As we explained in that post, MyWedding.com is moving its corporate headquarters to Castle Rock, Colorado. These days, that’s not such a big deal because Internet companies are global, not local.

However, even the good folks at an online Internet company aren’t virtual – they’re real people. And, they will be hiring real people in the area. They’ll also be interested in developing some close-by businesses relationships with those both inside and outside the wedding industry.

Did we forget customers?! MyWedding’s customer base may well be global, but the nearby customers they can actually rub shoulders with may become their most ardent advocates.

Search Locally, Think Globally

And that’s why they will want to search Twitter locally. In order to do that, they’ll want to go to the “Advanced Search” tab of Search.Twitter.com:

Here, they can search for any terms they might find useful in order to connect to Twitter members near Castle Rock. (they’ll want to search within 100 miles of Castle Rock, what is called “The Front Range” around here – all the nearby burbs, including Denver, Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs).

Using “Advanced Search,” we’ll do a search for the words “wedding” and “planning” within 100 miles of Castle Rock. You can see the result in the picture at the beginning of this article (you should do the search yourself just to get warmed up), but here’s the fill-in the blanks part that got us there:

Certainly, the gurus at MyWedding know their business and their needs much better than Sheryl and I ever could. But, even by using the most rudimentary search terms, we can turn up some surprisingly interesting contacts who might turn into new customers, vendors, partners or employees.

Nearby Wedding Planner

One of the tweets from someone who lives near Castle Rock (and includes both of our search terms) was from @DebbieOrwat. She is the owner and lead wedding consultant at savetheDate! Events.

Debbie’s got over a thousand followers, offers a profile, web link and her real name. That kind of transparency is crucial to evaluating a potential Twitter contact. As we’ve said, there are a lot of shady characters out there, but she and her company look pretty good.

She also happens to write a blog, so the folks at MyWedding.com might convince her to blog about them or partner with them in some other way. Regardless, she’s a legitimate wedding-related contact who lives near their new offices.

Potential Customer

Another Twitter member who mentioned both the words “wedding” and “planning” in a recent tweet is @kaneil. She doesn’t work for a wedding related company, but she has been mentioning (quite charmingly) her upcoming wedding and what it’s doing to her!

This is the kind of search that companies of all kinds are using to generate qualified leads. In this case, @kaneil might be interested in using MyWedding.com – especially those parts of the site that will help her organize and plan her wedding.

What About Keyshia Cole and Ryan Seacrest?

At first, it looked like our search was going to lead to a couple of celebrity weddings. Nope, because no matter what search terms you use, you’re gonna’ haul in some pretty shady stuff.

It looked like someone was re-tweeting Ryan Seacrest talking about his upcoming wedding. But, the newbie who “re-tweeted” that message seems to have invented it herself. Or, perhaps she has a thing for Ryan.

And, even though Ms. Cole has announced her upcoming wedding, there is no way to tell which, if any, of the many Keyshia Coles on Twitter are the real Keyshia Cole (a common problem on Twitter, only sometimes solved by their “Verified Account” insignia).

Keep it Complicated, Stupid

All this just means that MyWedding.com can find some great connections, but it is going to have to be pretty savvy to avoid the junk.

One way to do that is for them to target their search terms with very specific phrases or combinations of words that fit their needs and industry.

The other way, as we have seen here, is to search a much smaller geographic area. A search for the word “wedding” in Twitter would overwhelm. But, a search for the phrase “my wedding” within 100 miles of their new home office, well, now that’s another story.

There’s More to the Story

Even better? Any of these searches (even the radius location ones) can be turned into alerts that can land in your RSS reader, email or Google desktop.

(But, that’s another article – so, stay tuned).

Dan Powers is the Community Affairs Manager for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, but he also has enough other irons in the fire to be called a Colorado Renaissance Man.

We’ve written about Dan before in “Who Killed East Boulder’s Blog?” It’s a frightening and cautionary tale. And the experience temporarily drove him away from a leadership position in the discussion about citizen involvement in East Boulder county politics.

So, to make sure he connects with people in his area who are talking about the issues he cares about we wanted to make sure he “Advanced” on Search.Twitter.com. We just wrote about this site in “Going Next Door for a Drink.”

And, yes, just like any good search engine, the brilliant minds over at Search.Twitter.com once again named their “Beginner” button the “Advanced” tab. Nuts, isn’t it? – because all you have to do is fill in the little boxes.

Anyway, Dan can look to see who’s just written the word “politics” in Twitter – and limit that search to only those within 15 miles of his own home. Cool, frightening, weird, but entirely useful if he wants to find like-minded people right away.

Why are we so happy to see Dan Powers back in the Web 2.0 saddle? Because he’s the perfect “Patriot 2.O.”

You’ll get a better idea of what we mean by that term if you read Andrea Baker’s blog post from yesterday over at ZDNet – “The (Government 2.0) revolution should be televised.”

I agree with Andrea that we need more Citizen 2.0’s and Patriot 2.0’s, but in order to do that we need more folks like Dan Powers – writing blogs, sharing important topics on Twitter and bringing another slug of people along with him in the process.

And, believe me, we need as many citizens and patriots as we can get these days.

ATLnetworks.com

Many hosting sites now support multiple domains (web sites) in their plans; a feature ATL now has. The plan is competitive as far as email accounts and web applications. Just about anything you’ve seen done on the web can be implemented with one of their web application or by installing a script to run off the server. The email is easy to set up with as many account names as you might like. You can set up mailboxes and/or use the web mail on your browser. You can have mail groups or have your mail forwarded. There are spam filters and auto-responders. All the features of the plan are accessed through a control panel, which is not too difficult to navigate. Support, up until recently was very good, both email and phone support. ATL has been adding features and increasing the capacity of the hosting plans.
The current hosting plans:

• Standard: $39/year, 1gb, 1-domain
• Standard Plus: $69/year, 15gb, 2-domains
• Inter Plus: $99/year, 20gb, 3-domains

BlueHost.com

This host appeals to me because the owner Matt Heaton has his own blog. This is something I think ATL should be doing. I think it makes sense to communicate with the customers if you can’t or won’t communicate one on one. I think it also gives you a feel for the company you’re working with, the people that work there, and what you can do with the features that are offered. Although Blue Host seems the most like ATL, this blog makes me feel closer to Blue Host.
hosting plan: $83.40/year, 50gb, 6-domains

Godaddy.com

I have registered all my domain names with GoDaddy and like them except for one thing: their web site and online checkout is chock-full of advertising; it’s pretty intrusive too. They have many products and services- most of questionable value. I feel lucky to make it through the check out without buying some odd service I have no interest in. On the other hand they seem to have good customer service both on their web site and via telephone. They’ve offered hosting for a couple years and lately this service has become more competitive. I do worry that they’ve set their hosting up to easy for novices- with computer this is always code for difficult for everyone else and rarely any easier for novices. (I’ve since downloaded the PDF for Linix hosting and this doesn’t seem to be the case. They use a control panel that looks similar to the ones I’m familiar with. I do have to check how the email works with multiple domains.)
hosting plans: $43.08/year, 5gb; $75.48/year, 100gb, unlimited domains- wow! Just make sure you pick the Linix hosting and not the Windows hosting. (If you sign up for their newsletter they send lots of coupon specials where you can save even more money.)

Nearlyfreespeech.net

This is probably the cheapest hosting for small and low traffic sites. The downside is they don’t directly deal with email. I have a couple web sites where that isn’t a problem. I’m not sure this isn’t best approach: break down each service and let the best company handle it. ie let Godaddy do the domain registration, Nearlyfreespeech do the hosting, and everyone.net do the email. hosting plans: $0.01/mb/month and $1.00/gb/transfer. That’s it. The whole deal.

Everyone.net

Email only, useful as an add-on for Nearlyfreespeech.net. email plans: $35/year. Godaddy also offers email only services.

Itsamac.com

Before I switched to Windows this would have strongly appealed to me. If you think about problems on the Internet it has to do with attacks and security. Criminals are always going to target their attacks against popular platforms; on the Internet they would be Windows Servers and Linix Servers. Security is very good on Mac Servers; yet Mac Servers have very little market share and hence fewer problems with attacks. hosting plan: $99.50/year, 1gb, 1-domain.

Others

1&1 Hosting – $36/year, 5gb, I’ve book marked this a couple times. They seem to bill by the month so there may be discounts buying annually. They also have a $120/year, 200gb, 3-domain package. (other packages too.)

icdsoft.com – $72/year, 1gb, 1-domain

powweb.com – $93.24/year, 20gb, 1-domain

allenhost.com – $72/year, .5gb, 1-domain; $144/year, 1gb, 1-domain

pair.com – $120/year, .5gb, 1-domain

web.com/icom.com – $95.40/year, 1gb, this is the hosting service my dad’s cousin uses. It’s a little on the expensive side but when I first saw it I was impressed by the amount of space he had. Now, everyone offers at least 1gb so it’s not very impressive.

Support Questions

After looking at all these sites I was still left with the question of should I switch and who should I switch too. I have a strong suspicion that all hosts go through rough patches. This was addressed on the Blue Host blog. A companies very success at support and service can cause a flood of new customers, which can have a bad impact on service. So although I may be unhappy with ATL how do I know if ATL is past a rough patch and a new company I might try is about to hit a rough patch- out of the frying pan and into the fire.
I may have found my answer by searching Google for “Web Hosting Reviews“. I looked at two sites web-hosting-review.com and hosting-review.com. On both sites GoDaddy and BlueHost scored well for service, features, and capacity. Blue Host was host of the year for 2005. Unfortunately, ATL wasn’t listed and the number of hosts reviewed seemed too few. I hope the reviews are independent.

Final Thoughts

At this point I’m not in any big hurry to start moving my web sites. I’m not convinced that I’m going to be any happier on another host. But having said that I think I will try out some of these other hosts. Nearlyfreespeech seems like a no – for some of my tiny sites with little traffic and no email requirements. I would like to see how good the service is at Godaddy both the customer service and the performance of the site(s). The big winner in my eyes is BlueHost. If I had to change hosts today I would go with Blue Host.

Getting a local listing is great idea. Is there anything worse than having your customers trying to find you and not succeeding. It only takes a couple minutes on half a dozen sites to make sure this doesn’t happen to you. Imagine how nice it will be when potential clients find your listing but not your lazy competitors.

I followed the link to “Four Steps Every Business Can Take to Improve Local Search Results” by Patricia Hursh. But I’ll be adding my own links that take you to the actual add/edit listing pages. Keep in mind these companies make money by offering more complete listings and rankings. So, make sure you’re selecting the free listings and services, unless, of course, you want some of the services they offer.

Step One: Update your business directory listing.

I looked at the sites Patricia listed: Amacai, InfoUSA, and Acxiom. I only had success with Amacai.

• Amacai – Uses Localeze.com to manage their data entry. You can add or edit a business entry from here.
• InfoUSA – I searched the website until I found a FAQ which stated, ” Due to issues of privacy, we are not able to add or change any listings…”
• Acxiom – I couldn’t find a page to add or edit my business entry.

Step Two: submit your business information to the search engines.

Keep in mind you don’t have to have a website. Patricia says, “All of these sites have ‘add/submit business’ links,” but I only found this to be true for Google and Yahoo.

• Google Local - had a link right on the Local Google site. They use a verification system but they must use some sort of phone robot because I couldn’t understand a single word. I had to opt for Mail Verification. Once I activated my local Google listing I found they also offer a free coupon service. That is you can set up coupons on your listing to help generate additional sales. If you don’t have a website Google offers free websites that are nice and relatively easy to set up.
• Yahoo Local - offers a free business listing and they will even give you a free web site if you want one. I already had a Yahoo account set up, but if I recall it’s relatively trouble free to set one up.
• MSN Local – I couldn’t find a page to register a new business or edit an existing listing. However, one article mentioned MSN’s business listings are furnished by Amacai (see above.)
• Ask Local – I could not find any listings other than advertising, which you pay for.
• TrueLocal – I didn’t try it because I’ve never heard of it.

Step Three: update your Yellow Pages listings.

By this I mean the free online Yellow Page listing. If anyone knows how to get a listing in the printed phone book without paying I would love to know.
I had the most trouble trying to find my category. Whoever set up these categories has done a terrible job. There was a lot of back and forth in the browser and I still don’t feel I got listed in the right category.

• YellowPages.com – This is set up like you’re buying a paid listing but they do offer a free listing. Click the “Advertise Now” link, input your Zip Code, and then register for an account via Email. When you get your welcoming email, follow the link, and fill in your info. One nice thing about the Yellow Pages is they offer more fields and longer descriptions. The bad thing is it’s only good for one a year and they won’t remind you, so mark your calendar.
• Verizon SuperPages – This also requires setting up an account before you can set up a free Business Listing.
• SwitchBoard.com – When I checked their web site it appears you could set up a personal listing but not a business listing.

Step four is to feature your physical address on your Web site.

I can’t tell you how many times I open a web site and can’t find their address or phone number. Not only should it be on you web site but it should be on your home page where someone can find it, and in letters large enough for a actual human to read. I would also argue that it should be near the top so if someone wants to print out your address they don’t have to print four pages to get at it.

Notes

Since signing up with Amacai, Google, Yahoo, YellowPages, and Verizon I haven’t seen any spike in my spam traffic. I did use my main email address, which already gets hit pretty hard by spam. So I’m hoping the increase in spam from the listing won’t be noticeable but it is something you should think about. I found the process went quicker when I wrote a 150-250 word description of the products and services my company provides. I could paste this information at each site; then adding or subtracting depending on how many charactors the listing allowed. You should also think about multiple categories for your company. In my case I was lucky to find one, but you may find many possible matches. Also most of these sites ask for keywords, so think about what your customers might be typing in their search boxes.

I am looking forward to higher visibility in my local market and some new customers. Considering how expensive advertising is, you would be a fool not to take advantage of these free listings.

Craig Maas
Effective Concepts LLC.
Fargo, ND 58103
guest blogger and web concierge

You can sign up to receive the NAW SmartBrief newsletter by going to the NAW web site or direct to the SmartBrief sign-up page.

Here’s just one of the reasons why we should have listened to Pat right away. The October 27 SmartBrief carried this note, under the heading “Don’t disregard locals when scouting new prospects:”

“A great way to reach buyers near you is to get your name in a local search engine. The big sites such as Google and Yahoo! now have local-based searching capabilities, and Yellow Pages has Internet options, too.”

Then, it linked to this SmartBiz.com article called “Why Local Search?”

If you’ve read our own articles about Local Search – All Business is Local Search, Waiting for the Wrong Search Engine and Small Businesses without Web Sites – you know how crucial (and ignored) this topic can be, especially for service businesses. The author of the article is Christa Roettele from a local search engine called TrueLocal (www.truelocal.com). Now, you might think that she would just “advertise” her own local search site. Nope, she does a great job of telling you both “why” local search is important – and “if” it might fit your particular business strategy. And, here’s a rare thing these days – she uses the English language to do it.

Click the article above and take the time to read it. It’s easy to understand and, if you’re catching on to this new important area of search, it can mean more money in your pocket.

So, we just have to say, “We’re sorry, Pat, we’re listening now – and reading the NAW SmartBrief regularly.”

In our last post we wrote about the ways a small business owners can assure that people searching the Internet will find them. When an online searcher looks for guitars Denver will they see your guitar shop listed? Most of the readers who e-mailed me interpreted this to mean guitar shops that have a web site. My bad. I should have emphasized that the real power of local search is also for the guitar shop that doesn’t have a web presence.

Step one is to read our previous post – Waiting for the Wrong Search Engine – because there are ways to list yourself for FREE on many of the local search engines.

Step two is to begin to research the pay options on many of the best local search sites – everything from Google Local to Yahoo Local to SuperPages to TrueLocal. We’ll write about several of these options in upcoming posts. In fact, print Yellow Page vendors are often offering packages that include being listed in SuperPages, Yahoo and other local search portals.

Later on, we’ll write about the more inventive local search options, such as the new partnership between Google Maps and Quickbooks – where companies that use Quickbooks, even if they don’t have a web site, can maximize their connection to online buyers. Google Maps gives Quickbooks companies the ability to list their company info, phone, description, driving directions, hours of operation, credit cards accepted, yada, yada.

And, you don’t have to be a Quickbooks user to take advantage of listing on Google Maps – and now Google Coupons. We’ll tell you all about all of these options in upcoming posts.

The point of this article is to remind everyone from business coaches to small businesses to, yes, even large businesses – start the process by assuring your FREE presence is listed and accurate. That’s our previous post. Even if you don’t have a web site – go read it.

What if the train was arriving every day at another “platform” and we were all ignoring it? What if tickets to that train cost almost nothing or were free? What if the train ran almost every hour of every day, compared to the one you’ve been waiting for? Yesterday, at Chris Sherman’s Search Engine Strategies Conference here in Denver, the day was devoted to the platform and the train of “local search.”

What we learned was that local search might provide you with a lot more customers for a lot less money than even the best positioned and terrifically positioned web site. In fact, we learned that in a lot of cases capturing some of that local search business will cost you exactly nothing.

Two weeks ago, while preparing for the S.E.S. conference, we wrote a longer post called “All Business is Local Search.” What we didn’t realize then was how many businesses have simply not made sure that their business is findable when someone types a search in Google. And that’s free!

Is your company’s name and current contact information listed with the major local search engines? We’re ashamed to admit that we weren’t. And, we checked for a lot of the rest of you – and you weren’t either. To the speakers we work with – you weren’t listed. To the small businesses we work with – you weren’t listed. To the lawyers, doctors, even bigger businesses, sorry, but most of you weren’t listed.

Patricia Hursh is the president and founder of Boulder based SmartSearch Marketing. This August she wrote what might just be the most important article you will read this year – the article about the right platform and the right search engine trains. It’s called “Four Steps Every Business Can Take to Improve Local Search Results.” It might just keep you from being a “Desperado Waiting for a Train.”

So, we’re going to send you to the blackboard right now and make you write 100 times. “I will read Patricia Hursh’s article.” “I will read Patricia Hursh’s article.” “I will read Patricia Hursh’s article.” “I will read Patricia Hursh’s article.”

Better yet, skip the blackboard and read it – now – here’s the link to her article – it’s highlighted in blue – “Four Steps Every Business Can Take to Improve Local Search Results.”

(End note: The opening paragraph of this post quotes an article written by Paul Gandel, called Standing on the Wrong Platform, Waiting for the Wrong Train. He says he used to say it while growing up and assumed it was a famous saying. We Googled it – and we couldn’t find another source for it. The song quoted – “Like Desperadoes Waiting for a Train” – is the wonderful song by David Allen Coe.)

Chris Sherman’s keynote address was titled “Predictions on the State of Web Search Engines.” Chris and Gary Price (who closed the convention with “Price’s Pearls” – but more on that in an upcoming post) coined the term “invisible web” in their now 5 year old book, The Invisible Web. Chris also wrote the book, Google Power, and is the managing editor of searchenginewatch.com – so I’d say he’s qualified to predict the future of Internet search.

Although I’m going to number just a few of his points to make them more digestible, I’m not being fair to the essence of his speech. Mr. Sherman weaved facts, with prognostication, with philosophy, with humor – and with very little hogwash (which is rare for anyone talking about technology and the Internet). Ya’ had to be there – I guess is another way to say it – and you can be – or hear him speak, at least (if you live in Denver) at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies Conference on September 28 at the Adam’s Mark hotel.

Some of Chris’ predictions (what, you thought I’d tell you all of them?!!):

1) Ask.com is coming on strong. If you haven’t pointed your web searches to anything other than Google lately, I think you’d be pretty pleased if you tried www.ask.com as your search engine. Chris is not the only one talking in glowing terms about what these guys are doing. Both Walter Mossberg and Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal have written columns about this “Avis of search engines.” Mossberg’s was called Ask.com’s New Look Scores Big Points Against Search Rivals – and Lee Gomes’ column was called Simple Tips for Smarter Searches, but you’ll have to have a subscription to the Journal to get that one. And, yes, for those of you who can remember back to the horse and buggy days of the web – oh, about two years ago – Ask.com was called AskJeeves.com (but the butler did it – or didn’t do it, I guess you could say).

2) Microsoft does something interesting. Chris Sherman called this “the Steve Berkowitz factor.” In a sort of turnabout is fair play, Microsoft hired Ask.com’s Steve Berkowitz this year – and has just launched www.live.com to replace the old MSN search. We tried it on a search for “Steve Berkowitz” Microsoft – in the News tab – and it kicked Google’s butt.

3) Social Search is important. Talk about philosophy! We promise never to speak (or write) in technical terms, so a we have a bit of a challenge here, but we’ll try. When you type your search terms into Ask.com (or Google or Yahoo or Live.com) the results you see are based primarily on a mathematical formula so complex that even Albert Einstein would have given up and applied for a job at Macy’s. Actually, that formula is called something else, but I’m not allowed to say the word here. Social Search (are you ready for this?) means that your search results would be informed by, fiddled with or manipulated by (omigosh) humans. Eek! Social Search is such a huge topic that we’ll deal with it another day – but here’s Chris’ recent blog entry called “What’s the Big Deal with Social Search.”

There was much, much more. Chris also told us how to “keep an eye on blogs,” covered a lot of “Web 2.0 Hoohaw” and talked about how rich Google is. How rich is Google, you ask.com? Well, no one really knows, but they are investing over $2 billion this year in research, which is more than I spent last week in lunch money alone.

Google isn’t spending much money on helping librarians learn more about Internet search, though. They were a sponsor of the Web Search University, along with several other companies, but they didn’t have a table at the event manned by a recognizable homo sapien (like the other sponsors). When I asked the folks in charge where they were, I got this answer, “The guy who does this sort of thing at Google had a speech elsewhere.” The guy, huh? Yeah, they’re a little lean on staff these days – just seven guys working out of an attic in Mountain View. The guy couldn’t make it. Too bad.

Perhaps that’s why the professional researchers who spoke at this convention talked a lot more about Ask.com, Live.com and Yahoo – and the cool stuff all three are doing – than they did about Google. Chris Sherman was no different. That tell you much about the future of search?

Here’s why. If you sell guitars and someone searches Google, Yahoo, TrueLocal, or (thank you, David Carradine) yellowbook.com, and your business is not listed – you are losing oodles of money (oh, and that other guy who sells guitars a few miles down the pike is making oodles of money).

Name me a business that is not local. Go ahead, I’m waiting. Do you know an international speaker who would turn down a local gig? Do you know an actor who would say ‘no’ to a TV series filmed in his own city? Sam Waterston does Law and Order because he can commute to work. OK, by now you’ve probably thought of one, but if you think “all politics is local,” just think about how much business is local.

And yet, even though the first thing on everyone’s mind these days is getting their web site to come up first on Google, tons of these same businesses are ignoring the power of “local search.” Big mistake.

Enid Burns tells us about the skyrocking growth of local search in a recent Clickz News article, “global online local search market, which includes Internet Yellow Pages, local search and wireless, is set to grow from the $3.4 billion it brought in last year to nearly $13 billion by 2010.” Hmmm…

So, for all of you who are continuing to sell your soul to the search-optimizing devils (see our previous two posts), it might be a wiser investment of your time and money to attend one of the premier search events in the world, Search Engine Strategies Local. It happens to be coming up right here in Denver on September 28 at the Adam’s Mark hotel.

SES is hosted by Chris Sherman, the guy who invented the “invisible web” (no, he really did – look it up on Google if you don’t believe me) and is also the author of the best book about Google, Google Power . This conference is part of a series of international search engine strategy conferences started by Chris’ friend and search god Danny Sullivan – and now it’s sponsored by Incisive Media, whoever they are. (I went to Incisive’s site and used their search box, typed in “Denver” and got nothing. Don’t you love huge companies?!).

It’s a one-day conference and it costs some small coin – $595 if you register by September 15 – but many of you have already shelled out a lot more than that to various “shell-game” web site optimizers. This might actually deliver value for you – and much of it you won’t need a guru with you to understand.

If you want to know more, take a look at the Agenda Page for specifics on the conference topics and presenters. You have a choice of two tracks to follow (or mix-and-match) – the “tactics track” and the “issues track.”

Oh, and if you just did a local search for your own company and came up empty – here’s a great article for you. It’s by Patricia Hursh and is called “Four Steps Every Business Can Take to Improve Local Search Results.” She tells you practical things, like this first tip, “Visit the Amacai, infoUSA, and Acxiom Web sites. There you can find your business listing and verify or update it as needed.” Nice job, Patricia – must reading.

See you at SES – or, if you absolutely can’t go – we’ll report the conference back to you because we’re there and we plan to take notes!

Here’s the Search Engine Strategies Local home page one more time – Search Engine Strategies Local, Sept 28, Adam’s Mark in Denver