What should I do?... Am I about to be Screwed?

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Traska

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May 7, 2008
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If you clicked on this post out of curiosity please give me your input anyways, I'd appreciate it a lot.


After reading CorrectAd's post last year about selling online advertising to offline businesses I took it seriously and made a business out of it. I have been selling portal advertising to local businesses, doing seo, managing geo adword campaigns for them and am currently testing a pay per lead model.

Well today I got a call out of the blue from a regional manager from a company called http://www.localadlink.com that also sells online advertising. They are apparently planning to take over the local advertising market in my area, as well as everywhere else, literally in the next five years and then sell out. To speed the process of their "take over" they are hiring regional managers who then hire sales people on comission to scope out their city and sell every business they can.

I got a call from their regional manager for my city who heard about me through the grape vine and wanted me to come work for them. We talked for over an hour and I got as much info about their company as I could.
The thing is, I don't want to work for them, I want them to stay out of my town!

Now I know they are not better than me, but they are much cheaper, they have a broad appeal and their sales force is growing fast. I feel like an online marketing Wal-Mart type of beast is about to come into my town and eat up a good deal of my clients.

What do you guys think of this company?
Do they pose a significant threat to local search marketers?


I am feeling really nervous.


Thanks for reading
 


Your just gonna have to undercut them.

If it's not viable dump it and just move on to other shit.

Diversify or die.
 
just keep doing what you're doing and fuck them. if you find that you can no longer make money doing what you're doing, do something else. tons of ways to make cash right now man.

stay focused on your stuff, forget them.
 
Also if you are worried I'd download "Stop Worrying And Start Living" and listen to it, a book by Dale Carnegie.

Good good to learn how to get over chronic worrying.
 
i do see those local ad link ads everywhere. They always bid really high. Its really annoying because, they have the shittiest landing pages ever.
 
Sell yourself man. Lots of small business like to work with the man in charge. They know when/if there is an issue they don't have to go through 10 people to get to someone that can actually solve their problem.

Most people spend money with people, not businesses. That is exactly why they are trying to hire you. I have a long list of clients that will spend money with me all day long and it doesn't matter whether I'm with XYZ company or ZYX company ... they're doing business with me because they trust me.

Smart angle this guy has... why buy out or compete with someone else when you can just hire them?
 
OP: I am doing the same thing right now w/ local niche sites and directories. Mi dos centavos:

5 years is like 40 internet years or something- just remember, all the pages you've already built will have eons more maturity than whatever shitty QS landing pages they build in the next 2-4 years. SERPs should like you better by virtue of this alone. Customers / primaries should like you better if you can offer more quality on your page than this shitty company can on theirs. This should not be hard, given that the relationship between corporate size and webpage volume operates in perfect proportion to relative crappiness.

And if they're calling you trying to offer you a job, it's probably b/c they already know you are in the market and are trying to a) capitalize on your insider knowledge, b) kill the competition or c) do both in one shot. You are dangerous- you can offer better, more personalized customer service and operate at 1/100th of their overhead. Not to mention- your ROI will be much higher solo than as a member of the newest cube farm on the block.

I say - keep on keepin' on. Diversify. Build bigger, broader, and deeper.

...and let the chips fall where they may.

(Edited to add: woo hoo 100th post!)
 
shitzu said:
Sell yourself man. Lots of small business like to work with the man in charge. They know when/if there is an issue they don't have to go through 10 people to get to someone that can actually solve their problem.

Most people spend money with people, not businesses. That is exactly why they are trying to hire you. I have a long list of clients that will spend money with me all day long and it doesn't matter whether I'm with XYZ company or ZYX company ... they're doing business with me because they trust me.
Click to expand...

When I look at it that way it doesn't all seem so bad. Local ad link is a giant MLM, whereas I am personable, easy to reach & I manage everything. It just sucks seeing a company turn a viable service into a giant shitty MLM scheme.
 
also, let your local businesses know that you are also local and are there when they need you, and that this new company doesn't give a rat's ass about them.
 
Hi Traska, id sabotage them :D

Seriously though, id look at strategy's at anchoring your existing customer base and go on a massive business development exercise now, even if it is to create warm leads, you will still have an advantage.

In the meantime act as if you are interested and learn as much as you can about their intended strategy, and exploit its weaknesses and leverage your own strengths.

Barman is right in saying build relationships. Also leverage your 'local' advantage.


Hope this helps a little! If you are stuck for retention ideas shoot me an email and ill give you some examples of things ive done in the past that worked well.


Cheers,
Aaron
 
As long as you rank higher in the search engine for your local business, you should always be better off.

Keep doing what you are doing, one day when they realized they can't rank higher than you, they will want to buy you out instead of competing with you.

Or you can offer them a buy out price now, your site, your customer base and your adword campaign. Great opportunity to make loads of cash.
 
mberman84 said:
really? its competiiton, just do better than them for cheaper...just solved your problem
Click to expand...

you don't have to do both... you can be better or you can be cheaper and still succeed. if you're better and cheaper - you're near guaranteed but you might be selling yourself too cheap.
 
You know - you don't have to be cheaper.

You just have to be perceived by your customers as being better/personal/having something they need. Everyone doesn't always go for the cheapest. Did you get your last haircut at the training salon for $8 dollars? Did you go to the guy working on cars in his backyard for your last tune up?
 
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