Press release: Brownbook Celebrates its First Birthday and a Year of Sustained Growth

.

The free global business directory that anyone can edit now lists 28 million businesses worldwide

United Kingdom: Brownbook.net, the free global business directory that anyone can edit, is celebrating its first year in business; a year of sustained growth. Today, the site continues to thrive, with thousands of businesses being added, worldwide, every week. The international distribution of listed businesses can be seen here: http://www.brownbook.net/countries.

Brownbook continues to innovate and help small businesses get found online. The company video interviewed some business owners on Skype, and here is what they said:

• Miamism.com, USA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rFyBJT5CeM
• R A Hilton, Jeweller, USA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0SAmObg-k
• Bush Marketing, Australia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBF9qDwHPRU
• Carpet Doctors, UK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx2__rhjsYI
• Sort Out My Visa, UK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQOARcUve0k
• OM2 Marketing, UK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_GcM_LqIug
• Elite Advertising Consultants, UK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jWHP6yb8qw
• Pople Web Design, UK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIAotTqPvkk
• French Tutoring, UK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpXlAk2W8Es
  

Brownbook also regularly enjoys positive reviews about the site; these left, for example, on Brownbook’s own listing page:

“Love it... Love it... Love it. This is SEO magic for the uninitiated. Simple, quick and powerful. Love it! Have recommended BrownBook to ALL my friends! Actor Expo Team, www.actorexpo.co.uk, May 25, 2009 17.23”

“I had a wonderful review of my business appear on my [Brownbook listing] a few days after signing up for your service. It was an unsolicited endorsement from a business associate. Right on! May 22, 2009 11.06”

Marc Lyne, co-founder: “We are currently listing 28 million businesses from all around the world. One of the reasons for Brownbook’s success, I would say, is that we never stop providing innovative new features to businesses, helping them to get found online. This keeps the site fresh and on its toes. Here are 2 of our latest enhancements, for example:

1. Stats counters and stat graph on every businesses page; plus a global stats league table, since May 5, 2009, here: http://www.brownbook.net/user/hof/top-viewed-profiles

2. Bidget (Business Widget) for reviews. Now anyone can add their reviews that appear on Brownbook to any other website, blog or forum. See an example here: the Brownbook page for Onedrywash: http://www.brownbook.net/business/31008544/sjk-products-ltd, and their Brownbook reviews which they have placed on their own blog: http://onedrywash.blogspot.com”

About Brownbook
Brownbook is the free global online business directory that anyone can edit. Business owners claim their listing to optimize it, get alerts and customize it with photos, videos, logos, widgets, and additional information. Brownbook, which offers a unique business model that rewards contributors with a lifetime share of revenue, was launched in May 2008. Brownbook is currently receiving 650,000 monthly visitors and is available on the web at http://www.brownbook.net and on the mobile web at http://m.brownbook.net. Interviews with the co-founders, Marc Lyne (Twitter: @marc_lyne) and Dave Ingram (Twitter: @daveingram), by Skype video can be arranged upon request.

For more information, please contact:

Marc Lyne, Co-Founder
Brownbook.net
London Road
Sayers Common
West Sussex
BN6 9HS
United Kingdom
+44 (0)208 1235 466
marc[AT]brownbook[DOT]net
http://www.brownbook.net
.

Press release: Brownbook Celebrates its First Birthday and a Year of Sustained Growth

Brownbook and Friday-Ad Launch Turnkey Local Video Ads Package

High quality professional video ads for small businesses, produced then extensively marketed online – from concept to completion in only 48 hours, at well below the traditional expected price

United Kingdom – Brownbook.net and Friday-Ad, today, launch one of the most exciting and powerful marketing tools ever for small to medium sized businesses; their Local Video Ads service – super-charged video advertising that gets results.

The Brownbook and Friday-Ad-produced
Sussex Angling Supplies’ Local Video Ad

This new service will enable businesses to catapult their online presence virtually overnight, using the immense power of video, as well as greatly improve the ranking, search engine marketing and search engine optimization of their site.

For companies wanting increased online visibility, to attract new customers and acquire the consequent increased sales, this unique new service is one of the fastest, most powerful and best value-for-money internet marketing or web promotion methods available anywhere.

“Our new Local Video Ads product massively undercuts the traditional price for such a service and goes much much further – offering the complete package from story-boarding to filming, editing, production and even includes extensive targeted online marketing of the video. We do not contract outside companies for any step of the process; the entire service is carried out in-house by our own staff,” explains Dave Ingram, CEO of Brownbook.

“It’s a complete streamlined end-to-end turnkey service that is simple - with absolutely everything taken care of for the client - and fast too, with a turnaround time of only 48 hours,” Ingram adds.

Here are some reasons why using online video is such a powerful method of advertising for small to medium sized businesses today:

• Video ads increase response advertising rates by five to nine times, with twice the conversion rate
• The second largest search engine, after Google, is YouTube which means it even beats Yahoo! and MSN in terms of number of searches per month
• 15 hours of video are uploaded onto YouTube every minute
• 11 billion videos were viewed online in July 2008
• 75% of all American web users viewed online video in July 2008
• Online video achieves higher attention levels than TV today
• Today’s technology has reduced the cost of all aspects of video production and marketing, making video online advertising accessible to all
  

From only £2 per day, the service provides: advice about the video style best suited to each individual business, story-boarding, on-site filming, editing, production, hosting and placement on Brownbook and Friday-Ad, online distribution to 50 video and social web sites such as YouTube, Google Video and MySpace Video. Videos can be 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes or 3 minutes in length as required. In addition, clients also have own-use unlimited rights to their video.

Here are some examples of Brownbook and Friday-Ad-produced Local Video Ads, as well as an explanation of the service on video by Dave Ingram, CEO:
http://blog.brownbook.net/2009/04/02/video-profiles-get-more-business-fact/

About Friday-Ad
Well known for its classified ad publications, every week Friday-Ad produces 1.5 million magazines which are read by 2.5 million people. Friday-Ad is now the largest Independent publisher in the UK and its 20 websites display over 130,000 ads every day, with 350,000 visitors per week. http://www.friday-ad.co.uk

About Brownbook
Brownbook is the free global online business directory that anyone can edit. Business owners claim their listing to optimize it, get alerts and customize it with photos, videos, logos, widgets, and any additional information. Brownbook, which offers a unique business model that rewards contributors with a lifetime share of revenue, was launched in the UK in May 2008 with 2.2 million UK businesses listed. It expanded to USA, Australia and Canada in July 2008 with an additional 25 million records. It now lists 27 million businesses in 240 countries, is currently receiving 650,000 monthly visitors with a 40% growth rate and is available on the web at http://www.brownbook.net and on the mobile web at http://m.brownbook.net.

For more information, please contact:

Marc Lyne, Co-Founder
Brownbook.net
London Road
Sayers Common
West Sussex
BN6 9HS
United Kingdom
+44 (0)208 1235 466
marc[AT]brownbook[DOT]net
http://www.brownbook.net

Brownbook and Friday-Ad Launch Turnkey Local Video Ads Package