Telli Development: Questions & Answers- PO Box 1088
- Tiburon, CA 94920
- 415-435-1280
- 415-435-5291 - fax
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TELLI
DEVELOPMENT: Questions & Answers
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What is TELLI?
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A
developer of "Multi-Dimensional" search engines and
"Micro-Category" Internet Advertising Platforms.
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What products does Telli produce?
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Online
"Local Information Center" platforms maintained on Telli
Servers and accessed through personal computers and mobile
devices.
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Simple-to-use online
development and advertising tools for people to place
information in a Telli Information Center.
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Administrative and
design tools for managers of Telli Information Centers to
modify their Centers to satisfy the unique requirements of
their areas.
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Why would people use Telli's Local Information Centers?
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Telli
Information Centers contain comprehensive, up-to-date,
one-stop, local information on
movies, events, products, services, classifieds, reviews and
news as well as consumer redemption coupons.
-
Telli
"Multi-Dimensional" Search is powered by a combination of
keyword search engines and menu
search systems making it easy for people to
instantly target everyday products, services and information
in their communities without spending time surfing
through large amounts of irrelevant global
information.
-
Telli's
simple category click-through filtering
systems allow people to focus in on products and
services adhering to a specific set of
multiple variables.
(e.g.
Try searching Google for seafood restaurants in Marin County
with a view, entries under $15, outdoor dining, that are
child-friendly, with a full bar and serving fish and chips -
only 45 - 60 seconds on Telli Marin.)
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How does Telli manage its Local Information Centers?
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How does Telli make money?
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How do Licensees of Telli Information Centers make
money?
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How do Telli Advertisers evaluate the effectiveness of their
advertising on Telli's Promotional Platform?
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Telli
allows its advertising subscribers to display their daily and
monthly viewer statistics to show the number
of people who viewed their information.
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What information does Telli make available to the
public?
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Information
on almost every local business, professional, club,
association, school, and community service as well as classes,
artists, entertainers, movies, theatre, events, coupons,
reviews and classifieds.
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How does Telli accumulate this information?
-
Telli
creates and continually updates local listings it downloads
monthly from information on new telephone installations,
installation changes and telephone disconnects supplied to it
by the local phone company.
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Telli
allows others to create new listings and update their
existing listings and categories online from their personal
computers for free using Telli's simple, do-it-yourself
design tools.
-
People
can create community events, classifieds and reviews for
free.
-
Businesses,
professionals, organizations and people offering local
products and services pay a modest monthly advertising fee to
create their own colorful TelliPages of
information to display with their listings.
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What kind of information can be found on Telli that may not
be found elsewhere?
-
Information on a wide
range of specific services are available through Telli's
micro-categories.
(e.g.
local Restaurants with event rooms, Beauty Salons offering
Japanese Thermal Hair Straightening, Trichotillomania
Therapists, Apartment Hotels, In Home Cooking caterers,
Unique Ceremony Locations, Yoga Classes, etc.)
-
People or
organizations not listed in the Yellow Pages or any other
local directories who operate service businesses from their
homes or mobile devices.
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What is Telli's marketplace?
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Internet
advertising revenue grew by 35% in 2007 to $16.9 billion.
Revenue from local advertising reached $8
billion in 2007 and jumped to over $12 billion in 2008 (Borrell
Associates). Borrell reports that, "The nation's 14.6 million
small businesses were responsible for more than $6.7 billion in
locally generated, locally targeted interactive advertising in
2008 - more than 50% of the U.S. total.
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Who needs Telli?
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Local
organizations wanting to be found by people searching the
Internet for local products and services.
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Local
advertisers unable to afford predominant Internet exposure
through the major search engines.
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Local
advertisers not willing or able to pay large fees for
national Internet exposure but willing to
pay modest fees to target customers and clients in their
areas. (See next section for Telli national Internet
exposure.)
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Major
companies wanting to create unique advertising
campaigns tailored for individual communities.
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Major retail
chains wanting to create unique ads and offer
different specials for each of their stores.
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Local
advertisers, groups and associations wanting to increase
traffic to their websites.
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What kind of exposure does Telli offer its advertisers that
they can't get elsewhere?
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Predominant
exposure on the major search engines.
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Google
and the major search engines access Telli Marin over
500,000 times a month to copy Telli Listings on
their sites and display links that send people to their Telli
Listings.
-
Telli
local listings appear at the top or
near the top on most major search
engines for Marin information. (See, Marin Doctors,
Marin Dentists, Marin Hair Salons, Marin Massage, Marin
Contractors, Marin Furniture Stores, Marin Sporting Goods,
Marin Tax Consultants, etc.)
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People in
Marin County (100,000 households) view over 10,000
listings every day in Telli Marin. No other local
Internet advertising platform comes close to providing as
many viewers.
-
A
predominent promotional position in the Telli local search
results and at the top of their
categories.
-
The
ability to display inexpensive
do-it-yourself TelliPages of information
that are more effective than websites. (See
graph below.)
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What places Telli in a position to be a leader in the local
search and advertising industry?
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Telli has invested in only research and development since
1992 without promoting its products in the marketplace. What was
the purpose of this limited approach and what has Telli
accomplished?
-
It is well
known that the radio and television programs, the newspapers
and magazines and the Internet sites with the most
viewers, attract the largest amount of advertising
dollars. Telli spent time learning how to attract the most
viewers to its local information in its model site, Telli
Marin.
1992-1998:
Early
research, development and testing of various programming systems
to distribute information to people through computers.
1998-1999:
Established
and trained a staff of programmers to set up Telli Marin and its
multi-level, user friendly search system on the Internet.
1999-2000:
Established a staff of editors and programmers to:
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download
AT&T listing for Marin County into Telli Marin.
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create an
extensive category search system with extensive micro-focused
categories.
-
modify the
downloaded entries into Telli's new expanded list of over 3,500
micro categories.
2000-2001:
Maintained a
small staff of sales and marketing people to develop and test
various promotional and community joint venture programs to
generate viewers for Telli Marin.
2002-2003:
Developed simple do-it-yourself programming
systems and tools for people to be able to:
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enter their
own information in Telli Marin
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create and
design colorful Internet TelliPages.
2003-2005:
Created the
Telli Administrator and an automated
subscription payment system to simplify the management
of entering, updating, modifying and managing information in
Telli for the purpose of licensing others, without computer
programming skills, to operate Telli Local Information Centers in
their areas.
2005:
Conducted a multi-level advertising campaign
throughout Marin County, created by advertising professionals and
running during an 8 week period (from the end of May to the
middle of July) to determine the most successful and
cost-effective means of encouraging people to use Telli
Marin.
Also, began
offering online subscriptions for businesses to add information
to their listings in Telli Marin.
2006-2007:
Began
experimenting with various targeted, inexpensive direct
mail programs to familiarize potential advertisers with
the advantages of "do-it-yourself" advertising in Telli
Marin.
2008-Present:
Discontinued all advertising and promotion of
Telli Marin to evaluate the following factors on Telli's
growth.
-
the effect
Google has on the number of viewers using Telli Marin.
-
the number
of businesses continuing to sign up for advertising
subscriptions.
-
the results
Telli may experience when Telli Local Information Centers are
first established without any marketing support and before
being licensed to local operators.
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How much is invested in the development of Telli?
-
Over $25
million has been documented in Telli's audited
statements.
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What significant results has Telli obtained through its
research and development?
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People living
in the community rave about Telli for the following
reasons.
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The
information is comprehensive and always up-to-date.
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The Telli
Home page gives them a complete overview of Marin's products,
services and local events.
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They find
Telli's multi-dimensional search system is fast and easy to use
and gets them the specific information they need to meet their
individual needs without having to be computer literate.
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Almost
all users of Telli Marin learn about it by word of mouth from
others in the community or when they search for local
information on Google and other major search sites.
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70% to
80% of people will not enter their own information in Telli
Marin without assistance, for the following reasons.
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The
majority of people are challenged by computer technology and
not experienced enough with computers to feel confident to
create information on the Internet.
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They don't
know what to say about themselves, or how to say it.
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Most existing
Telli subscribers…
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learned about
Telli Marin's impact on local advertising while searching
Google for local information. (Google copies Telli listings for
display on its site.)
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enhanced their
free listing information and created their own TelliPages
online using Telli's do-it-yourself programming tools without
contacting us for any assistance.
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Once
becoming Telli paid advertising subscribers, 98% never cancel
their paid subscriptions.
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50%
of all Telli paid advertising subscribers begin with a month
to month subscription and then move into an annual
subscription within six to nine months.
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During
small direct selling market tests we conducted from time to
time, 100% of businesses we approached to advertise in Telli
Marin became paid subscribers immediately after we offered to
create and design their TelliPages for them in return for a
small design fee (under $300 - a website page purchased
through a web designer can cost a minimum of $500 for one
single page).
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What sincere, qualified people contacted Telli, unsolicited,
to obtain a license to operate a Telli Information
Center in their area?
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Minneapolis, MN
(individual)
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Wichita, KS
(individual)
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Long
Island, NY (individual)
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Farfax
County, VA (group)
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State of
Texas (investment group)
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Los
Angeles, CA (newspaper syndicate)
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Santa Clara
County, CA (group)
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Napa
County, CA (individual)
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Contra
Costa County, CA (individual)
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Sacramento
County, CA (individual)
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Vancouver,
BC Canada (investment group)
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Latino
Information Centers throughout the United States (group)
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Germany
(individual)
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Why is Telli raising new capital at this time?
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Sonoma
County (2 months, 8 editors @ $4,000/mo. each = $64,000
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Napa
County (1 month, 8 editors @ $4,000/mo. each = $32,000
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Establish a Telli
Information Center for West Los Angeles to complete a joint
venture with a newspaper syndicate of local newspapers to
establish proof that local newspapers can increase their
revenues with almost no additional overhead. ($50,000 for set
up and coordination)
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Complete
the licensing of one Telli Information Center for a trade
group to operate a Center for their members. (Administrative
and Marketing = $40,000)
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Retain our
auditors and securities attorney to complete Guinness
Telli*Phone's SEC reporting documentation and file a Super 8-K
with the SEC to return TELI to the Bulletin Board.
($90,000)
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What does Telli hope to achieve with this new capital?
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Notes: Under
Federal rules, the Company cannot receive more than $500 for the
sale of a license. A fee of more than $500 makes it a franchise
and requires the filing of extensive and expensive documentation
with the Federal Trade Commission and the Commissioners of
Corporations for many states in the U.S. (including the State of
California) before being able to even offer a franchise for
sale.
Telli's
approach is to establish local Telli Information Centers in
various areas itself, and then license them to qualified
individuals and groups to promote, manage, fund and maintain
their operations and growth, in exchange for royalties on
revenues.
Telli will
continue to maintain the Telli servers that house the Telli
Information Centers, administer the Telli subscriber Automated
Electronic Billing and Payment systems on behalf of Licensees and
manage the electronic distribution of royalties.
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ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FROM FINANCIAL CONTACTS
The "local
advertising" market seems to be packed with many players. Some
very big and a multitude that are very small. The real question
is whether the big will effectively get bigger at the expense of
the smaller ones. 71% of all online advertising is controlled by
10 companies. That leaves a much smaller pie for the thousands of
smaller companies vying for the 29 cents of every dollar left in
the pie.
We are not
dependant on the smaller pie. We will take advertising dollars
from the major companies in the marketplace whose sites are
simply local "directories".
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I tested out a few
keywords on Google to find Telli Marin listings. Some keywords seem to work quite
impressively while a few others brought no results on the first
page. For example "Marin County builders" or "Marin County
contractors" seem to get no showing of Telli on the first page
but with "Marin County hairdressers" and "Marin County cinema"
you were near for at the top on the first page.
I won't comment on
Google results because they keep changing every day and you get a
different set of results depending on your search entry.
e.g. In regard to your search for
"contractors", enter the words "Marin Contractors" in the
Google Search bar and you will see what I mean.
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I also noticed several
other local competitors who seemed to be ahead of you on some
issues. One in particular was offering a monthly listing with a
link to the advertiser's website (assuming the advertiser has one
of course) for only $2 or $5/month depending on the
content.
As I mentioned
before, and as our statistics show, website links are no big
deal. TelliPages and Telli's "Local Advertising Platform"
generate considerably
more results for advertisers than their websites do.
See,
http://www.telli.com/marin/listings/B24961
and
http://www.telli.com/marin/listings/B37703.
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COMMENT
What I am getting at
is that you need to nail your USPs and differentiate yourself
from everything else in the "local advertising" marketplace. A
software solution that took 10 years and $25 million to develop,
and can deliver more effective results than anyone else and
here's the proof! Now we are going to roll it out and take over
the world!!! That seems to be a much more compelling argument
than the one you are currently making.
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I have read through
your material several times and I still do not see a clear and
concise explanation of why your system is so much better than
other solutions and why it will bring more, better quality
traffic than your competitors. There is no explanation relating
to the huge investment that was made in development or of the
resulting software.
Telli
"Multi-Dimensional" Search is powered by a combination of
keyword search engines, menu search systems and simple
variable category click-through filtering systems making
it easy for people to instantly target everyday products,
services and information in their community through their
computers and mobile devices without spending time surfing
through large amounts of irrelevant information.
(e.g. Try searching
Google or any other search engine for seafood restaurants in
Marin County that have all the following additional variables: a
view, entries under $15, outdoor dining, that are child-friendly,
with a full bar and serving fish and chips - only 45 - 60 seconds
on Telli Marin.)
See
also, http://www.telli.com/marin/listings/B8393
and
http://www.telli.com/marin/listings/B41336.
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You mention admin
software and design tools that don't require programming skills
to operate. These kinds of software packages are available free
all over the web. BlueVoda is a typical example that will enable
you to design and build your own website free and with no
training. It is just intuitive software. There are many examples
of these. An organization like Clickbank can do all of the
billing and collection.
First, I
refer you to the above comment on the success of TelliPages vs.
Websites.
Second,
the Telli subscriber development tools are more than just
design tools and are available through the Telli website, making
Telli a do-it-yourself "Advertising
Platform" and not just a website creation tool. Below is a
list of the Telli Subscriber Advertising Platform
tools that subscribers access through
their subscriber advertising platform menu page.
· My
Favorites
Link a TelliPage to your Favorites List so you will be
automatically alerted to any changes, updates, specials, new
products, etc., posted by Telli Subscribers.
· My
Alerts
Read
alerts
that have been sent by your favorite businesses, clubs, groups or
associations.
· My
Reviews
Read, edit, update or
delete reviews that you have posted.
· My
Calendar
Create
a calendar to
display your special events, sales, etc.
· Edit
My User Profile
Change your email
address, password, etc.
· Post,
Edit or Delete a Classified
· Post,
Edit or Delete an Event
· Banner
Campaigns
A list of your banner
campaigns with statistical information. (Telli banners must by
created and placed on Telli Marin through a local Telli
Advertising Consultant.)
· Account
Profile
· Notification
Settings
· Edit
My TelliPage
Create, modify or update your
TelliPage.
· Edit
My Listing
Change your listing
name, address, hours of business, phone numbers, tag line, add a
listing
icon, add a website link, confidential email contact
link and more.
· Edit
My Categories
Add
categories
where you want your listing to appear or delete
categories.
· Post
an Alert
Post an alert to
viewers who have saved your listing as a
Favorite.
· Post, Edit or Delete a Coupon
· Viewer
Statistics
Track the visits to
your listing and clicks on your website link.
· Related
Listings
Link your
TelliPage
to other business
listings on Telli (e.g. An attorney with a major
law firm
can have his or her own listing and link it to the listing for
the law firm so he or she shows up on the law firm's
TelliPage.)
· TelliPage
Links
Place a link your
website that sends
people to your
TelliPage (so you can keep your website up to date through your
TelliPage without having to pay web design fees. Also place links
on your website to your Telli Events Calendar.)
· Set up your own TelliPage Internet
Address: e.g.
www.telli.com/name of business
Third, we
have learned over the years that potential subscribers need help
to promote themselves. Most are not marketing people with
experience in advertising. That is why so few small businesses
have websites; they just don't know what to say about themselves.
Telli Advertising Consultants (Licensees) in the area will help
these small businesses overcome their problems and assist them in
creating effective advertising campaigns through face to face
consultation.
Fourth,
the Telli Administrator is not
just a design tool. It is a "management tool" that allows
licensees to update their Telli Information Centers and modify
them to support the uniqueness of each community. In addition,
Licensees use the Telli Administrator to establish electronic
billing systems, establish accounts with variable billing plans
and manage electronic payments. To see the main menu page of the
Telli Administrator program, see below or page 17 in the Guinness
Telli*Phone Business Plan.
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