Published: Tuesday, 29th September, 2009 6:00pm

Former Yell men create 'YouTube for business'

by Alan Bunce

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WITH job losses looming at Yell earlier this year, two project managers took voluntary redundancy to start their own directory.

But rather than try to compete with their giant former employer they used their redundancy to launch a free online service which allows businesses not just text, an image and a map but also an email link and even a video.

Paul Holland, 42, from Caversham and Adam Purrier, 32, who lives in Leamington, set up Wampit, a search engine for finding local services.

They believe their site, combining social media with a business directory, offers the most 'rich content' on the internet that is free for businesses. 'YouTube for business' is how they describe it.

Paul said: "We felt there was a gap in the search engine market.

"There is always a lot of interest in Facebook and MySpace and we thought this was a good opportunity to potentially shake things up and take that ethos into the business market by offering businesses some very good profile. And this seemed a good time to do it."

Revenue comes from businesses who want additional features such as extra images, weblinks and the ability to add documents such as menus.

All the extras are less than £20 a year. Paul said their aim was to give businesses what they need in recession. More than 2,000 have registered and a search engine optimisation expert has been recruited to drive more traffic.

Despite seven day weeks, Paul said the hardest task he has is convincing people they can get such a lot for free with no catch.

"Getting that message out is the biggest challenge. People are always sceptical."

Link www.wampit.co.uk