InsiderPages.com Offers Neighborly Advice

WE TEND TO TRUST PEOPLE who are like us. InsiderPages.com is taking advantage of that fact by overlaying a local directory function on top of a social network, giving members the chance to push their recommendations for a dentist or a drywall company out to friends and neighbors in their area. And now InsiderPages is giving those businesses a chance to capitalize on their recommendations with a pay-per-call sponsored link.

CEO Stuart MacFarlane says InsiderPages had its genesis in 2003 when he bought a home and walked around his new neighborhood, meeting neighbors and getting recommendations for builders. “I thought, ‘Wouldn't it be great if there was a single directory where I could get personal recommendations like this not only on contractors but dentists and dog walkers?’” he says.

Users can join Pasadena CA-based InsiderPages and invite others to do the same. After that, when they search for a business, the reviews posted by their social network of friends will appear at the top of the results. Non-members can view the directory and the reviews, but can't post their own ratings or invite their friends into the network.

Local businesses can opt to appear in the “Featured Business” section of the search results page for their region and category. In that position, they get a unique toll-free number (provided by a pay-per-call platform from VoiceStar) that tracks calls from InsiderPages members, and pay only for the calls they receive. The amount paid depends on their category; higher-ticket services such as financial planners will pay more to advertise than hair stylists. But to promote membership, new advertisers get their first five phone leads free.

While the company encourages all reviews, the overwhelming majority are positive. “People tend to be more comfortable saying positive things,” MacFarlane says. Reviews are checked for authenticity both by a proprietary algorithm in house and by community policing. If a review is seriously challenged as fraudulent, InsiderPages pursues the issue with the original poster, always maintaining his or her anonymity.

The company doesn't publish membership numbers, but MacFarlane says they're in “the multiple ten thousands” and growing rapidly. What it does publish is the number of business reviews on the site: 250,000 and counting, up from 100,000 in June.

“That's a big part of the incentive to write these reviews — because you're creating content and recommendations for people you know rather than someone anonymous who might just be browsing the Yellow Pages,” MacFarlane says.