July update: NEW Numbers are Online 7/16

07/13/2008

There are a lot of new numbers to process this month! The July update went online on Wednesday 7/16 and we’ll send out 35,000 updated 800 Watch reports Wednesday and Thursday.

Do you have a personal preference for numeric easy-to-dial 800 numbers?

07/17/2008

Some people confuse what they personally like or what their friends or customers say they like for the things that get the best results. If you had a car dealership you might prefer softer more professional advertising, over the loud in your face banners and balloons. Your friends and neighbors may all say that like the quieter approach, but in the end, car dealers all find that loud in your face promotion sells more cars.

You may not personally like having to think about translating the letters when you dial. You may think it’s easier to just enter the digits. But your goal isn’t really to make it easier. Your goal is to maximize the results and for results vanity numbers beat numeric numbers every time (with only a few exceptions).

Don’t fall for that trap of confusing what you or other people say they like with what actually gets more calls and sales for you.

Backorders ON SALE this WEEK only!

07/16/2008

We don’t usually put backorders on sale very often because we have less room to play with them than we do regular activations or premium numbers, and no other phone company can even see those, let along help you get them. But we’re cutting the price of backorders by $50.

This is only for backorders placed during the next week from 7/16 to 7/23. We’ve also cut the backorder request fee from $4.95 to $1.95 this week as well. So if you’ve ever thought about backordering a number, this is definitely the week to do it.

If it’s an 866 number, it’s $145 instead of $195 if we’re able to get it for you, 877 numbers are $345 instead of $399, 888 numbers are $545 instead of $595 and 800 numbers are $745 instead of $795. This only applies to numbers that are requested during this week, no matter when they come out of disconnect and cannot be applied to number already backordered.

This is a great sale but don’t wait, because we’re sending updated 800 watch email reports out today to over 30 thousand people who search for vanity numbers too. And the good numbers go extremely fast and in some cases get requested repeatedly.

1 and 0 NOT Valid

07/16/2008

When you see that in the Search Results of the lookup tool, that generally means you entered a 1 or a 0 for the first digit of the phone number which isn’t valid in North America. If you stop to think about it, it probably doesn’t look quite right either

So if you entered 123-LOAN or something like that try 321-LOAN or better yet, try just entering this shorter term like LOAN and let the computer put things before or after it or look for any version that ends a LOAN or whatever your word is.

Could your phone company steal YOUR toll free number?

07/15/2008

That may sound ridiculous but a lot of people don’t even realize that if they got their toll free number directly from their phone company, some phone companies might claim that it’s THEIR number NOT YOURS and refuse to release it or in some cases even yank it back even after it’s taken away.

That’s exactly what happened to LaRick Calhoun recently. He got an 800 number from Onebox (J2 Global (NASDAQ: JCOM), also the parent company of Efax) and used and has advertised it since October 2007. When he decided he wanted to transfer it away however, he was suddenly surprised by the fine print at Onebox.

Not only did Onebox say he owed them money but they even filled out forms for the SMS claiming they are the customer!

The ZERO misdial

07/14/2008

How big of a misdial problem is associated with the ZERO instead of the letter “O”?

That isn’t usually much of a factor except in very high volume, easily monetized commercial situations. In other words, unless you get a huge number of calls for something that people can easily make money from, it really doesn’t matter much. The best example of it being a problem is 1-800 FLOWERS. It’s easy for any florist to take orders and just send them via FTD to anywhere, so with their high volume of calls, that was an issue.

However, for 99.8% of the customers getting toll free numbers, with O’s it’s not a problem or concern at all. The bottom line is NOT to bypass or even worry about using a vanity number with an O in it. I would only try to get the misdial zero option if it were a high volume of calls and something that a competitor could easily make money from. On the other hand, don’t forget to check the misdial versions of your competitors or if you’re a distributor of a product check the main company’s number for misdials. Many people make a lot more money than you would suspect almost invisibly on wrong numbers.

Only your Mom will buy from you just because you’re in that business

07/11/2008

Everyone else needs to know more than just what type of business you’re in but why you’re the BEST. They want to know the benefits and what makes you better in some way, or different. So many people look exclusively for generic terms, thinking that will require less advertising to let people know what type of business they’re in, forgetting that people don’t buy from you just because you’re in that business.

And don’t think that “better service” or “higher quality” counts as a benefit. If it’s not a SPECIFIC benefit it won’t help much. Think about yourself. If someone says you look good today does that make you feel as good as if someone says they like your new hair cut and the color of your shirt really makes your face light up. We believe specific benefits more than general benefits or compliments. So don’t just say you’re better, say EXACTLY HOW you’re better!

It’s easier to waste your money and blend in than it is to be creative, but it's easier to fail than it is to be successful too.

Why we make 800 service recommendations?

07/10/2008

Someone recently asked me a couple questions that I thought was worth adding on the website.

Do you get a kickback for referring me to a particular phone company?

If I call the phone co. you recommend directly, will they present me a lower price?

First of all we make recommendations because our customers need them. It would be wrong to give someone a number without giving them any help on where to take it for the service and ongoing use. We also have years of experience in this business so it would be wrong not to try to pass that experience and knowledge on. That’s what a lot of our website is designed to do, to educate customers which is why I thought this was worth passing on, because if one person thought this was worth asking, there are probably other people that wonder about things like this as well.

The industry actually doesn’t work the way the question suggests it does. We are agents for Opex and PNG, but that’s because it’s necessary to have an agent to use their service. If you call them directly they will refer you back to an agent, and they will tell you it takes longer because and requires more forms and might quote you a higher rate. We offer it at the lowest price, have simplified the paperwork and streamlined the process if you use the people and fax numbers I recommend, so it’ll get done in two days instead of a week or two.

Read the rest about why we recommend toll free services.

Bundles Blocks and Buckets of Free 800 Minutes?

07/09/2008

If you’re on a service that gives you so-called “free” minutes, you’re still paying for them. Making you pay for a few free minutes in lieu of changing a monthly fee isn’t bad. But if they tell you that you get 600 or 1000 minutes FREE, don’t be an idiot and think they’re really just giving them to you because they’re not. It’s really just a way to sell you more service than you need.

Ironically the people that this appeals to are the ones that need and should use it the least, namely the people that don’t know how many toll free minutes they’re going to use. They also don’t realize that they really can’t control how many people are going to call you. It’s not like you can have suddenly make a bunch more calls come in at the end of the month if you have unused minutes.

Buying bundles or blocks of minutes may sound smart on paper, but it’s almost never a better deal than paying a competitive price for just what you use, especially when you’re starting out. Selling blocks or buckets of minutes doesn’t prove that the company is a scam but it does show you’re probably dealing with a Fake Phone Company at least. And it’s definitely a big red flag similar although not quite as bad as the Unlimited toll fee scams. Don’t buy blocks or buckets of minutes for your toll free number if you can avoid it and NEVER let them talk you into that if you don’t have a track record and know how many calls you’re going to get.

Not for another 98 years

07/08/2008

There’s something special happening one month from today that won’t happen again for another 98 years. August 8th is 8/8/08 also known as 888, the last toll free day of this century. Last year we had 8-7-7 and the year before we had 8-6-6 but there won’t be another toll free day for 98 years. So this is the last toll free day in most of our life times.

Toll free numbers have been around for 41 years and 2 months since May 1967 and their popularity is at an all time high because they’re more affordable and easier to find than ever before thanks to a unique and innovative activation service from TollFreeNumbers.com, the Internet’s Toll Free Search Engine, where they specialize in finding toll free vanity numbers for only a one time fee of $49. But in celebration of Toll Free Day, they’re giving away toll free numbers for FREE. In order to celebrate this very rare occurrence TollFreeNumbers.com is giving away FREE toll free numbers on 8/8/08. See the website for details.

By the way it’s also to celebrate the founder of TollFreeNumbers.com’s 1 year old daughter’s 1st birthday who was appropriately born on 877 last year.

The Poor Customer Service at Efax (part of J2) is worse than having no Customer Service at all!

07/07/2008