Guest poster Greg Sterling is an Industry Analyst.View more from Greg Sterling at his blog, Screenwerk.The numbers are compelling. US teens spend roughly 25% of all their online time on social networks according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And among social networks, as most people know, Facebook is dominant. The site has 350 million users worldwide and more than 130 million in the US.

One day in the very near future Facebook is likely to supplant Yahoo one of the top two Internet…

We are proud to announce our brand new offering for local business owners! Yodle Organic will help local businesses build their web presence and generate more website traffic for less than $500 per month. Yes, that’s right—less than $500 a month! Check out the full press release here.

In today’s market place, with 82% of consumers going online to find local businesses, the question for local business owners isn’t whether or not to advertise online – advertising online is simply a necessity. Instead, the question is to D.I.Y or not to D.I.Y. your online advertising.  Here are some things to think about when making that important decision.

The Top 10 Most Important Questions to Ask: 1. How measurable will it be? 2.  Are the metrics the vendor is promising to provide metrics that I care about? 3.  How big is your commitment to the vendor, and does this…

Everybody wants to be #1. 1st in line for the movies, 1st to know about a new feature, 1st team in the league, and 1st on the search engine results page. Being in the 1st position is certainly a great way to drive new leads and make more sales, but it can be expensive and time consuming. It is also not the only way to get the local traffic you need to get more customers. 

Here are 4 really good, under the radar, tips and tricks to drive traffic to your website. Some of these may seem pretty simple,…

Back in 2007, I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine here at Yodle who was commenting to me on how much contradictory information was on the Internet regarding how a local business should advertise themselves online.  “No wonder so many of the local businesses that come to us for help are confused and frustrated with online advertising,” my colleague said.

Right then the thought dawned on us that there was no one clear and accessible reference for business owners that dealt with the entire world of local online advertising.  Over two years and a whole lot of…

Yodle’s CEO Court Cunningham was interviewed by InformationWeek SMB about Local Online Advertising for Dummies! Check out the full article, titled How SMBs Can Profit From Local Online Advertising to see some great insight from Court on how small businesses can get started with local online advertising, important things to remember when creating a website, and hot companies in social like foursquare, grubhub, and groupon.

Over this past Memorial Day weekend, we at Yodle had some time to think and reflect on how 2010 has been so far. In just the first 5 months, we launched a new product called Yodle Organic, formed a big partnership, raised a bunch of money, and published a book with more than 350 pages of tips, tricks, advice, thoughts, and ideas about online advertising for local businesses. This book, Local Online Advertising for Dummies, has inspired what will be our newest weekly…

People are now using their cell phones for a lot more than just talking. In fact, there will be almost 1.5 billion cell phone users searching for local businesses – known as location-based local search – on their devices, adding up to $12.7 billion in revenue by 2014, estimates Juniper Research.  That’s a whole lot of people looking for stuff on their phones while on the move – and then paying for it when they find it! 

A big part of this increasing trend has to do with how much better mobile devices have gotten…

Yodle’s CEO Court Cunningham has been honored with the exciting title of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 Finalist! This is his second year as an honoree.

Court said ” “This award recognizes the contribution of the entire Yodle team that has propelled the company to exceptional growth and success year after year,” said Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle.  “I am extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished this year including the successful launch of Yodle’s second product YodleOrganic, our major expansion into Franchise advertising and the publication of Local Online Advertising for Dummies - making this…

For this week’s Yodle Tipster from Local Online Advertising for Dummies, we’re going to be turning to pages 44 & 45 in Chapter 3 (entitled Planning Your Local Online Advertising Campaign) to talk about a topic that transcends online advertising, and is really something every business owner – local or national, big or small – should think about.  That is your business’s USP or unique selling proposition.

First off, what is a USP?  In the book the term is described as “the factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one…