Comments on: My Projects: #3 – GeoTargeted Video Yellow Pages

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:21:31 +0000

I definitely agree that video advertising and video yellow pages will dominate most other forms of online advertising. I’ve seen several companies already pop-up in the Internet offering such services, but I think the ones who can ride the turbulent waves of this economic downturn will fare the best in terms of future profitability.

Some of the other sites that I know are offering video advertising to small businesses are CitySearch.com, Jippidy.com, Yelp.com, and Yahoo Local Search.

By: George

George — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:56:47 +0000

Great article, I think your idea is very feasible. As everyone knows by now, video is very exciting. I think in the next few years people will discover that video is appropriate for certain areas of the consumer market, right now it seems like everyone wants to use video for everything. I think the small business arena will benefit the most from video which is pretty much the thesis behind Jippidy.com

By: George

George — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:55:38 +0000

As everyone knows by now, video is very exciting. I think in the next few years people will discover that video is appropriate for certain areas of the consumer market, right now it seems like everyone wants to use video for everything. I think the small business arena will benefit the most from video which is pretty much the thesis behind Jippidy.com

By: Pet Rock

Pet Rock — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 19:27:35 +0000

First, you should never listen anyone but yourself if you want to be a trend setting entreprenuer. You’ve asked for some advice and I gonna let you have it. The problem you face is not a technological one or Google, but more of a real understanding of the local market where reputation and word of mouth is key to a small businesses success. This market isn’t the music business where high priced videos and talentless beautiful people make it. Currently, I work for a Fortune 100 company which has begun to incorporate short info-videos on products. This works well because products are very non-personal, unlike service and local industries, restaurants, etc., which needs much more of a human touch to be succesful. I think you should continue with your business idea, but you’ll need one hell of a marketing strategy to overcome this hurdle of the human touch element. Let me know if you are looking for someone with the marketing expertise to help you pull this one off. Good Luck!

By: Brian Despain

Brian Despain — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:10:39 +0000

The videos are your competitive advantage? Imagine this scenario someone builds a revenue sharing model around people uploading videos of their favorite local restaurants etc. They can scale the business without having the overhead of the business you are proposing. VCs like to see barriers to entry. Claiming your videos are your barriers to entry is somewhat problematic since other people own video cameras. Your idea has too many competitors

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 19:24:06 +0000

Brian,
Who can do a google video mashup to put us out of business if we have videos that no one else does?

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 03:15:21 +0000

You are picking a space with tons of current providers of localized search in one form or another. Your competitors range from Citysearch to Yahoo yellowpages to the phone book providers. Furthermore why should you be able to execute on this? Someone doing a Google Video Mashup could put you out of business. It’s a bad idea.

By: IdeaTagger

IdeaTagger — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 13:42:08 +0000

Here is a suggestion to throw into the mix of options you are considering:

Is there a way you could invite entrepreneurs in each local city to bid to co-own their city with you? For each city you could then accept the highest bid from the local entrepreneur with the best (sales?) experience.

This way you solve some of your money issues as well as your local salesforce requirement.

Just a thought. Good luck with the idea.

By: Andy Swan

Andy Swan — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:22:10 +0000

Great post and should get some interest out of it at least from a developer or user side of the equation.

If you ever want my opinion… just ask. If you ever want my honest opinion…just buy me 3 drinks and THEN ask

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:21:30 +0000

So if you make it, this is a billion dollar company in 6 or 7 years. But you have to slay some mega-monsters on the way, and the odds are dramatically against that. You have to find someone with serious balls to invest against Google.