Comments on: Dealing with the elephant: Build a better business directory

By: Bookmarks about Branding

Bookmarks about Branding — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:30:21 +0000

[...] – bookmarked by 6 members originally found by tmore on 2008-09-15 Dealing with the elephant: Build a better business directory http://ryansholin.com/2008/08/07/build-better-business/ – bookmarked by 2 members originally found [...]

By: George

George — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:10:12 +0000

I think the future of business directories are user generated and social. I believe this will help keep the content fresh and up to date.

Jippidy.com – Internet Yellow Pages

By: Notes from a Teacher: Mark on Media » Friday squibs

Notes from a Teacher: Mark on Media » Friday squibs — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:53:16 +0000

[...] Dealing with the elephant: build a better business directory. Newspaper execs who are waiting around for someone to invent the next business model could spend some profitable time with Ryan Sholin and the first in what he says will be a series of posts on doing better business. I cannot stress enough that newspapers who don’t try some of this stuff are leaving themselves vulnerable to others who will. [...]

By: Steve Buttry

Steve Buttry — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:10:36 +0000

Forgot to add this link, from the Ottawa Herald in Kansas, WeKanShop, a business directory with a shopping cart: http://www.wekanshop.com/ottawa/home.php

By: Steve Buttry

Steve Buttry — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:08:55 +0000

Marketplace is a terrific example of the different approaches we need to take online. I’ve written about Marketplace and some other business directories in a Newspaper Next report on databases that the American Press Institute will publish soon (my departure from API delayed the release). These are great platforms for local search, video and email advertising, none of which newspaper sites typically do well. An effective directory helps us provide a better web presence (in some cases, the only web presence) for local businesses.

However, we need to go further, developing actual online sales platforms for local businesses. We need to offer gift registries, shopping carts and other tools to help local merchants sell products (and make reservations, etc.) directly online, with the directory collecting money from the end user for the local business (and keeping a cut, of course).

This will change our relationship with business customers. Instead of being an expense line in their budgets, which we are when we sell advertising, we will be a revenue line. In tough times, all businesses do the same thing as newspapers do, look for ways to cut expenses and raise revenues. If we become a revenue source for our business customers, they will seek ways to do more business with us, rather than cut their business with us.

Looking forward to more posts on the elephant, Ryan.

By: Rich

Rich — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:46:22 +0000

Oh, one more thing you might not have seen yet. We have a pretty nice mobile Marketplace that looks good on the iPhone and degrades for other phones. Again, if you’re out and about, it’s all about context.

http://mobile.ljworld.com/marketplace/

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:17:04 +0000

Ryan, thanks for the shout-out. I was customizing our map markers and debugging a bit of our sponsored business blurbs just today.

I’ve always thought the successful business model online is about context. When someone reads an article, he or she is not in “buying mode”; he or she is in reading mode. But when they’re thinking about buying something, Marketplace (hopefully) comes to mind.

The biggest obstacles are gathering a group of real, full-fledged, full-time programmers to get the back-end up, and then getting one or two dedicated designers. This isn’t something you can hand to the “online guy” in the newsroom. Likewise, having management with the same vision who can sell it to the even-higher-ups will launch it. Being a family-owned business, and not a national media corporation, can help in that respect.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:24:37 +0000

Not pictured: The obstacles to implementation. Most likely, these include inertia, and a legacy product that’s “good enough,” but I think the opportunity to grow revenue is well worth the investment (in time, money, and change).

What do you think? What are the biggest obstacles to this sort of thing?