Broadband providers, especially those formerly associated with telco Yellow Pages, are trying to get back in the game of providing marketing services for small businesses. They’re looking to provide Web 2.0 directory-like profiles and search engine marketing services for SMBs with the idea of maintaining their subscriber accounts, and adding revenues from the slate […]
Yearly Archives: 2008
American Classifieds Adds WebVisible’s Search Solutions
October 24, 2008 – 9:31 pm
Are the small business “home and trade service” advertisers that populate PennySaver and American Classifieds a good bet to buy search packages? That’s the question being posed by American Classifieds, the second largest classifieds publisher franchise with 6,000 editions.
The company signed this summer with WebVisible to provide search tools and sales training for 600 sales […]
The SMB Commando’s Sneak Preview of ILM:08
October 23, 2008 – 9:48 pm
We had a lot of fun this week previewing next month’s Interactive Local Media:08 with Dick Larkin, the Small Business Commando. There is lots of good Kelsey data and analysis mixed in – no surprise, really, since the conferences are a microcosm of everything we are doing. Here’s the link to our PPT […]
Precision Tune, DriverSide Team Up for Online Auto Profiles
October 23, 2008 – 12:17 am
Precision Tune Auto Care, which has 300 franchisee-owned stores, is the first major auto care chain to sign up for DriverSide’s new co-branded version of its online vehicle profiles. The profiles include maintenance records. Customers can also receive reminders and special offers via emails, alerts or a servicing calendar.
Customers can also use the DriverSide service […]
Mark Cuban, Jonathan Kraft Invest in CitySquares
October 22, 2008 – 8:55 pm
Mark Cuban, the dotcom entrepreneur who has launched broadcast.com and HD Net and now has greater renown as the colorful owner of The Dallas Mavericks, has given the entire local ecosystem a big shot in the arm by investing in CitySquares, the New England-based local business directory that is going national. In September 2008, […]
Real Estate Woes (Finally) Hit Zillow, RedFin
October 20, 2008 – 11:38 pm
It is counter-intuitive that Web 2.0 real estate sites would continue to grow their audience and ad dollars while the industry “scrapes along the bottom” for years to come. The sites, though, still say they are growing.
“Fear, value-shopping, and curiosity are driving people in record volumes to our site,” noted Zillow CEO Rich Barton […]
Topix CEO on Site’s Evolution as a Local Portal
October 17, 2008 – 4:58 pm
When Topix first came on to the scene in 2003, it primarily crawled local news. These days, the 30-person company has largely remade itself into more of a local portal, especially for smaller markets. It still isn’t profitable, but CEO Chris Tolles says it delivers a lot of upside to its primary owners: Gannett, Tribune […]