[…] seems to be written at the same level as a couple of award-winning authors. Nice. As for my latest blog post, it turns out that I write likeH. P. […]
I don’t think Yellow Media is going down anytime soon. They are an invisible local advertising behemoth with 1.5 million business listings under it’s belt that are ready to be serviced for hyper local online advertising. They also have over 2200 media consultants spread out across Canada selling the same online media services that you offer. By this I mean, pure SEO/SEM, “groupon type” coupons, website design services and HD video advertising that gets SEO’d across the web. Print is becoming a secondary issue as they morph into what is already Canada’s largest Internet company. Not even Google can field that many expert media consultants. I also find it quite interesting that the Google Maps in Canada would be quite useless without the Yellow Pages feeding them 99% of their listings with the most up to date information on them.
Take a look at their smartphone apps for Iphone, Blackberry and Android. Most people in Canada with a smart phone now use this free app. The Ipad app is amazing. With one touch you can get all the local advertising that you could want. Apps like POYNT also use Yellows database of information.
This has become one of my top apps on my iphone and ipad. Cheers!
So basically the Yellow Pages had to reinvent themselves in order to survive, right? istm that the 2200 “media consultants” are really just glorified salespeople, aren’t they?
The offers I’ve seen/heard from them aren’t *real* SEO in that they actually aren’t changing the customer’s page at all. What they’re doing is creating a dummy page on their site and pumping that page up with SEO/SEM so people will click a Google ad, land there, then phone a special DID or click through to the client’s website. The way I read this is that they’re charging the customer to insert an interstitial page with added complexity, then charging to get top Google placement and Google ads pointing to their own site, where they link to the client. I can’t think of any way in which that’s a good deal. You stop working with them and they keep all the Google juice you paid them to develop. Seems sleezy to me — I have more problems with their online offering than with the dead tree version.
I find YP results on Google more annoying than anything… I far prefer Google Local, but either way what I’m really trying to do is get to the destination website. YP is just adding clicks and getting in the way if you ask me.
I will concede that it’s not going away any time soon… they’re doing a lot (far too much) conversion from the old format to the new online one, with locked-in annual contracts. Yes, there is still a certain demographic and a certain set of services where the printed Yellow Pages is effective… but both are shrinking.
My understanding when it was pitched to me was that their SEO is where the deal with fixing my websites onsite page factors and also off page. I also understand that they will soon be developing website from your basic to your fully customized, all the bells and whistles included. Their SEM develops landing pages that have very high QS. I saw one of their tracking reports where a florist received over 6000 impressions over a period of about 8–10 months. They also tracked the phone calls to the store and they received over 2000 phone calls as well. This doesn’t look like a dying business. It seems to me that they are doing the same thing that you are. The only difference is that they have 2000 reps doing it.
[…] tenure is more than a decade now, to test this notion?) I’ve spoken before about some of my opinions about branding and some of the inane ideas about rebranding that still float around out there, some of them […]
Hi Brent.…we’ll see you and all the other wondrous TEDx (ers) next month…from a complexity thinker, geologist, educator, lover of flowers, and the intracacies of self-organised criticality ! John Murray
This is a lifetime opportunity for we Winnipegers to access some of the greatest minds in futuristic thinking. If you haven’t already registered than I strongly urge you to do so. You will thank yourself after.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brent Toderash, Brent Toderash. Brent Toderash said: New: TEDx Manitoba as told in Tweets http://bit.ly/hgxPao #TEDxMB […]
[…] (Link) Sad but true.(Link) Gee, the journalist who wrote this must have very inspired.(Link) Worst University ever.(Link) (Link) Step very subliminal. Alzheimer’s […]
Look guys, the billboard isn’t flawed, but the slogan is intact supposed to be like that. It’s just messing about with the words :) “imagine more snacks than you can imagine”, is a clever in the sense that though it doesnt seem clear at first, it is soon visible ad an entertaining phrase.
[…] from social media will mean the social media efforts won’t be effective. To be clear, as I went on to say in my post last week, I’m not suggesting that social media efforts not be monitored. What I wrote was that […]
But i wonder if they could have had the success they’ve had without that. The consumer WANTS big record company music. So Apple installed locks to satisfy them. The consumer WANTS big media movies and TV. So Apple delivered.
The biggest problem the Open people have is they can never deliver pop culture, because pop culture is thoroughly sold out.
So Apple makes pop culture devices, and makes them VERYWELL. But is maybe the problem pop culture firstly, and Apple just being a well-running part of it?
Yes, good observation. I’m certain Apple wouldn’t be as strong without the command-and-control model… this is what made them more valuable than even Microsoft and Intel.
Maybe I have a problem with pop culture… ;^) Open culture does indie much better than pop.
Apple’s gamble is based on scarcity, and in today’s tech climate, they have to artificially ensure scarcity through control. Seems a tenuous bet, but it’s worked very well for them thus far.
It’ll be interesting to watch it unfold… apparently Steve left about four years’ worth of product releases in the pipeline.
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I don’t think Yellow Media is going down anytime soon. They are an invisible local advertising behemoth with 1.5 million business listings under it’s belt that are ready to be serviced for hyper local online advertising. They also have over 2200 media consultants spread out across Canada selling the same online media services that you offer. By this I mean, pure SEO/SEM, “groupon type” coupons, website design services and HD video advertising that gets SEO’d across the web. Print is becoming a secondary issue as they morph into what is already Canada’s largest Internet company. Not even Google can field that many expert media consultants. I also find it quite interesting that the Google Maps in Canada would be quite useless without the Yellow Pages feeding them 99% of their listings with the most up to date information on them.
Take a look at their smartphone apps for Iphone, Blackberry and Android. Most people in Canada with a smart phone now use this free app. The Ipad app is amazing. With one touch you can get all the local advertising that you could want. Apps like POYNT also use Yellows database of information.
This has become one of my top apps on my iphone and ipad. Cheers!
REPLY
So basically the Yellow Pages had to reinvent themselves in order to survive, right? istm that the 2200 “media consultants” are really just glorified salespeople, aren’t they?
The offers I’ve seen/heard from them aren’t *real* SEO in that they actually aren’t changing the customer’s page at all. What they’re doing is creating a dummy page on their site and pumping that page up with SEO/SEM so people will click a Google ad, land there, then phone a special DID or click through to the client’s website. The way I read this is that they’re charging the customer to insert an interstitial page with added complexity, then charging to get top Google placement and Google ads pointing to their own site, where they link to the client. I can’t think of any way in which that’s a good deal. You stop working with them and they keep all the Google juice you paid them to develop. Seems sleezy to me — I have more problems with their online offering than with the dead tree version.
I find YP results on Google more annoying than anything… I far prefer Google Local, but either way what I’m really trying to do is get to the destination website. YP is just adding clicks and getting in the way if you ask me.
I will concede that it’s not going away any time soon… they’re doing a lot (far too much) conversion from the old format to the new online one, with locked-in annual contracts. Yes, there is still a certain demographic and a certain set of services where the printed Yellow Pages is effective… but both are shrinking.
My understanding when it was pitched to me was that their SEO is where the deal with fixing my websites onsite page factors and also off page. I also understand that they will soon be developing website from your basic to your fully customized, all the bells and whistles included. Their SEM develops landing pages that have very high QS. I saw one of their tracking reports where a florist received over 6000 impressions over a period of about 8–10 months. They also tracked the phone calls to the store and they received over 2000 phone calls as well. This doesn’t look like a dying business. It seems to me that they are doing the same thing that you are. The only difference is that they have 2000 reps doing it.
Nice job Brent. Now to “spread” this idea.…
I’ll be there
@solalta
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http://www.solaltaphoto.com
[…] tenure is more than a decade now, to test this notion?) I’ve spoken before about some of my opinions about branding and some of the inane ideas about rebranding that still float around out there, some of them […]
Hi Brent.…we’ll see you and all the other wondrous TEDx (ers) next month…from a complexity thinker, geologist, educator, lover of flowers, and the intracacies of self-organised criticality ! John Murray
Thanks for this page Brent. I’ll be attending.
Looking forward to meeting you.
@TrishaSveistrup
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/trishasveistrup
http://www.facebook.com/trishasveistrup
Looking forward to it!
Where I’ve been: published author and poet, philosopher, whimsical woman, Big Sister, trained killer, and other interesting nooks and crannies.
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Where I am: right here. Thinking about how to do it better.
This is a lifetime opportunity for we Winnipegers to access some of the greatest minds in futuristic thinking. If you haven’t already registered than I strongly urge you to do so. You will thank yourself after.
Looking forward to meeting everyone next month.
My online/IRL identity is tied to my organizational affiliations and engagement in the not-for-profit sector.
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Thanks for the list, Brent. I found out this week that I’ll be at TEDx Manitoba as well. I’m very much looking forward to it.…Cheers
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brent Toderash, Brent Toderash. Brent Toderash said: New: TEDx Manitoba as told in Tweets http://bit.ly/hgxPao #TEDxMB […]
[…] Gee, the publicist who wrote this must have been very inspired. (Link) […]
[…] (Link) Sad but true.(Link) Gee, the journalist who wrote this must have very inspired.(Link) Worst University ever.(Link) (Link) Step very subliminal. Alzheimer’s […]
[…] Genius. The publicist who wrote this must have been very inspired. Or at least imagined that they were very inspired. (Link) […]
Look guys, the billboard isn’t flawed, but the slogan is intact supposed to be like that. It’s just messing about with the words :) “imagine more snacks than you can imagine”, is a clever in the sense that though it doesnt seem clear at first, it is soon visible ad an entertaining phrase.
You’re an idiot.
Great post… there is no hard selling in social and as such no hard roi (in most cases)… enjoyed your positioning
[…] from social media will mean the social media efforts won’t be effective. To be clear, as I went on to say in my post last week, I’m not suggesting that social media efforts not be monitored. What I wrote was that […]
Apple is very closed, very controlling.
But i wonder if they could have had the success they’ve had without that. The consumer WANTS big record company music. So Apple installed locks to satisfy them. The consumer WANTS big media movies and TV. So Apple delivered.
The biggest problem the Open people have is they can never deliver pop culture, because pop culture is thoroughly sold out.
So Apple makes pop culture devices, and makes them VERY WELL. But is maybe the problem pop culture firstly, and Apple just being a well-running part of it?
Yes, good observation. I’m certain Apple wouldn’t be as strong without the command-and-control model… this is what made them more valuable than even Microsoft and Intel.
Maybe I have a problem with pop culture… ;^) Open culture does indie much better than pop.
Apple’s gamble is based on scarcity, and in today’s tech climate, they have to artificially ensure scarcity through control. Seems a tenuous bet, but it’s worked very well for them thus far.
It’ll be interesting to watch it unfold… apparently Steve left about four years’ worth of product releases in the pipeline.
Click and see … their teeth had already fallen out!