Help me remove the hidden OG's / Wire Services?

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Here ya go! In under 10 min...found one.

Got one for you...
Listed under Montgomeryville, PA
A All American Florist
121 Commerce Dr, Montgomeryville, PA

NOPE...called them (never heard of them, and commerce dr. is located in an industrial park...) This OG is in NJ!!!

- H.
 
Few more...

Lansdale, PA - Scentimental Flowers (a big OG)
Philly, PA - Trolly Stop Florist - a bucket shop - no delivery
Quakertown, PA - A All American Florist (og)

ADD:: MY SHOP!
Philadelphia, PA
Rothe Florists
7148 Germantown Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19119
215-247-0832

- Herb
 
There are two florists in our city. Us and the one you have listed in your directory. The one listed also has a joke of a wholesale co. in the back of his store (you can see the two very close addresses) and he sells "seconds" to street corner vendors. No REAL florists buy from him.

We're the only REAL florist in our city and have all the municipal and school accounts. You don't have us listed there though. If you post your email address I will email you our info. Thanks!

Who sees this directory actually?
 
Maine listings

In Bangor you have Fredericks Florist. It should actually be Bangor Floral (on Center St.)
In Houlton, you have missed Chadwick Florist & Greenhouse, 23 Spring St. Houlton ME 04730 207-532-3520
In East Millinocket, you have Katahdin Krafts (I call it Krap) but they are not located in East Mill, they are in Dolby (unorganized territory).
You do have me!!
For Bar Harbor (or Southwest Harbor) you're missing Westside Floral in SW Harbor, she delivers all over the island and is a Maine Master Florist Designer (Gail Royal) I have her full address and phone number at my shop.
You're missing Island Falls which has Briar Patch that you have listed in Patten.
There is one shop in Auburn which is closing this week, Always Blooming will no longer be serving Auburn.
If you wish a better listing for Maine (although you have quite a few) check out www.msfga.net for a listing of members of Maine State Florists and Growers Assn. There are some greenhouse and growers members listed there if you wish a clarification, email me or pm me here and I can get you more info. (I'm the Treasurer for MSFGA)
 
Cambridge, MA

There is no Cambridge florist at 00 ware st
Fleurish flowers at 39 porter St is a residential address
floral event 2 cambridge park dr and Kelly greens 5 cambridge park dr doesn't exist. Petai Fresh Flowers 1344 is not a retail florist.

My shop is missing Central Square Florist, Inc.
653 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-354-7553
 
Lady Biker Florist said:
There are two florists in our city. Us and the one you have listed in your directory. The one listed also has a joke of a wholesale co. in the back of his store (you can see the two very close addresses) and he sells "seconds" to street corner vendors. No REAL florists buy from him.

We're the only REAL florist in our city and have all the municipal and school accounts. You don't have us listed there though. If you post your email address I will email you our info. Thanks!

Who sees this directory actually?
Click to expand...

I removed the wholesale listing. Feel free to submit your info at any time, we are working on a form but email is fine for now. [email protected]

As for who sees this directory, hopefully people that want to buy flowers from out of town or need a quick listing of phone numbers in their city. While this site is new Both I and the others involved have years of online advertising experience. We will be starting some advertising campaigns soon as well as aggressively targetting the search engines. We have a few more things planned that we will get to soon.

Thank you.
 
Michigan
Centerline not Center Line
Discount Crafts and Florals is a huge discount craft store with some loose silk flowers, not a florist in any way

Gaylord has lots more florists, my sister lives there and I send her flowers and there's lots more than just one.

Madison Heights
Flower Factory has not been there for over two years, it's a place that sells Art and Furniture called Wildman

I see you also list wholesalers, not sure why if this is for the public to send flowers.
Mount Clemens
North Gratiot Floral Supply - strictly wholesale

Detroit & West Bloomfield
Wesley-Berry is a real florist, but they take order gathering to the level of deceit and do not deserve to be listed amoung REAlLflorists IMHO

Moore's Greens is company that sells only greenery to florists.

Royal Oak
There is no such place as Royal Oak Florist, there URL is addison something not even in Michigan

Waterford
You do not have Carmarly's listed and that's the only florist in Waterford we will use. They're great!

Warren
Jerry's closed their doors last early fall. They were only a couple miles away, already had their girls come looking for a job here.

Nordlie's is strictly wholesale, my husband use to work there.

Troy
I doubt if Marimax Business Solutions is a florist, oopsy.

Upon searching through the 15 or so cities right around me I found many, many names I never heard of or saw. I think there are a lot of order gatherers camouflaging as florists there. If you are serious about this I think some serious research needs to be done. Coming here was a good first effort. Assuming it was first anyway. Good Luck!

I'll just give you our info now.

The Daisy Petal Florist
24831 John R Rd.
Hazel Park, MI 48030
248-546-4288
800-793-9833
 
Yes there are probably many OG's in the mix. The reason for this is the places that provide the information aren't interested in what type of business they have info for, just that they serve the areas listed. If you can believe it we've already scrubbed thousands of names off the list and get more everyday, it's an ongoing process that isn't 100% foolproof. (Some OG's claim to be actual local florists even on the phone).

It wouldn't even be an issue if the phone companies and independant phone book publishers made advertisers list their actual address instead of allowing them to make something up wherever they want. I can only imagine how someone running a flower shop feels about it. :(
 
Just read previous and past threads concerning OG and "False Yellow Page Listings" you will understand very quickly. Phone companies are in the biz to make $$?? Geez......who cares what is truth or fiction as long as their check clears.
 
Hi -

I appreciate your interest in marketing florists but am more interested in your intent to use these florist listings as a profit center. How do you intend to monetize this site? Will the florists themselves ever be shown as clickable links? If so, how much per florist?

Having taken a look at the listings in a few towns, it appears that you've purchased off-the-shelf data and have now (thankfully) realize it's less than optimal. Some of the cities I viewed were decent and some were spam-filled messes. The information looks like it mostly came from Verizon, superpages.com and/or another Yellow Page marketer.

Unfortunately, there are far too many companies presenting themselves as valuable resources to find real florists that have turned themselves into affiliate link doorways, Made-for-AdSense spam or pages that hold real florists hostages for their own names.

Sorry to sound like a skeptic. Maybe your company is different but there are only a couple of florist directories that have held true to their original mission. The rest have had so much mission creep that they're now scourges to the very companies they list.

Before I give you my list of corrections, I'm interested to hear your business plan with this data.
 
CHR said:
Hi -

I appreciate your interest in marketing florists but am more interested in your intent to use these florist listings as a profit center. How do you intend to monetize this site? Will the florists themselves ever be shown as clickable links? If so, how much per florist?

Having taken a look at the listings in a few towns, it appears that you've purchased off-the-shelf data and have now (thankfully) realize it's less than optimal. Some of the cities I viewed were decent and some were spam-filled messes. The information looks like it mostly came from Verizon, superpages.com and/or another Yellow Page marketer.

Unfortunately, there are far too many companies presenting themselves as valuable resources to find real florists that have turned themselves into affiliate link doorways, Made-for-AdSense spam or pages that hold real florists hostages for their own names.

Sorry to sound like a skeptic. Maybe your company is different but there are only a couple of florist directories that have held true to their original mission. The rest have had so much mission creep that they're now scourges to the very companies they list.

Before I give you my list of corrections, I'm interested to hear your business plan with this data.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the questions.

First of all, yes we will be offering upgraded ads for florists. Pricing for this has yet to be determined (site is new). Upgrades will include clickable links as well as other information.

We will not put adwords or other PPC ads on this site. Absolutely zero advertising from national OG's, drop ship flowers etc. While we have nothing against PPC (although I can see why you'd have a problem with someone targetting your store names then running adwords) it is not part of the business model of this site. We are planning to tie in other services such as website development, hosting, etc. with the directory. From our research we feel we can offer these services for much lower than the industry standard.

We did not optimize our pages to take over search engine postions for store names. Because many, if not most florists use template based sites with very little work in the seo department we may very well show up above some of them for their direct searches. This is not intended but simply can't be avoided. We would definately never use this to hold them hostage (their info is their for free) and if anyone wants to be removed I would be more than happy to take them out completely as well as give them some pointers on getting their own website to the top for direct searches of their shop name etc.

I apologize for being so longwinded but you asked some great questions. I do know the benefits of adwords type advertising and use it on various other sites. Our business model however is to offer services at very competitive rates and keep customers and even non customers happy for years to come.

In closing I must say from our research that the florist business is pretty unique. The whole system is pretty odd with OG's etc. While we've worked for years with other industries that use similar systems at the end of the day both the business offering a service and the affiliated marketers went to bed happy. Not so sure this always holds true with florists.

Thanks again and PLMK if you have any other concerns.
 
For our zip, 29673, you have listed Piedmont Floral Supply, a wholesaler who has gone out of business, and Interiors and Then Some which is not a florist.
 
My city (midland MI) is clean.....thank you.....

I see you have an RSS feed for the site....plans??

You may want to check www.floristdetective.com for loads of information on many of the deceptive folks parading around the internet...

If you are interested, we (floristdetective) would be more than happy if you were to link to our site, and we would provide our stylish logo for you to use. We'll keep and eye on your effort, and should it be in the florists and consumers best interest, we will add you to our site as well, once you *flesh out* your effort....

Have a great day....
 
BOSS said:
My city (midland MI) is clean.....thank you.....

I see you have an RSS feed for the site....plans??

You may want to check www.floristdetective.com for loads of information on many of the deceptive folks parading around the internet...

If you are interested, we (floristdetective) would be more than happy if you were to link to our site, and we would provide our stylish logo for you to use. We'll keep and eye on your effort, and should it be in the florists and consumers best interest, we will add you to our site as well, once you *flesh out* your effort....

Have a great day....
Click to expand...

Hey BOSS, your florist detective site came up in many many searches when I was checking into how things work. Well done. I'll definately link to you and thanks for a great service. :)

Oh, and the RSS feed. We actually have one for each state as well as the main url and one for updates. While this was a ton of work it allows us more flexibility when optimizing for search engines.
 
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