1. How to use the Instant 800 Lookup
One of the main features, if not THE main feature of our whole site, is the Instant 800 Lookup, which allows you to lookup specific numbers live into the SMS800 database. It is the fastest, the smartest and the most thorough lookup tool of it’s kind. It’s insanely easy to use and will let you activate or backorder any number you find available right online in real time.
The information here is organized into four sections:
1. How to use it
2. What you see on the page
3. What it means
4. Then what can you do?
The Instant 800 Lookup is on the top of almost every page and is designed to check specific numbers quickly and easily, right online. Just type any word or phrase, letters or digits into the Instant 800 Lookup form (shown below) and hit lookup. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
* is used as a wildcard and the system will check any digit in that place. And if you put less than 7 digit it’s going to look for your word with numbers at the end , (ie WORD becomes WORD-***)
Most visitors arrive with a specific word or phrase and start trying a couple queries with the Instant 800 Lookup. Unfortunately they usually find out that the first things they think of are the first things that other people think of too, so they’re usually not available (that’s what In Use means by the way).
IMPORTANT: Remember that this is one of TWO lookup tools, so don’t get hung up on it, trying everything you can think of one at a time forever. Before you spend too much time trying things one at a time, make sure you try the Keyword Lookup because it does all of the thinking and checking for you and gives you a thorough list of all the numbers available or going to be available for your keywords. It’ll save you hours and hours and make it much easier for you.
Don’t limit yourself to 7 digits
One common mistake visitors sometimes make is limiting themselves to 7 digits. There is no rule or major reason to limit yourself that way. It can be a factor to consider, but it’s hard enough to find a number without eliminating 90% of the good numbers before you even start. Any digits after 7 are ignored by standard phone systems. So you can add any extra digits you want to, to make it more memorable for your audience.
Our own number 1-800 MARKETER is 8 digits, so I like to ask people asking me about this issue if they had any trouble with our phone number. They usually answer, “No, why? Oh, it’s 8 digits isn’t it. I didn’t even notice really,? which illustrates my point very easily. Our 1-800 MARKETER number is actually MARKETE or MARKET 3. But I can write it out as MARKETER, or even MARKET DAY, MARKET DIRECT, or MARKET FRESH if I sold fruit. It’s all the same number.
Sometimes people will say they don’t want more than 7 digits because they think it looks odd or will make people have to think about it. The fact of the matter is that people really don’t pay a lot of attention to or think about phone numbers. Besides, the whole purpose of your advertising is to get people to notice, and think about it, is it? The most important part of your advertising is the call to action (which is usually your phone # and/or your domain name). You generally don’t want to start a word after the 7 digits (unless it’s your name), but don’t worry about entering or selecting vanity numbers with more than 7 digits.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Thank you Bill for your service, you make the process of finding and securing a toll free number so easy. Your fee is worth every penny!
Dave P (1 comments.) says:
December 1, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Hello Bill,
I am filling out the order form with the numbers I have saved. I have a bunch more that I want to search, make sure there still available and save but the look up tool isn’t working. I will save the ones I have and see if the system comes back up.
Thanks,
Dave P
Bill Quimby (203 comments.) says:
December 1, 2007 at 9:32 pm
The look up tool is disabled from about 11:55pm (est) until 12:25am (est). When the new numbers drop the system gets so bogged down that it just times out and says they’re not available anyway. And we don’t want to take any bandwidth away from our efforts to get the backordered numbers for customers.
Bill Quimby
Mark Osler says:
May 13, 2008 at 11:24 am
I love your service. My one complaint is that it goes down nearly every night at midnight ET and really puts you at a disadvantage if any desirable toll-free numbers come available just after midnight (which your site says is the best time to look for highly-sought-after numbers).
Just thought that might be helpful feedback.
All the best,
Mark
Bill Quimby (203 comments.) says:
May 13, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Mark,
There are two reasons for that. First, because the system slows down so much that it just times out and even if it shows something as available, it usually takes so long to activate or reserve it that they are often gone. That doesn’t happen with regular numbers much during the day, but if you do happen to get an ‘800’ number for instance when they drop, it’ll always be gone within seconds.
The second reason we disable it at the drop is that customers using it would take away from the bandwidth we have to get the numbers which customers have backordered. And it is much less efficient to use the website one at a time than when we do it either 10 at a time (with SMS) or up t 190 at a time (with 8MS API).
Allowing visitors to use the tools at midnight would only frustrate people and mean that we’d get a few less numbers for customers that really wanted them. So it seemed smart to disable the Instant 800 Lookup for about 20 minutes or so each night when the numbers drop. (When the “big fish are feeding‿)
Bill