We love Testimonial Links

If you’ve looked at almost anything on our website, TollFreeNumbers.com you’ve probably already seen some of our thousand plus customer testimonials. We really appreciate them more than we probably would in a big company, because they are from our work, not someone else in the company. Anyway, because of recent announcement and policy changes at Google we were recently told that we really had to change the links in our testimonials.

Our goal in everything we do is to maximize the benefit to the customer and that was part of our thinking with the testimonials too. But Google has made several announcements regarding paid links and link farms etc. Some experts also told us that although we’ve had the best intentions, these testimonials will appear to the Google bots like a link farm or at least will cause some decrease in our credibility if we’re linking to customer websites that aren’t related to ours at all and/or are of a low quality or in a bad neighborhood. Linking to anyone who pays you for a link without any disclosure is frowned on by the Search Engine gods and possibly even the FCC in some circumstances.

The solution was to add NO FOLLOW tags to the links. The link is still visible and still provides many of the benefits, for many of the search engines. See Joe Whyte’s article about No Follow tags and their effect on search engines: http://www.searchmarketingstandard.com/blog/2007/05/do-nofollow-tags-really-pass-link-love.html

Heres what Joe Whyte at Search Marketing Standard says in summarizing nofollow tags:

1. They are good for getting a site crawled
2. They are good for helping a overall inbound links
3. They assist in search saturation
4. They can help pass relevancy
5. They are stupid and I hate them
6. They give people a sense of security which really is not there
7. Not many people use these correctly
8. I think if it would be up to us to help determine link value, someone should start a conference about it
9. I don’t think you can rank for competitive terms with just nofollow links
10. I think search engines pay attention to nofollows, to what degree is unsure

We never promoted the testimonial links as anything other than what they are and are supposed to be. We don’t want anyone to write a testimonial just because of the link. We don’t write them or tell them what to say at all. We only want people to write what they honestly feel and would say to someone else about us. It’s still beneficial to our customer’s sites, but the No Follow tags protect us from looking like some type of link farm and keeps the system honest and safer for us to do.

New Disconnected 800 numbers list

When a phone company goes under what happens to their numbers?

They are taken over by the people who manage the database and can be transferred away to another carrier. After a little while they go into disconect. If you want a number review the list. If you see a number that you think was one of yours at any point contact us and we'll help you get it.

Here's the list. It has about 8,100 numbers, most of which are '800!'
http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/800list-5-30-07.pdf
You can't just activate these as regular activations, but we can help you get these if you really want one and think it was one of your numbers at one time.

Fake it till you make it

When you start a new business you always have to “fake it, till you make it.” In other words you need to look like a successful ongoing business, even if you don’t have any real customers yet. But most startups are more than a little short on cash too which makes it hard to look like a successful ongoing business.

Getting a good toll free number is one of the first and best things you can do in starting a new business, but it’s not one of the last things you do when you’re starting something new, it’s one of the first things you should think about. That’s because having a good toll free number is one of the easiest ways to look (and sound) successful for next to nothing.

With a toll free number you’re basically just paying the cost of the incoming calls each month. Most services have a tiny monthly fee, of just a couple bucks a month plus you’ll pay a few cents per minute for a couple phone calls which cost you almost nothing. Don’t you wish your rent was based on how much business you did that month?! It’s not, it’s a large fixed monthly fee so you don’t want to get that way ahead of time. Your toll free number will cost you almost nothing to have and will make you sound more like a business than anything else.

One more tip is that you can set up a toll free number going to your existing local number. You don’t need to get a separate local number right away, because you don’t have many incoming call. When you use a toll free number you have much more control over the ring to number so you can start with it pointing to your current local number and when you are ready to launch more and start to get more calls then you can change the ring to number to a separate business line. Not having to get a separate business line for a few months will probably save you more than the cost of the toll free number, so having a toll free number will not only give you more control and make you look more professional but it will actually SAVE you money too. How’s that for a deal!!

We’re here to help but also to empower YOU

If you email use asking if a number is available, we may answer you, but we’ll usually just refer you back to the lookup tools on our site. We're not doing that because we're lazy or trying to be short with you, but simply because once you realize how amazingly simple it is to use, you’ll be able to do dozens of queries in less time than it takes us to do one for you with the same tools you have available right over the web. We do this because we really do want to be helpful. We’re not trying to brush you off, we’re really just trying to help you not only get the answer to that question but your next questions too.

We also have to work efficiently, often long hours, just to keep up with the volume of inquiries we get. We are here to help you, but it’s really not helping anyone to make you dependent on us. We’ve made the very best tools available to you right over the net, to empower you. That’s what the web is supposed to be about, putting the power at your finger tips 24 hours a day. So try the tools yourself. If you have a question about what something means or need something you can’t find on the web, we’ll be happy to answer you. That’s because unlike other web services, there are real people here that know this business, available to help you. But please respect our time enough not to ask us to do something you can do quicker and easier yourself.

Some companies steal your numbers...

Why is it important to get your number from an independent company like ours? Quite frankly, it’s scary what some small companies think they can get away with. Here’s a quote from a representative at Telecenter Voicemail, an enhanced voicemail service.

COA Network owns of all of it's numbers. We do not let numbers go and any number that is transferred to be on our service becomes the property of COA Network and will remain so even after the subscriber cancels.

If that’s not stealing, I don’t know what is. That was their policy about a year ago. When questioned about it, they refused to budge. Now a year later, they say they’ve changed their policy. Then the president said that wasn’t their policy.

I asked him if he was a democratic politician because they’re the only ones I know that can defend a policy one day and then a year later, say that was never their position.

I could go on about how horrendous this is, but I think it stands pretty much on it’s own and is obvious. This is why you should always get your number from an independent source and then transfer your number over to the service you want it with. That way you’ll be guaranteed to be able to transfer it away, no matter what their policy changes to next year. And if anyone ever has a problem with the ownership of any number I’ve gotten them, I will personally defend my customers. You still have an obligation to pay for the service you’ve received, but outside of that nobody will be able to steal any number we get for you away like this.

No Whois Lookup for 800 #s

People often come to our site trying to track down the owner of a number, but unfortunately there isn’t any whois lookup to see the owner a toll free number. We have the phone company information for most numbers but they are the only ones that have the customer information.

You can subscribe to our advanced lookup and get the phone company information. That doesn’t guarantee you’re going to be able to get the customer information from the phone company. In fact there’s a very good chance you WON’T be able to get the customer information from the phone company, especially if you ask them for it.

That doesn’t mean you can’t get the phone company to slip and reveal some of that information. It’s not easy to do, but I generally find that the best way is to act like it’s your number. Call them up and ask why its not working. See if they will give you a little information in order to confirm it’s your account. Say yes and look up the city here they’re located and see if you can get that too. It may take several calls, and you need to write down the names of the people you talk to, but you can sometimes get the customer name and the city they’re in, which is usually all you need to track them down.

We only charge a one time fee of $8.95 to subscribe to our phone company lookup. After you order the secure 800 Lookup online you’ll get a receipt. It’ll give you an order ID. Go to the secure version by adding an S after http. Enter your order ID in the Username and leave the Password blank. That doesn’t give you the end user information but it does get you one step closer.

Don’t marry the first girl you meet

So many people fall into this trap in terms of phone numbers. They fall in love with the first number they think of and think that’s the best possible number for them or even the only possible number for their business.

Worse yet, they let themselves fall in love with that number without even checking to see if it’s available or possible to get. This is a formula for failure. I often ask callers if they decided what house they wanted to buy before checking to see if it was for sale. Another even stronger way to say it, might be to ask if they decided what woman they were going to marry before they ever talked to her. It’s not entirely impossible for that to work out, but it is extremely unlikely to say the least. And it’s not impossible for you to get the first number you think of but it is extremely unlikely to say the least as well.

While you’re in love with your first girlfriend it’s easy to think that this girl is the only one that can make you this happy and nobody else will seem as good. If that girl isn’t available, it’ll probably be painful, but eventually you’ll get over her, and you’ll find out that there are a lot more attractive girls (and options) than you realized while you were pursuing your first love.

If you’ve got an important decision, it’s always much easier to make if you have all of the options researched in front of you. Whether you’re buying a house, picking a job or even a mate, it’s much easier if you know what all of your options are. That’s why I usually recommend that you use our Keyword Lookup to help you come up with all of the options related to your concept. It’ll do hours and hours worth of research for you in a couple minutes. And even if you still think the first one you wanted is the best, it’s still smart to have some backup plans and know what other options there are for you.

It’s OK to start with your first choice. Just don’t get fixated on that to the point of ignoring all of the other possibilities.