The new look of the all-glossy San Luis Obispo County Visitors Guide

The San Luis Obispo County Visitors Guide just got a major upgrade. The front cover of the quarterly guide was totally redesigned and the entire magazine is now printed on glossy stock paper.

“We are celebrating our fifth year of publication with a total makeover,” says Scott Brennan, owner of Access Publishing. “I am really excited about the amazing new look.”

The tourist magazine boasts 60,000 readers around San Luis Obispo County with distribution to over 600 hotels, wineries, restaurants and attractions.

“It’s more than a visitors guide, it’s a lifestyle magazine for everyone who enjoys San Luis Obispo County,” says Brennan.

The visitors guide features local wine tasting, restaurants, attractions, spas, lodging, shopping, art galleries, museums, golf courses and events throughout its 124 pages. A favorite feature for tourists is the comprehensive Paso Robles wine tasting map.

Grizzly Republic Wines, a new tasting room in downtown Paso Robles, is featured on the cover of the redesigned fall issue.

The Brennan Family

Scott and Beth Brennan of Paso Robles started the magazine in 2007 with the vision of offering tourists a complete guide to the county. It’s broken up into city sections with beautiful photography, in-depth articles, detailed maps and recommendations, called “Favorite Places.”

Over 200 San Luis Obispo County businesses advertise in each issue, providing valuable information for travelers.

The SLO County Visitors Guide covers San Luis Obispo, Avila Beach, Pismo Beach, Shell Beach, Oceano, Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, Los Osos, Morro Bay, Cayucos, Cambria, San Simeon, Santa Margarita, Atascadero, Templeton, Paso Robles and San Miguel.

Flip through a digital edition or request a free printed copy at slovisitorsguide.com.

Access Publishing was founded in 2006 by Scott and Beth Brennan. The Paso Robles based business has 10 creative and hardworking employees. The company creates magazines, guides and directories and provides Internet marketing, local search optimization, search engine marketing, web design, blog writing, graphic design and printing services in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.

By Scott Brennan
Access Publishing
806 9th Street #2D
Paso Robles, CA 93446
scott@accesspublishing.com
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You’re invited to come learn more about how customers are looking for local businesses online. Please join us for a complimentary lunch and presentation about Local Search optimization.

Upcoming presentations
9/12/12, The Carlton Hotel, Atascadero
9/26/12, Collaboration LLC, SLO

The workshops are at noon. Seating is limited. Please RSVP. Register here or email representative Paul Shannon at paul@accesspublishing.com, or call for an appointment: (805) 226-9890.

We can help get your business found online!

Paul grew up on the Central Coast and is a graduate of Atascadero High School. He has a Bachelors of Science in Entrepreneurship from San Diego State University and 6 years sales experience for several well-known companies, including Northwestern Mutual and Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Outside of work, Paul enjoys rock crawling in the Sierras and spending time with his fiancé, Kenna, a good beer, and his Saint Bernard, Bagheera.

Here is a bold statement from MIT’s Scott Aaronson.  “From now on, if I’m evaluating (say) a faculty or tenure candidate, and I see lots of Elsevier publications, I’m going to wonder about the reasons: “is this person simply unaware of the widely-discussed issues with Elsevier? is the person a timid conformist who feels that his or her papers need a ‘gold star of approval,’ even from a journal whose publisher is known to be mercilessly ransacking universities? if this person can’t even accept whatever minuscule or perceived career risk comes with open(er)-access publishing, why would the person take huge risks in the intellectual realm?” And I’m sure I won’t be the only one thinking this … so the career benefits of publishing with Elsevier (if indeed there are any) need to be balanced with the risks!”

That’s a very interesting take on the situation, though I think that the boycott movement may need to gather much more steam in order to reach the threshold, where non-participation becomes a professional stigma.  In any case, here is a summary –taken from various sites– of why the movement for boycotting Elsevier is gaining some traction.

Journal costs:  Though not alone among publishers in price gouging, Elsevier’s prices are ridiculously high. Here are a few comparisons. The Annals of Mathematics, published by Princeton University Press, is one of the absolute top mathematics journals and quite affordably priced: $0.13/page as of 2007.   Acta Mathematica, published by the Institut Mittag Leffler costs $0.65/page, Journal of the American Mathematical Society, published by the American Mathematical Society for $0.24/page, and Inventiones Mathematicae, published by Springer for $1.21/page. By contrast, ten Elsevier journals cost $1.30/page or more; they and three others cost more per page than any journal published by a university press or learned society.  None of Elsevier’s mathematics journals is comparable in quality to the above cited journals.

Bundling, which is a business practice that forces libraries to subscribe to large numbers of journals in order to avoid paying the exorbitant list prices for the ones they need. The real effect of such a practice is that the average price that libraries pay for the journals they actually want, is higher. There is no concrete data regarding the actual costs to libraries of Elsevier journals compared with those of Springer, for example. Why? because publishers often make it a contractual requirement that their institutional customers should not disclose the financial details of their contracts. For example, Elsevier sued Washington State University to try to prevent release of this information.

Scandalous practices: Elsevier has been involved in various dubious practices regarding the scientific content of its journals. One in particular involved the journal “Chaos, Solitons & Fractals”, which was at some point one of the highest impact factor mathematics journals that Elsevier published. It turned out that the high impact factor was at least partly the result of the journal publishing many papers –by its own editors– full of mutual citations.

In another example, Elsevier seems to have published a series of sponsored article compilation publications, on behalf of pharmaceutical clients, that were made to look like journals and lacked the proper disclosures.

Lobbying against public access: Recently, Elsevier has lobbied for the Research Works Act, a proposed U.S. law that would undo the National Institutes of Health’s public access policy, which guarantees public access to published research papers based on NIH funding within twelve months of publication (to give publishers time to make a profit). Although most lobbying occurs behind closed doors, Elsevier’s vocal support of this act shows their opposition to a popular and effective open access policy.

Why not Springer? According to a recent letter by Gowers and his colleagues, “Springer has had a rich and productive history with the mathematical community. As well as journals, it has published important series of textbooks, monographs, and lecture notes; one could perhaps regard the prices of its journals as a means of subsidizing these other, less profitable, types of publications. Although all these types of publications have become less important with the advent of the internet and the resulting electronic distribution of texts, the long and continuing presence of Springer in the mathematical world has resulted in a store of goodwill being built up in the mathematical community towards them. This store is being rapidly depleted,  but has not yet reached zero.”

Local Search Optimization by Access Publishing

The internet marketing service, called Local Search Optimization, is the key for small businesses to improve online presence.

57-percent of local buyers are using search engines to find local goods and services, according a recent survey of 3,000 U.S. households by ComScore.

Scott Brennan
Access Publishing

“We are helping small businesses create a high ranking online presence to get them found by local searchers,” says Scott Brennan, owner of Access Publishing, a regional advertising and marketing agency.

A local search typically includes a product or service and geographical location, like ‘insurance agents in paso robles, ca’. Google is pointing to listings from Google+ Local pages and other directories more often than traditional websites.

The local search engine optimization (SEO) service begins with a comprehensive client interview and Optimized Business Profile. The client’s Google+ Local profile is optimized with keywords, categories, descriptions, photos, logos, and links. Geographical data about the business including its building and parking lot are created with a Google mapping service.

Listings are created and optimized on Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, and niche directories. Client data is uploaded to major database companies and distributed to over 100 major online directories.

Clients receive a Review Generator service that helps them ask customers for authentic, positive online reviews to help improve rankings.

Brennan has a master’s certification in advanced internet marketing from the University of San Francisco. He has given presentations to hundreds of business owners and managers at over a dozen workshops and presentations throughout San Luis Obispo County.

Business people are invited to hear him speak at an upcoming presentation on local search optimization. Upcoming dates are Sept. 12, 2012, at noon in Atascadero, CA and on Sept. 26, 2012, at noon at in San Luis Obispo, CA. Seating is limited. Register at accesslocalsearch.com, email scott@accesspublishing.com, or call (805) 226-9890.

Access Publishing’s online marketing clients include:
A Mobile Notary by Sally, Arroyo Robles Winery, Auto Limits Auto Repair, BK Pool and Spa Service, Bonny Hogue – KD Capital Mortgage, Borzini Accounting & Consulting, Cal State Auto & Truck Glass, Callie L. Fisher Insurance Services, Central Coast Casualty Restoration, Country Florist, Cristal Air & Emergency Service, DaCosse and Associates, Deep Steam Carpet Cleaning, Dent Pro, Edward Jones – Financial Advisor: Matt Oppedahl, Erb Tutoring Services;

Family Praise & Worship, First Call Plumbing, Five Star Rain Gutters, Frontier Floors & Window Coverings, Grizzly Republic Wines, Hansen Enterprises, Harrington Home Furniture Outlet, Healthy Inspirations, HFG Coastal Insurance Services, Lazer Star Lisa Lu Davis, DMD, MD Spa and Laser, North County Carpet and Upholstery Cleaners, On the Beach Bed & Breakfast, Outlaws Card Parlour;

Paso Robles Children’s Museum, Paso Robles Heating and Air, Paso Robles Vacation Rentals, Peabody & Plum Realtors, Pure Elements Salon, Ray M. Buban, EA Financial & Tax Service, Romo Septic Service, Rossi Law, Sea Otter Inn, Shooting Star Sanctuary, Spinnaker Financial, Inc., State Farm Insurance – Rick Goree, Steve Allen – Connect Home Loans, Stifel Nicolaus, Templeton Glass, The Gifted Basket, The Mobile Oil Changers, The Stargazers Group, The Tree Man, Uncorked Wine Tours, We Help You Legal.

About Access Publishing:
Access Publishing provides local business marketing solutions. It is a local leader in online marketing, Internet advertising, local search engine optimization, SEO, SEM, web design, blog writing and graphic design. The Paso Robles based business, owned by Scott and Beth Brennan, has 10 creative and hardworking employees.

The company’s publications include the San Luis Obispo County Visitors Guide, North County Access,Central Coast Active, Your Cambria Phone Book, Templeton Chamber Guide, Heritage Ranch Directory, Oak Shores Directory and other custom publications.

Access serves Paso Robles, Atascadero, Templeton, San Luis Obispo, Grover Beach, Pismo Beach, Shell Beach, Avila Beach, Oceano, Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, Morro Bay, Los Osos, Cambria, Cayucos, Harmony, San Simeon, Creston, Heritage Ranch, Oak Shores, Shandon, Santa Margarita, San Miguel and all of San Luis Obispo County.

By Scott Brennan. Connect with him on Google+. Access Publishing, 806 9th Street #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446, (805) 226-9890.

Original post is at accesslocalsearch.com

Doug Swarts

Doug Swarts is a Cal Poly economics and marketing graduate who has spent the last three years working at online start-ups and marketing agencies specializing in social media, internet marketing, Google Adwords, and web videos. Residing in San Luis Obispo, Doug loves hunting, surfing, skiing, and good coming of age stories.

Doug can be reached at (805) 226-5720.

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Jack Erhart

Jack Erhart specializes in Google+Local administration, Google+ for business pages, mapping, and chromebooks. The Paso Robles wine enthusiast has a genuine interest in micro brewed and craft beers.

Jack can be reached at (805) 226-9890.

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By Scott Brennan
Access Publishing
806 9th Street #2D
Paso Robles, CA 93446
scott@accesspublishing.com
Join me on Google+