Advertising in an Online Business Directory

March 12, 2009 ·

I was in Gosport earlier today and though not surprised, I was dumbfounded by a few things I saw!  Shops closed down throughout the town, twelve Taxis sat waiting for the Portsmouth Ferry to come in and when it did only two of them got fares. The car parks, even though they are free were nigh on empty as was the town centre.

Having been in Gosport for about an hour and on my return to the ferry I gazed over to the Taxi rank and nine of the original twelve Gosport Taxis was still there. This begs the question, how many more companies, large and small will fail during these testing times? A simple answer is many. So what can be done, if anything to help?

As a business, sometimes we need to advertise to get business, however the cost of that advertising is often expensive. That said the number of people using the Internet is still rising, so surely advertising on the Internet could be the way forward. So how could you advertise or even get noticed on the net?

We are a search engine optimization company and I guess you are thinking I would say “Optimise your Website.” Well yes and no. That would help you get more traffic, however not many people can afford an optimisation service, some do not even have a website. So what else can they do?

You could consider advertising in an online business directory; however the cost of these can range from £200 a year up to £500 a year. But do they offer value? Yes and no. Most take more than one person per page, including your competitors, which is not value so, no. If they are near the top for your search term you then yes, perhaps! Why perhaps? Well let’s look at some examples.

For £348 a year plus vat you could try thebestof, they have some good results, however a problem with them is that more than one person could well share the page for the term you are going for. Did I also mention the £149 plus vat set up fee? They do however offer a network service, but if you were a company offering Coach Holidays, would you need the network? An Accountant on the other hand might. They also drop leaflets through doors a couple of times a year, but you could always do that yourself. So your first year would cost you £497 (plus vat).

What about City Local? The set up fee is only £50 (plus vat) with a regular monthly fee of just £15 (plus vat). However you again share with others; you can add another £10 (plus vat) per month for top spot though. So if we add the figures together, to be top spot, would set you back £395 (plus vat) in year one.

To many this is just too much, is there a cheaper alternative? YES! We are top 10 in Google for search engine optimization; we have created our own business directory. Unlike others we do not share pages with all comers, we only except one person per niche per town. We do not charge a set up fee and we only charge £50 (plus vat) per annum. Are we near the top for all the terms we are going for, No, not yet; however for a directory that is only a few months old we have hundreds of top 10 positions.

Will we continue to charge only £50 (plus vat) per annum, no, however anyone taking a page now will keep that same price for the following year as well, in effect £100 (plus vat) for two years. After that we guarantee that we will not increase your fee above £200 (plus vat) within the first five years of being in the directory.  
Will this stop any companies from folding, probably not, but and it is a big but, it means that some small (or large) companies can get a year of advertising on a highly optimised page attacking local searches for the cost of one local newspaper advert. It may be a small thing, but it is giving these companies what they need right now. Advertising, where advertising works for a fee that is well below the average for this type of service, supported by a one of the top seo companies in the UK.

Wellworths Dorchester

March 10, 2009 ·

Just days after signing up for the Woolworths affiliate scheme, they went bust. Lets hope the replacement for Woolworths in Dorchester, known as Wellworths has more success.

Wellworths are situated in Dorchester and has been created by a former worker at the branch, Claire Robertson linking up with the landlord and a few others they open their new store tomorrow.

Drabdesign have just created a page within ImAfter, a Dorchester Directory and with that wishes the Wellworths Dorchester team good luck in their new venture.

The Best of Petersfield Update

November 27, 2008 ·

Well it has been a week since I applied to The Best of Petersfield, yet I have heard nothing? Maybe my site does not reach their exacting standards, or maybe they know I will not pay to join their directory! I still think they are not being 100% honest with people when they ask them to recommend someone yet will only accept people into the directory if they pay.

Well the ImAfter business directory is starting to really take shape so I will not actually need The Best of Petersfield.

The Best of Petersfield

November 21, 2008 ·

I wonder how many others received a mail shot from The Best of Petersfield a couple of weeks ago? Well just before the recycle people decided to empty my bin I thought I would take one more look.

On the leaflet there is the chance to win £500 by informong them of business for their directory. Once you register you fill in the details on the Best of Petersfield website about the company you want to recommend; the following message appears on another page.

“Thank you for your recommendation.

We love it when local people become involved with thebestof and we really appreciate you taking the time.

We’ll get in touch with the business and make sure that they meet the exacting standards of thebestof. All being well you’ll see them featured on the site very soon.”

How many have been sucked into this? I wonder! This is not a directory that is free, this is a paid directory and it costs £149 plus VAT to join and £29 plus VAT a month. So why do the Best of Petersfield say “We’ll get in touch with the business and make sure that they meet the exacting standards of thebestof. All being well you’ll see them featured on the site very soon”? If the company does not pay the money, they will not get in. So what standards do the best of Petersfield use to measure a companies ability?

If I am wrong on this I will retract that statement about The Best of Petersfield, however if every company in Petersfield applies, lets see who gets in for free!

Southampton Directory Started

November 18, 2008 ·

ImAfter, the business directory has started their Southampton Directory, offering about 100 terms for people to to take advertising places within.

The pages within the Southampton Directory include Accountants Southampton, Marketing Consultant Southampton and Web Design Southampton.

Portsmouth Directory Added

November 8, 2008 ·

Our latest project, the ImAfter directory has had a few more pages added, the most noted being the Portsmouth Directory.

This Portsmouth Directory will soon be open to advertise in and to secure a place, call 01730 265730.

Petersfield Directory

November 7, 2008 ·

Pages of our Business Directory have been started; those in question are for the section known as the Petersfield Directory.

Our main competitor has 130 clients in the Petersfield area, we hope for a quarter of that figure. For further details about the Petersfield Directory, please call 01730 265730.

Chartered Accountants Petersfield

November 6, 2008 ·

I have just been doing research for a new website for a client of ours, it is a business directory and revolves around services in towns, such as Chartered Accountants Petersfield. It is surprising how much companies will pay to get into a business directory and how many directories they feel they need to be in.

So when I get around to do my page on Chartered Accountants Petersfield, I wonder how long it will take to fill?

Im After Business Directory

November 4, 2008 ·

A new Business Directory is taking shape at I’M After as Drabdesign starts work on turning it into one of the largest directories in the UK and will eventually be about 21,500 pages or more in size.

Our Professional Business Directory has been put on hold while we update the I’m After directory for a client.

Call for Search Engine Optimization