Some brilliant coverage of Brownbook over the last few days.

Absolutely brilliant. Its fantastic when other people write about Brownbook and really get it: what we have created, what businesses should use it for, the business model, how its good for search engine optimization, how businesses can customize their listing… here are 4 that I have found in the last few days:

This one that I found via Twitter from @sandnsurf: http://sandnsurf.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/brownbook-business-directory/

This one from Joy Hawkins: http://joyhawkins.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/cheap-ways-to-promote-your-website-part-1/

This from Sam at Startp Meme: http://startupmeme.com/brownbook-not-just-a-business-directory/

And this from Greg Sterling:http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/brownbook-joins-the-diy-website-crowd/

Although Greg is a search industry analyst, so he really should get it.

Brilliant, thanks everyone. If anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, comments, questions… then please do email Dave or I (marc[AT]brownbook[DOT]net) or catch us on Twitter: @marc_lyne and @daveingram

Miamism is a client-centric and forward thinking real estate team with Majestic Properties that serves Miami Beach and its surrounding neighborhoods. Ines Hegedus-Garcia, Rick Garcia and Karen Alvarez make up the experienced and enthusiastic Miamism Team.

Ines and the Miamism team understand the value of online marketing and show their thought leadership with interesting industry related articles posted on the Miamism blog and the nationwide realtors blog, Agent Genius. Ines is also extremely active in social networks such as Twitter, where she engages people in conversations and posts insightful links. If you’re on Twitter, I definitely recommend following @Ines!

Ines has really maximized her business’ Brownbook listing by taking advantage of the easy to use customization features. The Miamism listing on Brownbook is completely personalized to display important business information and links, as well as videos, pictures and the Miamism logo. Ines’ use of multimedia on her Brownbook page displays Miamism’s vibrant personality and shows clients and potential clients the people behind the business. If you haven’t already, take a couple of minutes to watch the Miami Mojito video!

Hello from sunny Miami! I wrote another post for the SBDCNet national blog discussing the value that customer testimonials bring to a business. Please feel free to read the article here. Brownbook provides the ideal platform for customers to write reviews of local businesses and makes it easy for businesses to ask their customers to review them online.

If you’re on Twitter, follow me @ChristineMAdolf!

Kelsey Group (Kelsey Group is the leading provider of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on Yellow Pages, electronic directories, local search, SMB advertising and local media) run a group on

Linked In where I saw the following question today:
What is the long term life expectancy of the print Yellow Pages. Please state your opinion in years and facts that promted you to come up with that conclusion.
So I felt compelled to respond:

Two thoughts for the group:

1. I use Twitter (http://twitter.com/marc_lyne) and Tweet Beep (http://tweetbeep.com/) to hear all the comments that are made about Yellow Pages. I would say that 95% of the comments are about the wastage they feel they are creating by taking the 4 thick directories that they have dropped on their door step each year and putting them straight in the bin. Irrespective of the fact the directory may be printed on recycled paper, they want to opt out and not receive them at all. The caveat on this comment being that Twitter users are heavily internet savvy, unlike other parts of the population. The ‘take out’ however is that this group is growing and they want choice.

2. When does advertising become information? And then at what point are people prepared to pay for advertising because it is information they want. This is a subtle twist in the new world we are living in. The old ways are no longer good enough, we all expect not to be sold to on a mass basis, we expect to seek, easily find, choose and then engage. Or alternatively to be targeted with products and services that meet our current requirements exactly eg the right brand, the right price, the right time, the right personal referral…

In conclusion what I am sure of is that Yellow Pages as they currently stand have no future unless they radically re-invent themselves. I am positive that there is still a place for a printed product, distributed to certain people promoting certain types of businesses in certain areas - almost on a personalized basis and possibly including additional types of information.

And regarding on-line, well I have to confess an interest here as I am one of the founders of www.brownbook.net, where we have turned the current ‘centrally produced, centrally sold’ YP model upside down – we encourage everyone to instantly edit our data, just like Wikipedia, and now we are rewarding people who contribute to Brownbook with 20% of the life time value of our customers. All our customers self-service and pay via Paypal. We have the benefit of no legacy cost model, no shareholders that are demanding a return to the halcyon days, no debt, and no highly profitable cash cow. We are pioneering a new way with really interactive, engaging and innovative products for businesses on a very low or no cost basis. This is where we see the future…

I have written an article featured on the Small Business Development Center National Information Clearinghouse (SBDCNet) about online word of mouth marketing for small businesses. The post points out several things that small businesses can do to create buzz for their company online. You can check out the article by clicking here. Feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback about Brownbook in the US by e-mailing me at christine [at] brownbook [dot] net. You can also connect with me on Twitter: @ChristineMAdolf.

Want to get inside my head?  You can follow me on Twitter, my profile is here http://twitter.com/daveingram and click “follow” (if you don’t have a Twitter account you’ll need to register first).

Dave Ingram, CEO Brownbook.net