Disappeared on Yelp?

I have had my curiosity piqued. Yesterday I got a call from someone at Yelp! for business, and was pitched this very comprehensive sounding (& quite pricey) advertising plan on Yelp!  Initially I understood it to be a plan with a 2 month minimum term.  

Turns out that's not the case, it's actually a 2 month cancellation fee, "like a cell phone plan", said the salesperson.  (make that Very Pricey) So sitting down to do a little research,  you immediately find all these Yelp! conspiracy theory kind of links... But,  ideally you'd like to find a real, live, local business that actually has one of these "enhanced" listings,  but so far in my casual perusal of Yelp!  I have not found one of these.  I did ask for referrals but got none. Perhaps I did not press enough.

Anyhow,  then I go in to take a look at my regular (as in free) listing, which currently gets an absurdly, measly one view a week.  (I know this from a weekly e-mail update I get from Yelp! business, but how do I know, really?  It is rather pitiful, for all the build-up Yelp! gets.) 

And LO, the reviews my business had are GONE! POOF! & DISAPPEARED, as if it was Argentina in the 1970's. Weird,Weird.

I am just really curious now, I would love to hear from any actual (especially NYC, local) businesses who have tried "enhanced" advertising on Yelp!  Seeing that my existing reviews have disappeared, does not bode well,  but BOY, do I wish I had a salesperson like the one from Yelp!

Update 1/14/10: Just got off the phone with Yelp!, and I was HUNG UP on when I pressed to find out why my reviews had disappeared and wanted a better explanation than "filters" to prevent spamming.  I am sorry,  a few reviews does not constitute spamming  (how come they weren't filtered immediately if this was the case? Why disappear months down the line?)  The excuse that the reviewers may not be "very active" reviewers does not hold water either,  since I ran across one review - indexed on Google - long, long  before I ever signed up for Yelp! business in March 2009.  Then too, if Yelp! is partial only to those users who post tons of reviews,  isn't that a bit skewed in and of itself?  It kinda becomes more of a popularity contest for the reviewers than a useful tool,  especially for smaller businesses.

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Disappeared on Yelp?

Work in Progress

If you are noticeing quirks & changes or any temporary oddness in the shop, site & blog it is because we are having work done!

(That covers the hallucination part of the tag - we will ignore the aberration part here!)

Thanks all for your patience while we are getting things tied together for an improved and enhanced experience here at Behrle NYC.

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Work in Progress

Ah Ha! The Mystery is solved...

Some times this whole blog thing has me so frustrated. I spent hours at one point figuring out how to get a little music playing here. One of my pet peeves about my main site is lack of music.
Which one day I hope to eventually address, along with updating the whole bunch of stuff. My Men's wear area is the orphan of the site, which is a shame as it's really the bulk of what I do these days.

Anyhow, the other day I got a Google Alert with a link to my videos on YouTube, so I go check it out , of course it is some silly, harvester site or whatever they are called, capitalizing on "sexy" and "models".. ho hum. But, wait! There is only Part 1 showing up.

So I go to you tube and look at my account and lo, NO Part 2! Some notice saying I'd been sent an e-mail (when? I never got it. I hear from YouTube like- never. Once I got a Peta Freek cussing me out in Spanish...but that's about it.)

Just a little note, that because some Jesus and Mary Chain was playing in the background (guitar noise and a couple of lytrics for maybe 7-13 seconds) the whole thing was ripped off of YouTube. I would have been perfectly fine if they'd removed the music altogether, even from the rest of the 6 minutes. But no, no option to remove background music, just a stupid (bad) music generator with ADVERTS!

Gimme a break! Live DJ- with a theme, no playlist, a few seconds, and they take the whole thing down?

Today first thing, front of the New York Times Business Section was the answer.

Eventually I will learn how to get that pesky video up in it's entirety, here on this blog somewhere, and WB can bite me. (and I am sure alot of other po'd people)

The only thing I ever watched on You Tube was vintage Music Videos (especially Roxy Music- STYLE- personified, the Best!) Now it sounds like a ton of that sort of stuff is gone. What's the point?

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Ah Ha! The Mystery is solved...

Store is Up!!!

The shop section of the site is finally up! What a process! But I am thrilled and excited that it is up and working. The shopping cart software is a huge learning curve for me and I expect it to be a long and ongoing. I want to thank the designers, Joe and Erin of Transfuture. They've been great and very patient through whatever came up. (Especially the 5-6 weeks that Miva was refusing to let us login consistently (or at all).

I am now looking for some help with the internet marketing, running the store, keeping on top of this blog, etc. etc, etc.
A part time webmaster? Good with all the web and internet marketing techniques, from adwords, to adding feeds and content to this blog, creating a MySpace page above and beyond what is sitting up there now, some SEO ability. Coding a must, Fashion Background a Super Plus. I will pay a good commission on any sales the internet generates, including any new Custom clientele. I would love to hear from anyone interested.

Store is Up!!!