Guinness Telli*Phone (fka TELI)

[Buzzie]

TELLI DEVELOPMENT: Questions & Answers

What is TELLI?

A developer of "Multi-Dimensional" search engines and "Micro-Category" Internet Advertising Platforms.
What products does Telli produce?

Online "Local Information Center" platforms maintained on Telli Servers and accessed through personal computers and mobile devices.

Simple-to-use online development and advertising tools for people to place information in a Telli Information Center.

Administrative and design tools for managers of Telli Information Centers to modify their Centers to satisfy the unique requirements of their areas.

Why would people use Telli's Local Information Centers?

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.)

How does Telli manage its Local Information Centers?

Telli Information Centers initially are set up by Telli's Editorial Team for specific communities and then licensed to qualified managers with marketing experience who live in the areas to manage through their personal computers using Telli's Administrative software and Design Tools.

How does Telli make money?

Local organizations purchase affordable subscriptions to Telli's target advertising platform to create colorful TelliPages of information associated with their listings to promote themselves on the Internet and highlight themselves in their communities.

How do Licensees of Telli Information Centers make money?

Licensees generate income from royalties on advertising revenues generated through Telli's automated electronic Advertising Subscription Payment System as well as from fees for providing professional advertising and design assistance to local advertisers.

How do Telli Advertisers evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising on Telli's Promotional Platform?

Telli allows its advertising subscribers to display their daily and monthly viewer statistics to show the number of people who viewed their information.
What information does Telli make available to the public?

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.
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.

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.

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.

People working under the umbrella of larger organizations.

(e.g. Hairdressers in Hair Salons, Attorneys in Law Firms, Doctors in Medical Centers, Real Estate and Insurance Agents, etc.)
What is Telli's marketplace?

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.

Who needs Telli?

Local organizations wanting to be found by people searching the Internet for local products and services.

Local advertisers unable to afford predominant Internet exposure through the major search engines.

Local advertisers unable to afford the expense of creating and maintaining websites.

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.)

Major companies wanting to create unique advertising campaigns tailored for individual communities.

Major retail chains wanting to create unique ads and offer different specials for each of their stores.

Local advertisers, groups and associations wanting to increase traffic to their websites.

What kind of exposure does Telli offer its advertisers that they can't get elsewhere?

Predominant exposure on the major search engines.
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.)

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.)


What places Telli in a position to be a leader in the local search and advertising industry?

A 2006 Local Search Advertising report from research firm Borrell Associates reported that "a local search company established like a large TV network with multiple local affiliates could readily establish a strong foothold in individual communities than nationwide players. Google doesn't have that," commented Borrell. "Local media and search firms that work from a truly local level would relegate everybody else to mere content providers."
Most sites don't participate in the community they enable, reports Marchex in its 2008 Local Online Advertising Report. "Local sites need to understand the customers' needs. Participation (in the community) is what makes the most popular portals successful."

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:

download AT&T listing for Marin County into Telli Marin.
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:

enter their own information in Telli Marin
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.

How much is invested in the development of Telli?

Over $25 million has been documented in Telli's audited statements.
What significant results has Telli obtained through its research and development?

People living in the community rave about Telli for the following reasons.
The information is comprehensive and always up-to-date.
The Telli Home page gives them a complete overview of Marin's products, services and local events.
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.
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.

70% to 80% of people will not enter their own information in Telli Marin without assistance, for the following reasons.

The majority of people are challenged by computer technology and not experienced enough with computers to feel confident to create information on the Internet.
They don't know what to say about themselves, or how to say it.
Most existing Telli subscribers…
learned about Telli Marin's impact on local advertising while searching Google for local information. (Google copies Telli listings for display on its site.)
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.
Once becoming Telli paid advertising subscribers, 98% never cancel their paid subscriptions.

50% of all Telli paid advertising subscribers begin with a month to month subscription ($9.95 per month) and then move into an annual subscription ($99) within six to nine months.

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 ($200 - a website page purchased through a web designer can cost a minimum of $500 for one single page).

What sincere, qualified people contacted Telli, unsolicited, to obtain a license to operate a Telli Information Center in their area?

Minneapolis, MN (individual)
Wichita, KS (individual)
Long Island, NY (individual)
Farfax County, VA (group)
State of Texas (investment group)
Los Angeles, CA (newspaper syndicate)
Santa Clara County, CA (group)
Napa County, CA (individual)
Contra Costa County, CA (individual)
Sacramento County, CA (individual)
Vancouver, BC Canada (investment group)
Latino Information Centers throughout the United States (group)
Germany (individual)
Why is Telli raising new capital at this time?

To begin offering personalized customer service for Telli Marin by setting up commission sales consultants to sell Telli advertising subscriptions and assist advertisers with TelliPage designs to substantially increase revenues immediately to show Telli Marin as a profitable model. (Base Salaries: $3,000 per month x 3 sales people x 6 months = $54,000)
Establish and train a team of listing editors to begin setting up Telli Local Information Centers in counties adjoining Marin beginning with...

Sonoma County (2 months, 8 editors @ $4,000/mo. each = $64,000
Napa County (1 month, 8 editors @ $4,000/mo. each = $32,000
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)

Complete the licensing of one Telli Information Center for a trade group to operate a Center for their members. (Administrative and Marketing = $40,000)

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)
What does Telli hope to achieve with this new capital?

The above will provide benchmarks and positive statistics for the successful growth of Telli through various methods of licensing and build significant value for its shares.
Within 6 months Guinness expects to announce significant and ongoing progress and stand out as a leader in the field of "local search and advertising" to accelerate its progress in establishing Telli Information Centers in other areas around the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout North America.

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.

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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

This page was last updated on December 2nd, 2009/b]