Thanks everyone. For some reason, gardenweb didn't forward me these responses until nadiag's today - so I assumed I hadn't gotten any replies. I think nadiag is right about their services - they don't cold call, but optimize searches on google, yahoo and msn searches so that you come up. The zip code exclusivity means that they won't perform this service for other therapists in those zip codes. If I wanted to pay a ton of money, I could get them to only work with me in the entire DC area. That doesn't mean other companies and individuals aren't optimizing their own names to appear on top during web searches. Osbist and rivkadr - I am working on a website. In fact, that cold call from Virtro really catalyzed me. I've contacted 2 web designers and gotten proposals. I've written more than half my content and already know which pages I want. Yes, it is a simple site in terms of not doing e-commerce on the site. Rivkadr - here in DC, most therapists I know don't have websites, but perhaps 5-10% do - and in a city with tons of therapist, that's still a lot on line. But almost all their websites are amateurish and the content is lacking in integrity and honesty toward potential clients. I know these sites work for some of them, but I want one that's more honest and reflective of the therapy process - and less insulting to the viewer's intelligence. I'd also like visual appeal and sophisticated design. My concern with Virtro is that I'm not sure they're offering anything I couldn't do myself with paying for google adwords. I think that's all they're doing - but on 3 search engines instead of one. They claim to be superior about knowing which adwords are most effective. Nadiag- it sounds like they have truly performed that way for you. I'm not sure I could do as well for myself. If I do google adwords myself, in a big city, you pay for the search words and number of clicks to your site - it's much more costly bc. therapists bid against each other to pay the most for those search words. So my monthly costs could well be the same as Virtro's charges - $150-300/month - which isn't very different than the yellow page ad I've had (that used to work to bring a few patients a year, but is no longer effective). Nadiag - when you hire Virtro, does your fee to them cover the cost for all those search words - or do you also have to pay google, yahoo, and msn for each keyword you've selected? I think that Virtro - just like google adwords - is much more expensive in a more concentrated, urban market. I'm so glad you stumbled on this thread and responded. I had thought I"d pass on Virtro - but since you've had success, I may recontact them and see if their cost includes all charges by the search engines to use those keywords. Thanks. Still happy to hear any other opinions. Lynn. PS - I can tell that I've already learned a fair bit since I posted 2 weeks ago.

Thomasville is not what it used to be. Many manufacturers go through this during their lifetime. I come from a furniture family. Early in our marriage, I purchased a Tville maple split pedestal DR table, Windsor chairs and a china cabinet. It's in my parents lower level now. Could not be made better, but that was 26 years ago. Excellent customer service from store purchased (no longer in business). I helped my sister pick out a couple of Tvill pieces a few years ago for her new house. Tville store opened in our area, so purchased there. Customer service was okay. No problem with furniture. DD2 recently bought a new home and we went to Tville looking for new sofa/chair. Left empty handed. I wasn't impressed w/quality or customer service. Not saying everything was/is bad, just that what was in her price range was not what she was looking for in either looks or quality. imo, it's not the high quality furniture it used to be, and customer service is not either. Tville stores are owned by individuals, not the company, and you no longer have the backing of the manufacturer. When we my family had stores (up until 1980), you had the backing of both, imo. The manufacturers stood behind their products and store owners. I purchased a Henredon sofa from a local store not 2 years ago. One of our cats bled on the sofa recently (long story, he's okay. Sofa was not.) I called the store that afternoon. Closed. So I went down next morning to order enough fabric to cover 3 sofa cushion bottoms. After all, the sofa was not inexpensive and is well made so I intend to keep for 20+ years. (Last LR sofa was by Sherrill and I had it 20 years. Would have recovered, but the new house swallowed it.) I also want to be able to flip the cushions. The Henredon rep was in the store and told me I needed to order fabric within the next few days, that my fabric had been discontinued and they were selling all discontinued fabrics in 2 weeks. Once gone, it's gone. Sales lady called Henredon, who had 15 yards. I only needed 4yds. I placed order and she faxed to Henredon. They said I should have it in a week. That was Dec 10th. The 23rd, I am in the area so I stop by. She calls. Should be cut after the 25th and go out before the 1st. Jan, still no fabric. She calls again. They say we are cutting this week. Still not fabric, so I go by again. They take my address and said they will cut that afternoon and ship directly to me. Sales lady calls the next morning. But get this, Henredon gal tells sales lady "do you want to hear the truth about what happened?" Well, duh! They never pulled the fabric when the order was place on Dec 10th. They didn't even enter into their computer system until the 17th and the fabric had been pulled. Gone. Factory where fabric was made closed early 2009. So all that time they had been giving her the run around, simply because they did not want to say they had mucked it up! I called Henredon directly. Was told it was not their problem, that I had to take it up with local store. Even though it was their screw up! Local store manager said I could order any 4 yds of fabric and get it at cost. Well, that's not going to match my sofa so why would I do that?! I don't need any fabric for elsewhere. If I ordered enough fabric to do entire sofa, 18yds (the original fabric was $60yd), and had it recovered locally, it would cost me as much or more than a new sofa. So that doesn't make sense either. She did not offer to give me cost on 18yds. They did not offer me a new sofa at cost. So the local store lost a long time customer (over 20 years), Henredon lost a customer too and I have a sofa with cushions I can never flip over.

Location is very local. From the point of view of a suburban area, there are always streets that are more presitigious. Sometimes it is immediately apparent so that an out of town buyer can see the lots are a little bigger, the houses a little bigger or more intereting architecturally. Sometimes the out of town buyer is at a disadvantage because what makes the street more presitigious is not obvious to the casual observers, yet locals will pay more for a house on that street. I remember when we were looking in our area. One of the more desireable areas had Dutch Colonials that were a little older and a little more casual looking than other areas. This was a deliberate look and people found them very desireable although they did not appeal to me. DH when driving through asked me if this is one of the poorer sections! LOL In another case my sister lives on the main line in Philadelphia. She paid about 200k more for a smaller all stone house on the MOST prestigious street in her town than she received on a larger half stone house a couple of blocks down ON THE SAME STREET! and she was not downsizing! She had to explain why the new house cost more and it really was all about local perceptions. Us out of towners just did not get it (and still do not, I liked her old house better) In some areas prestige is not a factor so then a quiet street or convenience or a nice view become a factor. Bottom line, location is the one thing you cannot change so you have to be satisfied with it before you buy

So sorry to hear about your father, but nice that you got a final phone call. I can see how that would be comforting. When I lived in Culver City (1989-1994) I had a land line with a phone number that had previously belonged to Larry Welk III, a helicopter pilot for channel 9 news. At this time I mostly used the name Larry instead of Lars because Larry is what my family called me, and that is the name that I identified myself by on my answering machine, which had cassette tapes back then. At one point I started to get a lot of phone calls from companies that wanted to sell me insurance for my helicopter, and this would take up a lot of space on the cassette tapes, which I could not fast forward through at that time. Therefore I changed my outgoing message to say, "Hello, you have reached 310 377-8855, the house of NO LAWRENCE WELK music. If you think you have reached this number in error, take two Geritol and dial again in the morning." The calls from the insurance companies stopped after that. However, when my mother heard this message, it made her mad, and she made me change it because she was a Lawrence Welk fan.