Local.com has high hopes for beefed up sales team

In its latest financial statement, reflecting fourth-quarter and annually results, the Irvine, Calif.-based company said its gross from local hunt doubled from 2006 to 2007. It predicts another doubling of gross this year and announced it late made substantial additions to its directly sales attempt. Local.com now has 50 sales people, 40 more than it had a few weeks ago, said company chairman and CEO Heath Clark, in a statement.

He said he expects the company to "tax return to positive net income" before year's end.

Cameron Triebwasser, Local.com's manager of populace relations, said the company plans to add "several hundred" sales people to its outsourced sales centre this year. He would not disclose where they will be based, citing "competitive ground," but noted they, and the company's internal sales staffers, will focus on small concern advertisers.

"The goal is to sell our subscription ad merchandise in new and innovative ways through multiple transmission channel," said Triebwasser. He said those transmission channel will include ad agencies, business development deals and directly sales to owners of small businesses.

"We also mark national businesses that have a local presence," stressed Triebwasser.

While Local.com has a partnership agreement with IAC/InterActiveCorp's Citysearch online guide service, it is not a sales human relationship, said Triebwasser. He said Citysearch ratings and reappraisal appear on Local.com along with concern coupons and photograph.

In his Q4 statement, CEO Clark said Local.com's organic fertilizer traffic grew well during the past one-fourth. He also said page views per visitant increased, and he noted "monetisation is at an all-time high."

Revenue for the quarter of 2007 was $5.9 million, representing growth of 64 percent over the fourth quarter of 2006 and growth of 6 percent over Q3. Revenue for the year was $21.5 million, a 51 percent increase over 2006 revenue of $14.2 million. Nevertheless, Local.com sustained a net loss of $2.7 million for the quarter and $18.2 million for the year.

The company expects Q1 2008 revenue of between $8.1 million and $8.3 million. If Local.com makes half that amount, it will represent a 39 percent quarterly increase. But the company expects net loss for the first quarter to be between $2.8 and $3.0 million, a loss partially caused by the $300,000 cost of expanding the outsourced direct sales force.

According to the financial report, Local.com's revenue per thousand visitors was $197 million for the quarter, up 114 percent from Q4 of 2006 and up 17 percent from Q3 of 2007. Borrell Associates ranked Local.com as the leader in online ad growth for 2007, citing its 138 percent year-over-year increase.