Spread the Holiday Cheer!

A consumer tip for your busy shopping season: Word-of-mouth is your best source for value and trustworthy products and services. It's also the most effective form of advertising for merchants and service providers.

Word-of-mouth starts with your trusted relationships -not randomly or in a vacuum.

So why do Web-based “local” search sites ignore your relationships? How come you cannot start with your network of friends to locate the service providers they trust?

This is where YouGottaCall.com begins - in the trusted conversation between you and a neighbor or co-worker when someone says, “You gotta call ...”

Powered by the Web, YouGottaCall.com makes word-of-mouth more effective at helping you find and refer trusted businesses. And it does good, too.

So spread the holiday cheer along with the good news that YouGottaCall.com can raise money for your favorite charity each time you use it. When talking with friends about snow removal, chiropractors, insurance agents – or even the weather – remember to mention YouGottaCall.com. (And please share this on your Facebook wall! :-)

Good referrals. Doing good.

- - Tim

Announcing - Support Your Favorite Not-for-Profit

YouGottaCall now supports Members' ability to donate their rewards and rebates to their designated charitable organization.

Our vision is to connect consumers with their trusted local service providers.
Businesses can pay rewards to their network for referrals that result in new sales.
Members can choose to
keep these rewards or
donate them to the non-profit agencies that they support.

In 4 easy steps , current Members may log-on and designate a non-for-profit organization to receive their rewards. (click picture for larger view)

This is an exciting step for our vision to benefit the entire community of trusted businesses and deserving 501(c)3's. Please keep your feedback and ideas coming!

YouGottaCall - First E-mail to Prospective Members

Excerpted from email sent to team members.

Project Update Vol. 1 Issue 1

July 24, 2007

Here is a newsletter that will begin to provide you with information on the progress of the venture we've discussed - our team, our development efforts, our installations and the market opportunity.

Our site is still not hosted as we are still in stealth mode. Please treat this information as confidential - do not reproduce or forward it. If you wish to be removed from our mailing list please opt out below by clicking "Leave this list".

This first issue highlights an article published today by The Kelsey Group. The Kelsey Group is a "leading provider of strategic research and analysis, data and competitive metrics on Yellow Pages, electronic directories and local media."

"When Will Yellow Pages Come to the Social?" observes that the Yellow Page publishers have been slow to adopt social networking as a way to increase their considerable local market influence.

"With the wealth of local content and obvious verticals, IYPs could take a local leadership position in topical areas such as local services/contractors, home improvement, home decorating, financial, health care, entertainment, weddings and other lifestyle oriented topics that would be attractive to social media users."

The writer quotes Sebastian Provencher, as saying Social search has a great future but I think its difficult to start from scratch. There might be an amazing opportunity out there for directory publishers (and anyone operating a local search site with a good amount of traffic) to launch a social search application."

We think the opposite is true. Large publishers might be unable or unwilling to respond to opportunities quickly enough. Plus, the Internet allows start-ups with good ideas to outmaneuver giants.

The article also cites Boomj as a social networking with an e-commerce component. What a great idea!

Please feel free to write or call to learn more about our project.

Yours truly,

Tim Tracey

Wednesday July 25, 2007 - 06:32am (EDT)

My take... Vonity.com

Vonity is onto something in the social network space.

• It’s a social network with a professional purpose.
• It provides financial incentive for participation.
• It controls the communication between participants, so it can track and collect its revenues – initially.
• It enables charitable contributions of earnings.

But -

• It wants to be viral – but it is missing the built-in motivation for spreading the word. Why tell others about it when that might reduce your chance for earning revenue?
• It loses control of the commerce after the initial communication.

'You want to talk with me about developing and launching a next-generation, viral, word-of-mouth referral portal? Contact me on Vonity for $1.00 per minute!

Sunday April 23, 2006 - 02:26pm (EDT)