Yahoo! Groups

Yahoo! Groups
Another wonderful moneymaking service that is very useful for business owners is called YAHOO! GROUPS. These
are message boards that are free to join and organized by interest and geography. First we will focus on the
groups, divided by location and that act as community bulletin boards.

Many people in our area use the Internet to prepare for, or even replace going out and shopping. They shop from

home, or research online before making an in-person purchase. Others are homebound or nearly homebound and

have an even greater need to do research online before leaving the house or sending someone out to buy
something for them.


These are the same people who find it important to do business with companies they know, and are familiar with.

Bulletin boards are a fabulous way to jump into the community with the littlest of effort and zero cost.


Just like the soft corkboard at Publix and Wal-Mart, these cyber boards have the same purpose. Garage sales, club

meeting notices, business ads, and public service announcements are all the kind of posts welcome on most of

these boards.
Since groups can be 'owned and operated' by regular people like you and me, be sure to carefully read each group's

home page to see if they have any special posting rules or regulations. Some owners want brick & mortar

businesses to post a regular ad only once a month, some allow one every day. Read the homepage to be sure.


Post a message about something at least once a week. Choose an event, club, or special cause you believe in, and

tell us about it! (I call these Public Service Announcements) This is the main reason your Yahoo Id should be your

business name. No matter what kind of message you are posting, every message is an ad because the author is

always noted to the side.
See the example schedules on page 4 of when to put out ads for each group. Again, make sure to read the

homepage of each group when making your campaign schedules. Plan by the week or by the month. Keeping track

will make your efforts more efficient. Put all your efforts into a notebook to record what works for your business

and what doesn't.


On the left hand side of the homepage you'll see a list of web tools. Not all tools are available for use in all

groups. It's up to the each group owner to decide how many tools are open for members to use. Here's a brief


description of each tool.


MESSAGES:
Messages, or posts, are the main way members communicate with each other and with the group owners

and moderators. You can post right from the homepage or from your email address. You can even create an email

list to post messages to several groups at once.



FILES:
Create or upload text files. Ads, Flyers, whatever,….all files etc, stay there until you or the moderator

deletes them. Great for general contact information, warranty information, or standing specials you may have, like

free delivery or 50% Off on Wednesdays.
PHOTOS:
Create a photo album and upload pictures from your computer. Pictures of your product, personnel, or place

of business are welcome. Use the title and caption options to include contact information and anything we should


know about the photo.
LINKS:
Add a link to your business website, or to other sites that support your PSA's. Add links you think would be

helpful for the community.
DATABASE:
Use these when you want to gather large collections of information. Customize everyone for exactly what

you need.
POLLS:
Ask the entire board a question. Ask about preferences, or needs, or whatever you are interested in finding

out.
CALENDAR:
This is great for posting and getting reminders for important meetings and events. Choose to have the

meeting repeated, and get up to two reminder message that can go out to the whole group at once. This is

another great place to tell us about sales and promotional specials.


Keep your name and brand fresh in front of the local online neighborhood, and your sales will swell. This portion of

our community customer base is growing while people increasingly turn to the Internet for local companies to do

business with.
To find these groups simply go to the Yahoo Homepage and sign in. On the left you'll see the groups button. Click

it and you'll go to the groups homepage. There type in search terms like this


Englewood FL
Charlotte County FL
Boca Grande Fl
Port Charlotte FL
Sarasota County FL
Etc
Join all the groups that are in your business territory. We have approx 20 boards for our 'driving area'.


Don't forget about the other groups. The groups gathered by interest are another FANTASTIC way to sell more

stuff!
If you have products you can ship, type those product names in the search bar and see what groups come up. Just

like the yellow pages, these groups have heavy traffic. There are approx more than 2,300,000 groups within the

Yahoo groups area. Other major companies like Google and MSN have group communities also.


FOR EXAMPLE:
The key words "Selling Photography"
brought back over 260 different groups. Half of those will be the kind of group we are looking for. So if you had

pictures to sell, and added your link to only half of those, it's still a big 65 more times your stock photography

website will be out there on the net.


Can you see how these easy, grassroots efforts accumulate, and can begin to pay off? COntact Elaine at 941 460-0200 to find out more or for help getting

started!