We’ve posted about two dozen new original articles this month and this is a summary of most of them. The Wordle.net http://wordle.net image above is also an attractive way to summarize the words used in the articles as well. It’s been a busy month and hopefully this helps to make it easy to find any interesting articles.

Our NEW Toll Free Search Engine

The biggest news of the month is definitely the changes to our look up tool, now renamed the Toll Free Search Engine. It returns more results faster than ever before and really required changing the name because it really is a search engine now!

Easy to remember is more valuable than easy to type

You wouldn’t use a domain name just because it’s easy to type if it didn’t relate to your business so why do some people think it makes sense to use a toll free number because they think it’s easy to type when it doesn’t relate to their business.

Mass Misdial Marketing

There are businesses that make money from wrong numbers on toll free numbers just like there are businesses that make money based on domain name typos or random typeins which are kind of like wrong numbers for the computer.

Get more of the MONEY Calls

One of the surprise benefits of the enhanced voicemail service for our business was how it allowed callers to sort themselves out which let me handle more of the most important money calls and allowed more administrative calls to go to Rita and Gloria who can handle more of the customer service work for me now.

Why are we so different?

We’re different because we believe there’s an inherent flaw with the current phone company model. How can a phone company be charged with protecting the customer’s ability to choose their phone company while at the same time trying to keep you there as long as possible?

Ameristar wastes $30,000 for wrong numbers on an 866 number!

There were two articles this month about how Ameristar created wrong numbers for a small business and then sued them for not answering their wrong number calls properly in order to force him to give up the 866 number he used for his business. Ameristar and their over zealous lawyers should be ashamed of themselves!

Why it’s hard to know, who will sell you their number?

People often ask if it is possible to negotiate and buy someone’s number but they don’t realize why it’s so hard to know whether someone will ultimately sell you their number or not. People are used to selling houses and cars, but not phone numbers so although it may be possible, that doesn’t make it likely.

Has Custom TollFree ‘Locked Up’ your 800 number?

If you go to CustomTollfree.com their website doesn’t even mention the rates until after you do a search to check availability for numbers but what you don’t realize is that not only does their lookup tool ‘Lock Up’ any numbers it finds available, they will say it was THEIR number and you have to RENT it from them at exhorbenent rates, now that they’ve got the number you wanted. This is one of the most unethical things in the industry!

More about us

Most about us pages are designed to make the organization sound big and impressive (almost aloof?) without really saying anything at all about anyone. Our about us section is the opposite of that, written to show you that we’re a very small organization of real people and to show you as much about us as possible. We had two new articles about us.

Let your fingers do the walking in other people’s Yellow Pages

The yellow pages from other areas, is a great source for powerful headlines, benefit oriented words and phrases. Use that to help you in the brainstorming process to come up with things to search for, for new businesses.

Sometimes what works best isn’t the most popular thing.

Political ads are the best example of the popular thing not being what works the best. Numeric numbers like positive political ads are always more popular, but in the end vanity numbers like negative political ads almost always work better. So if you care more about the results than your own or your neighbor’s personal preference do what works the best.

SMSgov.com says Phone Police are arresting people.

SMSgov.com has some interesting articles but the articles like the website are completely devoid of any actual facts or evidence of validity. The really question is why would someone go to such extreme effort to make something look like it’s an official government site when it has no connection to anything in the SMS or the Government. So why the heck then would you name your site SMSgov?! Something really strange is going on there.

The easy way to put your number into a different name

A lot of people wind up needing to put their number into a different name than they used when they activated their number, whether it’s because you’re going to a call center, putting it into a business name or just registered it for your brother-in-law. And all you need to do is put the original name and/or address somewhere on the margins or the bottom of the form. They won’t enter that at the new company but we’ll see it on the fax.

What’s Your Message?

It often takes some effort and experience to ‘find your voice’ in your marketing. Look for what makes you different and stand out. Don’t limit yourself to generic terms, be bold and do something to stand out. To do something great in marketing you’re going to have to be creative and think outside the box. And when you find your Message, all of your marketing is going to come together and work and flow much better.

Random 800 number list

There are 16 random ‘800’ numbers in the second box each time you use the Toll Free Search Engine but we also have another list of 200 random numbers if you need a larger list. We do this because many customers need larger quantities of ‘800’ numbers that they can’t get from any regular phone companies.

Multiple Backorders

You can place multiple backorders at a time with a single backorder request. The purpose of the $4.95 request fee is mostly to make sure we have the billing information secured in a third party shopping cart, verified by the IP address, and to make sure that customers are serious and have been through the process.

The Top 16 Toll Free Mistakes

I’ve analyzed and written about virtually every major mistake that people can make with toll free service. You’ll want to review this list to make sure you don’t fall into one of these traps. It’s easy to make a mistake but now we make it easier to understand and avoid them!

How to find the Vanity Numeric Numbers

Vanity numbers with words are easier to remember and repetitive nice or premium numbers are easier to dial. Numeric numbers usually never have all 7 digits in the numeric portion of the number though. They usually have at least a few random digits. The best way to find the perfect numeric number for your business is to find a good numeric number that instead of random digits has a small 3 or 4 digit word. That gives you the memorability of a word and the ease of dialing with a premium numeric number.

Do you want a toll free number to match your local number?

Getting a toll free number that matches your local number is fine and looks good on your business card. But it probably doesn’t have the same commercial value since it’s really only memorable for the one group of people that you really don’t need to make it memorable for, the people who already know your local number. If you got a number that matched or related to your business name it would be memorable for the people who already know your business name.

Geo specific increases your options and creates an advantage

Try adding your state abbreviation in front of more popular generic terms. It makes you seem more local which is a benefit and makes it much easier to get that generic term. It also makes it more likely that you can get the matching domain name as well.