(Source) Of all the top online yellow pages and local search sites, I believe that Superpages may now have the distinction of having the greatest variety of Web 2.0 features. Out of Local.com, DexKnows, Yellowpages.com, YellowBook, Citysearch, and Google Maps — none of them have photos + ratings/reviews + “blogs” + user-provided profile data. Only Yahoo Local really approaches this number of user-content features, I believe. Out of all of the top IYP and local search sites, only Yahoo Local and Superpages openly invite any users to supply photos for locations — Google Maps only allows business owners and content partners to supply photos.

This is one more great reason to use Superpages.com. You can start a business listing and have your customers go by, review your business online, and even upload photos of your business or events that your business has sponsored and get your customers talking about you. There is no more powerful method of advertising that word of mouth and Superpages makes WOM even better. Here are some of the unique and powerful benefits of Superpages Word of Mouth:

• Inbound links to your website
• User reviews
• Photos of your business and events your business sponsors
• Every ounce of content on Superpages.com gives search engines one more way to rank your website
• You can use Superpages.com for reputation management
• Not only can users review you, but they can rate you too
• Maps that take customers right to your door

When it comes to advertising your business online, no one does it better than Superpages.

Many local businesses don’t think about Google when they think about radio advertising. But you can now create and manage your radio advertising through Google. This is a powerful medium for local businesses who want to expand their marketing in their local area.

You have to set up a Google AdWords account, if you don’t already have one. Through your Google AdWords account you can set up and mange your local radio ads. The reporting and tracking mechanism for this is very similar to what it is with Google AdWords ads. You can even listen to your radio ad through your account and if you need to change the ad, that’s possible as well. You can select the radio stations you want your ad to run on, the areas you want your ad to run in, and make other intelligent choices regarding your radio advertising. After making your choices on times, locations, and stations, Google AdWords will tell you what the estimated cost of your radio ads will be.

When it comes to local advertising, don’t discount radio and don’t ignore Google.

Citysearch is one of the few online business directories that offers national search as well as local search. If you run a local business that can do business on a national scope as well as a local scope then Citysearch is likely the best place for you to advertise.

The categories available in the Citysearch national directory are about as diverse any list possible. Just check out the options for listing your business:

• Alternative Medicine
• Health Services
• Art, Collectibles, & Hobbies
• Home & Garden Products
• Home & Garden Services
• Attorneys
• Automotive
• Home Entertainment
• Beauty & Fitness
• Insurance
• Business Services
• Pets
• Real Estate

This is nowhere near a complete list, but you get the idea. If you really want to advertise your local business online and see your ad reach the right target market, both locally and nationally, then Citysearch is your best option.

Every local business needs to advertise. Sometimes you can get away with free advertising and sometimes - well, everything isn’t free.

Mashable yesterday published a list of websites online where businesses like your can post free classifieds. Of course, some of the websites charge for additional services, but you can advertise on most of them for free. I don’t want to recount the entire list as that would be duplicating their work, but I would like to call your attention to a few of the websites on the list. Maybe you’ll recognize them.

• CityList
• Craigslist
• Google Base
• Facebook Marketplace
• MySpace Classifieds
• Yahoo Classifieds

If you run a local business online, try some free advertising. See what kind of results you get.

MSN’s Local Live Search aspires to be like Google Local. If you visit the two sites you’ll see that there are some similarities. But Local Live has one feature you won’t find on Google Local and, in my opinion, that features makes it worth pursuing as a marketing vehicle.

First, let’s talk about the similarities. Both search engines provide a way for users to map businesses they are interested in finding in their local area. It’s almost a no-brainer that this would be a valuable service. You can search the map or search for businesses on either Google Local or Local Live, but you can also use the Get Directions feature and pinpoint exactly what you are looking for.

Google’s My Maps allows you to save your searches for future use. Local Live’s Collections allows you to do the same thing. But the feature that Local Live has and Google Local doesn’t, which I believe makes it a little bit stronger of a product, is its Explore feature. Local Live Collections gives you plenty more features than Google’s My Maps, including the addition of push pins to show items you are collecting, and one of those features is Explore.

With Local Live Explore, you simply type in a zip code or a city and state as if conducting a search for businesses in that area. Then you go to the Collections drop down box on the top right side of the page. Scroll down to Explore and select that option. In the results field on the left side of the page, MSN indexed collections in the local area you are exploring show up as clickable results and push pins appear on the map to show you where those collections are located. In a sense, you are “browsing” your local area to find something interesting. This is a powerful feature for local businesses to tap into. But if your business isn’t listed with MSN or saved as a collection then you’ll never be found.

Google AdWords has one service every local business owner should take advantage of. You can actually design and print your own print ads through Google AdWords and send them to your local newspaper to advertise your local business. This is true integrative marketing at its best.

You can create three different size ads with the Google AdWords print ad creation tool:

The predesigned ad templates allow you to plugin your text, image, and contact details and the Google ad creation tool will do the rest. To make the best out of the tool, here’s what you need to focus on:

• Create a compelling headline - one that will attract people’s attention
• Write text that sells - you want to drive people to your local store, don’t you?
  Choose a layout that works for your business - Google’s choices are limited, but effective
• Upload and crop your images - this is one of the most powerful aspects of the Google ad creation tool
• Use the same ad twice - You can use the same ad multiple times for different print publications and even tweak existing ads to make them each unique
• Target the publications you want your ad to run in - effective marketing means picking the right publications

This is the perfect tool for local small businesses. Fire your graphic designer and do your own print ad design using Google AdWords’ print ad creation tool.

Chances are if you run a local business that has a website that there is a business with a broader reach within your niche that you can get involved in. If they have a forum you can use that forum to your advantage and build your link popularity as well as develop content for your local business website.

I read the following tips on Marketing Pilgrim this morning and thought it was a great suggestion. Why not use it to build content for your local websites?

1. Find a forum with a decent traffic level in your niche
2. Spend some time contributing to the community, get your name respected and ensure the mods don’t see you as a spammer (having a trusted profile in your niche community/forum is worth it’s weight in gold - treat this as a serious investment and don’t ruin it for a one-shot chance at linkbait)
3. Start a post on the forum with the seed of an idea, and a couple of examples from you
4. Let the forum community chip in their own ideas and funny comments and let them grow the idea for you
5. Wait for the thread to die down and compile all the best bits from it
6. Write this up into a piece of linkbait for your site
7. Social media success!

Every time you leave a forum post and you have a signature linking back to your website you are building inbound links for your local website. If the forum has related content to yours then those links are relevant inbound links, making them high value links. The above suggestion can help you build some link popularity and, if you take the suggestion to heart, you can use other people outside of your local area to help you build content for your local website.

After you upload the content to your website, go back to the forum and let the forum participants know that you put the page on your website. Thank them for helping you develop it then wait to see how many of them link to you because you put something useful on your website. Those inbound links will also contribute to your link popularity.

Google AdWords has changed the name of its site targeting feature to placement targeting. If you’re new to pay per click advertising, all that really means is that you can opt to have your ads placed on select websites of your choosing. Google calls it the Content Network.

This is a useful strategy for local small businesses that want to take advantage of the benefits that pay per click advertising offers but that want to control where their advertising dollars are being spent. You can join the Content Network for your local area and advertise only on other websites within you geographic area. But there are now two ways to do that, not just one.

Before, you had one option - pay per click. Google is now calling it cost per click. In other words, you bid on your keywords and pay every time a visitor clicks on one of your ads. Now, Google AdWords has added a feature that allows you to select cost per impressions (CPM). You pay for every 1,000 impressions and the fees start at .25 per 1,000 impressions.

Why would you want to advertise using CPM? Google initiated this pay per click model because it wanted to offer an option to advertisers that want to promote their brand more widely. If you are a local business that wants to build brand awareness then you could put your pay per click ads on other local websites using the CPM model.

(Source) And eBay learned something about how to turn off new buyers: make them register before they can bid. Internet marketers take note. eBay’s extensive research showed that requiring people to register was a deterrent.

Note to local merchants: Let eBay be your example. If people do not want to register to bid on products at eBay - one of the biggest sellers online - then why would you make them register to use your website?

People do not want to give out their personal information online. Even if all you ask for is a website address, they are reluctant to give it out unless they know exactly what kind of communications they will receive from you. You are much better off letting them use your site for free and without the hassle of signing up. Once they see the benefits, they are more likely to share with you some of that personal information you desire.

Traditionally, relevance as it relates to search engine optimization has meant matching keywords or marrying similar keywords from related niches. A little word association can illustrate what I mean:

automobile —> car and truck
real estate —-> property
medical expert ——> doctor
private detectvie ——> investigation
publishing ——-> printing

As you can see, the keywords don’t have to be exact. They just have to be related. That’s the traditional view of relevance and it’s typically in reference to linking. So if you had a used car website then you might get a link from a magazine by the name of Car & Truck Enthusiast (my apologies if there really is one). A real estate agent might link to a property database. A website that publishes expert medical advice might link to doctors who sell e-books. A private detective may link to a website with investigative articles. Perhaps a publishing company will link to a print company website.

These are examples of relevant relationships that could result in powerful and profitable links for the websites involved. But in local geographical areas, many times the number of websites that would provide a relevant link to yours will be very limited. And if there are any at all, it could mean that you are linking to your direct competition. Are you sure you want to do that?

If your business is local and it serves a wholly local clientele, there is another way you can achieve relevant link status without linking to your competition and without obscuring your link strategy. If your website is optimized around your local geographical place names, zip codes, neighborhoods, etc. then you can exchange links or provide link bait for other businesses in your area that are not necessarily related to yours in subject matter or expertise.

For instance, let’s say you run a massage parlor in your hometown. On your website you could have a page that lists things you can do while your customers wait for their massage appointment. “Got time to kill?” could be your headline. If you have some good ideas on that page then you could draw some links from other businesses - say a doctor who didn’t want to create his own list so just links to your for his customers’ benefit, or an auto mechanic, or a florist.

This is just one idea. There are countless other creative way that you could encourage your local business neighbors to link to you. It helps, when it comes to link relevance for local businesses, to think outside the box.

When it comes to local pay per click options, your choices in service providers are the same. But which one should you choose?

Which pay per click provider you choose for your local business depends a lot on your goals and the type of business that you are in. The pay per click options are not equal. But you have many choices.

Your three primary choices are the three big search engines:

• Google
• Yahoo
• MSN

Then you have a bevy of smaller companies from which to choose. But I wouldn’t go with any of the smaller companies until I went with one of the big ones first. The reason for that is you have a much larger chance of reaching your target market, even for local traffic, with one of the larger companies. But which larger company you go with for your pay per click advertising should be determined by two things primarily: Budget and industry.

Google, for instance, is going to cost more per click than either Yahoo! or MSN, or any other option. You might as well go ahead count that as a given. But the big factor to consider is what business you are in.

Yahoo! does really well catering to local small businesses in most industries. Yahoo! is especially a good place for most retail companies. But if you are looking for web-savvy traffic, Google is probably a better option. Do your research before you jump in and find out where the customers you want to reach spend most of their time.

Do people call you to do business? If so then you might consider signing up for the Superpages Pay Per Call Service.

Pay Per Call is based on the same principle as pay per click. Visitors to Superpages see your ad and click a call button from their cell phone. If the call goes through and someone answers the call on your end, then you pay a pre-determined fee, based on your bid, for that call. Now it’s up to you to close the sale.

Virtually any business can benefit from pay per call. If you live in a metro area where there are a lot of mobile phone users then you will surely benefit. If mobile phone users are a primary target for your business then you are killing yourself by not using pay per call. Superpages makes the pay per call service simple and worthwhile.

It works like this: You set your price per call and a monthly budget. Then you create your business ad. You are then assigned a special pay per call tracking number. Your number can be a local number or an 800 number, your choice. After that, you design your ad and you are only charged for completed call. Hang ups, repeat calls, calls for less than 15 seconds, and unanswered calls won’t be counted.

I’d encourage you to try the Superpages Pay Per Call service today.

Citysearch has a unique set up when it comes to pay per click. Their ads run on their own internal network so when you advertise through Citysearch you are advertising on their website and possibly even their sister websites, which include:

• Bloglines
• Excite
• Expedia
• CollegeHumor
• Evite
• Hotwire
• iWon
• Insider Pages
• LiveDaily
• MerchantCircle
• MyWay
• Pronto

There are two primary ways to advertise on CitySearch. You can choose the WebConnect option or the CallConnect option. These aren’t difficult to figure out. WebConnect allows your customers to find you through online advertising that connects to your website. CallConnect allows them to connect with you through a phone call. Right now CitySearch is offering $30 off your first full month of service. How much better a deal do you need?

Superpages.com is unique among local directories. It isn’t local in the sense that it has an office in your home town. It is local in the sense that you can place an ad for your business in certain categories geo-targeted toward your hometown.

You start with a basic free business listing. That includes your address, phone number, and business name, and you can choose up to five categories. Superpages.com will automatically list your business in your local hometown for free. If you want a broader reach, you’ll have to pay for it.

What you’ll pay for that broader reach depends a great deal on where you want your listing to reach. If you are in a small town, for instance, and you want your business ad to appear to residents in other nearby small towns then you’ll have to pay for each town you want your ad to appear for. You can aggregate this by selecting to appear for a certain county instead.

Another way to upgrade your business listing at Superpages.com is to pay for bold, red lettering, or other highlighting features. For each one you choose, Superpages.com will add an additional fee to your business listing. Finally, you can add a pay-per-call feature to your ad, which will give viewers of your ad the option to automatically call your business by clicking on the call icon. For every viewer who clicks on the call button, there will be a charge similar to what you’d pay for a click in a pay per click campaign.

Superpages.com is a very popular business destination and it’s growing every day. I highly recommend starting with the free listing and adding the pay features as you feel they are needed. I think you’ll find it to be a good source of traffic.

Your local business deserves the best online advertising your money can buy. That’s why Nick Stamoulis, owner and CEO of Brick Marketing, is offer a 1-hour free consultation. Not only that, but you will also receive a custom written Internet marketing plan - tailored to your specific situation. Brick Marketing will provide you with specific recommendations for getting your business the local online advertising it needs to succeed - both online and in your community.

Brick Marketing believes that local businesses have a unique need when it comes to online marketing. That’s why we place special emphasis on local directories, Yellow Pages, and other local-specific online advertising vehicles. We will be as open and honest about your strengths as we are about your weaknesses, but our goal will always be to get you the maximum exposure possible for your local business. You have absolutely to nothing to lose.

Give Brick Marketing a call today or visit our website and take advantage of your free consultation.