-qualified customers from the Internet, send an email to subscribe@QuitYP.com Your email will only be used for local online marketing tips and will never be shared or used for any other purpose.

Answer to Last Redneck Riddle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Buford rode with Festus and Skeeter to Daytona Beach for biker week. Festus brought 5 Slim-Jims (spicy sausage snacks) and Skeeter brought 3 Slim-Jims. A few hours into the drive, the boys got hungry and decided to equally share 8 Slim-Jims. Buford didn’t bring any food, but agreed to pay $8 for his share in the feast. How should Festus and Skeeter fairly divide the $8? The winner receives 15 minutes of uninterrupted fame and an autographed copy of my latest CD "Commando Secrets LIVE - How to Market Your Local Business Online." Didn't win? You can still get the CD here. See the answer and the Redneck Riddles celebrity winner

Old family recipe ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Uh, let me guess . . . bubbles and water?

Papa's got a brand new bag ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I don't know what this bag is advertising, but I dang near wrecked my car trying to figure it out.

Just chalk and a sidewalk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is just about the coolest piece of sidewalk art that I've seen.

Wow, that's really low! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Perhaps the greatest business slogan of all time.

Scientific Research ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I find it really amusing that the Yellow Pages industry touted syndicated research as a valuable tool, and then left it up to the individual publishers to "spin" the results as necessary in self-serving press releases. Am I the only one scratching my head over this practice?

My kind of tax man ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I love my tax dude. Hope he gets paroled before next April.

Feedback Hotline ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What do you really think? Call my feedback hotline and leave a message. 1-888-334-8891

This Week's Redneck Riddle ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Buford went to the bait shop and purchased four night crawlers and three crickets for a grand total of 90¢. Festus purchased three night crawlers and four crickets and paid 85¢. The bait was priced by the piece rather than by weight. How much is one night crawler and one cricket? Email your answer to bait@redneckriddles.com Every correct answer will receive a gift account allowing them to send five personalized greeting cards (including envelope and first class postage) compliments of www.SendOutCards.cc One lucky winner will receive 15 minutes of uninterrupted fame and an autographed copy of my latest CD "Commando Secrets LIVE - How to Market Your Local Business Online." Stumped? You can get the CD here. To improve your random chances of winning, please include your name, company name, and mailing address. I draw the winner the day before I send the following newsletter, so keep voting until the polls close.

Quote of the Week ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Albert Einstein Quotes: "Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them." "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." "Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." "Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts." "God does not play dice." "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." Got a good quote? Send it my way, and I'll give you 15 minutes of uninterrupted fame.

Contact Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ email: dick@dicklarkin.com phone: (760) 579-1005 web: http://ypcommando.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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