Online Yellow Pages Service Partners with Newspapers

By: Heidi Kulicke

Do you need a leaky faucet fixed? Want to hire someone for yard maintenance? Looking for an affordable attorney? WhoCanHelp.com serves as a go-to site for customers with service needs. Local businesses can reach the online demographic by bidding on a project. If the customer likes the bid, then the two are in business. The site wants to partner with newspapers to get the word out - providing a revenue opportunity for papers that have been historically challengedwhen attempting to penetrate the yellow pages market space, according to Scott Lester of WhoCanHelp.com.

Lester, who has worked in reporting and advertising for newspapers, said customers have four questions that must be answered when they have a service need: who can do it, when can it be done, how much will it cost, and most importantly, is the service provider reputable. Traditionally, customers had a static printed list or basic online platform to work with, such as the yellow pages, Google, or Craigslist. "With the exception of some sites that offer reviews, customers are forced to do the work to get all four questions answered in order to make a buying decision," Lester said.

There are other online services such as RedBeacon, MiNeeds, and Thumbtack that offer similar propositions to WhoCanHelp.

The difference is those sites have a pay-to-play business model in which service providers must pay a percentage of every project to the company, pay for a certain amount of leads each month, or charge consumers to view rating information. "The pay-to-play model is the obvious way to monetize but may also offer up some barriers to adoption when buyers and sellers refuse to pay to use the site," Lester said.

WhoCanHelp.com was started in Missoula, Mont., and has a unique business model that allows buyers and sellers to interact and transact for free, like Craigslist. The company claims to be the platform that will truly disrupt the yellow pages market space.

The site's public launch was in May 2010, and it has seen healthy growth in its user base - 21 percent per month. Users see an average of 2.5 offers per post.

In November 2010 the company began selling display advertising in its home market. In four months' time, $20,000 in new display advertising has been sold with the average ticket price of $1,267 per contract. Many of the advertisers were shifting their budget from yellow pages and had heard about and used WhoCanHelp.com.

"We've had most of our success with traditional yellow pages advertisers like attorneys and auto repair shops," Lester said. Although the company's initial market strategy was to partner with chambers of commerce, media partnerships appear to be more viable in the long term, Lester said.

WhoCanHelp.com has contracted with Hagadone Newspaper Group in Northwest Montana. Under the agreement, the newspapers advertise WhoCanHelp.com in the classifieds section to gain critical mass. Once the marketplace is up and running, the newspaper advertising team sells the advertising. "The newspaper keeps the majority of revenue, while WhoCanHelp.com gets a minority piece," Lester said.

WhoCanHelp.com has signed agreements with two daily newspapers in Washington state and continues to expand its efforts with other media outlets. "The company offers newspapers a lifetime exclusive to sell advertising in their market, ensuring ownership of something their competition can never have," Lester added.

As many media companies discovered with Groupon and similar discount programs, waiting too long may mean paying a premium to get on board or missing the boat altogether, Lester said. WhoCanHelp.com has tried to combat uncertainty by offering a generous revenue share for its early partners. The company doesn't yet know how many partners it will need but has already had traffic from all 50 states and guesses it may only need a few dozen partners nationwide.

"At the end of the day, WhoCanHelp.com needs adoption in new markets, while newspapers need a way into the yellow pages market space," Lester said.