Local Onliner

When InsiderPages was sold to IAC’s Citysearch, it seemed like it was probably a distress sale. Many of the Yellow Pages/ratings and review sites of 2004-2006 were falling apart at the same time.
Since then, however, InsiderPages appears to have thrived.

“We are profitable and growing every month,” says General Manager Eric Peacock. “I can’t tell you how many people assume that acquisition by big company means their death. But I’m saying this is the reason InsiderPages is flourishing.”

Basically, it is all about scale for InsiderPages. Citysearch handles all of InsiderPages’ sales, as well as many of its administrative roles – allowing InsiderPages to run mean and lean with ten people in Citysearch’s San Francisco office.One success metric for the site has been a big jump in its review count (i.e. Google gulch). It now has nearly one million reviews under its belt, or double the number it had before its acquisition. A major reason for its jump in reviews is a fundraiser scheme in which the site pays schools, bands and other community fixtures $1.50 for every new review posted, and 50 cents for other reviews.

The service also extends Citysearch’s reach with five or six million unique visitors a month – largely parents and home owners. While it does well in all the metro areas, like Citysearch, Peacock says that it also provides a somewhat unduplicated suburban audience as well.

Looking at the broader picture, InsiderPages has been a test case for the creation of the Citysearch Partner Network. Since then, Citysearch has reached outside IAC to form deals with larger sites, such as AOL and SuperPages. “What we found is we could amortize one sale, one product across both sites,” says Peacock.

While the positive signs abound, Peacock says there is plenty of room for progress. For instance, “there is not a ton of frequency.” Users often come in via SEO, and they aren’t coming back often enough.