While there are many people who are quite willing to announce the death of the Yellow Pages, it hasn’t quite happened yet. Although, the monopoly print yellow pages had over local businesses has been broken by the advent and increasing use of tools like Local Search.

One of the biggest reasons the yellow pages are still alive and well is that there are lots of audiences that the Internet still doesn’t reach effectively. Demographics that include things such as age, income and geographical area affect Internet usage and will likely continues to do so far into the future.

Additionally, the tools that are available for local search aren’t quite perfect yet. Many of the online resources are trusted like the Yellow Pages are. And many consumers don’t believe they are as comprehensive as the print edition is known to be.

Beyond that there are plenty of small towns in America with small businesses that simply don’t have an Internet presence. While this may seem crazy to urban livers, the only way to find a local plumber in one of these places is word of mouth or the local Yellow Pages. Often times these businesses may not even have a basic web site or email address.

Another situation where the Yellow Pages trump the Internet is vacation. Many people unplug while they are out of town. Not to mention those that don’t have laptops and are still using only a desk top. However, the Yellow Pages can be found in any hotel around the United States when someone is looking for a local restaurant or business.

Beyond that, many people find it hard to browse pages and pages of restaurants rather than alphabetically finding what they are looking for. While the technology is certainly starting to come around, it’ll still be some time before the Yellow Pages draw its last breath.

A long story, but it can be told quickly. My good old buddy, Troy Lerner, has two small problems as he starts out his week.

1. He has started his blog and since he is not posting frequently, he isn’t getting indexed by Google. Since he runs a very respectable interactive agency in Denver, he is not at all proud of this fact and is going to fix this very, very soon! In fact, his wife started blogging just a week or so ago and is already indexed and receiving traffic. This leads me to his second problem.

2. Troy found a great deal on a pair of running shoes and being the avid runner that he is….he decided to buy 4 pairs. His wife was not really that happy about the decision and tonight Troy asked me to take a look at his Google Base page for 3 pairs of trail running shoes. Luckily, he gets to keep one pair.

I recommended that he throw out a quick PPC campaign jokingly and he said he was setting it up. Inspired by his motivation to solve the problem, actually to survive the wrath of his wife for too many day…I decide to see if I could help him out with a little SEO. So, Troy..here’s your link to support both of your problems ->GoLite Sun Dragon Shoes

My son and I headed down to the Rockies final regular season game with the Rockies needing a win combined with a San Diego lose to create a tie for the National League Wildcard game.

The San Diego Padres were playing the Brewers in Milwaukee and the game started an hour earlier. Before the Rockies even made the first pitch, the Padres were up 3-0. By the bottom of the second inning though, the Brewers went ahead 5-4 and never looked back.

The Rockies staring pitcher Ublado Jiminez pitched 5 scoreless innings before walking two batter in the Sixth. The Rockies reliever were a little shaky but got the job done. The 8th inning at Coors filed was awesome with a 3 run rally as the batting order went the heart of the lineup..Tulo, Holiday, Helton, Atkins, Hawpe, and company were up 4-1 and turned it over to Manny Corpas for the win.

Basically, the game was awesome and we won’t soon forget it. Go ROCKIES! Holliday for MVP.

It’s that time of year…football season. College football in Colorado kicks off this weekend with University of Colorado vs Colorado State at 10:00 am. The NFL season is wrapping up preseason which means Fantasy Football drafts are being held in sports bars across the country.

Tonight was my fantasy draft, I only participate in one league and this is my 4th year. So far, I have made the playoffs each year never advancing beyond the semi-finals. Our league does not play a tight end and allows 3 running backs….so RB’s are taken early and often. I took RB in 4 out of the first 5 rounds selecting Willie Parker, Edgerrin James, and Ahman Green in the first 3 rounds from the 7th position.

I almost landed Steve Smith in the third round but settled for a 3rd running back. I could have selected Terrel Owens, Reggie Wayne, or another Top 10 receiver, but I opted for Green and selected Lee Evans in round 4 before picking up a 4th running back in the 5th round with Deshaun Foster. In round 6, I picked the top receiver available before selected back-to-back QB in round 7 and 8 with Phillip Rivers and Jon Kitna.

QB is the highest scoring position and I will rotate the QB to play either the hottest hand or the weakest passing defense. This strategy has worked very well in previously years and I hope to play it to my advantage again. I selected the San Diego DEF and Shayne Graham in round 9 and 10 to round out my starting team. For the rest of the selections, I focused on picking undervalued receivers in Greg Jennings, Ronald Curry, Troy Williamson, and Micheal Jenkins as well as picking up my 4th rated DEF in round 12 to round out the team.

So, here’s the team I hope to take to the playoffs for the 5th straight year:

QB - Phillip Rivers 07.07
QB - Jon Kitna 08.06
RB - Willie Parker 01.07
RB - Edgerrin James 02.09
RB - Ahman Green 03.07
RB - Deshaun Foster 05.07
WR - Lee Evans 04.06
WR - Santana Moss 06.06
WR - Greg Jennings 11.07
WR - Ronald Curry 13.07
WR - Micheal Jenkins 14.06
WR - Troy Williamson 15.07
PK - Shayne Graham 10.06
DEF- San Diego Chargers 09.07
DEF- Miami Dolphins 12.06

My son, Tyler Aikens, and I went to the Denver Broncos training camp this morning with some other friends. There was a record crowd of over 3,000 fans, but the Broncos did a good job handling the crowd. Jay Cutler threw two picks in the short field morning scrimmage. We got to watch the DLine up close and I was impressed by the speed of Jarvis Moss, I also thought Kenard Lang looked good.

We also got to see Travis Henry and Mike Bell running the ball. Travis seemed pretty quick on his cuts, but of course the drills were not at game speed. Still, it was a fun time. If you are going out to Dove Valley, the practice fields open at 8:30, but I think showing up and 9:30 or 10:00 and finding a good spot is the best plan. If you are looking for an autograph, you have to be one of the first 50 in line by the Broncos Team Store…the line wraps done the alley near the portable restrooms.