About Our Company


tops

LOG ON IT, DOGGONE IT!

by Keith Yarber

Can you believe it has been FIVE years since TOPS first launched our website?

Since then, the TOPS name has become a well known brand all over Central Kentucky. Our website traffic just keeps growing with thousands of visitors every day. Millions of Page Views every month. Tops Magazine was just ranked as the #1 read magazine in Central Kentucky!

People around town tell me that offices get really quiet when our magazine first comes out, because everyone is busy reading it.

LEXINGTON'S TOP DRESSED EVENT

On August 19, 2010, we threw our first big community event. I am so grateful to the charitable organizations that participated and all of the people who voted. TOPS and LexScene are known for covering everyone else's events, so we got the idea a while back to throw our own.

One of our company's missions is to help the non-profits and community service groups who do so much to make Central Kentucky a truly wonderful place to live and work.

HOW DID TOPS GET STARTED?

I have a lot of people ask about TOPS and how it all got started. So here goes...

First a little background. I am from Mt. Sterling, Kentucky and attended school at Morehead State University and continuing education at Harvard Business School.

I spent most of my career working in radio and cable television. I was often told I had a face for radio! I was a "disc jockey", chief engineer, copywriter, production director, news anchor, sales person, sales manager, general manager and market manager. Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt for it all!

THE DREAM OF OWNERSHIP

Like a lot of media people, I had a dream of owning my own company. Trying to buy a radio group a few years back was just out of the question. Big corporations had gobbled up most properties for a high price, and they weren't looking to sell for a loss. There is a national research company called Media Audit that does a very comprehensive annual survey of Central Kentuckians and their media habits. They have been doing this for 20 years and I have seen every report.

It became apparent year after year, that the one medium showing strong growth was the Internet. In Central Kentucky, like national trends, internet usage was roaring stronger every year. It was time to figure out how to ride that wave.

I was fortunate to work with many non-profits and community service groups in the area. All had the same needs. How do they promote their events and get coverage on their events? These wonderful people with truly great causes, in need of publicity.

At the same time, local businesses were looking for more cost-effective ways to advertise and market their products and services.

Hmmm... maybe there is an opportunity to launch a social, shopping, and entertainment website that could help the non-profits and businesses at the same time!

Not many people know this, but the first web concept we developed was the "BestOfLex.com".

I paid a whopping $3,000 for the rights to that domain that never really got used. Expensive first go at the internet!

After a lot of brainstorming we decided the "BestOfLex" was just too plain. So back to the drawing board.

I started doing some research on names for the website. That was a very tough decision. Finally, at about 2:30am one morning, I somehow stumbled onto the Tops In Lexington concept.

The Top People. The Top Businesses. The Top Events. It Clicked!

DECISION TIME

It was early in 2005; I just kept getting more and more excited about the TOPS concept and owning my own company. It couldn't be that hard, could it? I literally woke up one morning and said to myself, "Either do this, or stop thinking about it. What's it going to be?" I made the decision that day with the support of my wonderful family to venture out on my own. I was scared and exhilarated.

So, I left the safety and comfort of a solid, nice paycheck and corporate benefits on July 4th, 2005. Truly Independence Day!

I spent the first 3 weeks working out of my home. That didn't go well. Too many distractions.

I needed an office. I just happened to be talking to the good folks at the American Heart Association, and they very nicely volunteered that I could use their new conference room as an office for awhile. The price was right, so TOP Marketing Group was on its way.

In the very early days, it was me and a full time assistant in the conference room and my web partners who all worked out of their homes. We spent several months designing and testing the web site. It was all a big secret around town.

THE WEBSITE GETS LAUNCHED!

In late 2005, around November, www.TopsInLex.com was born.

To promote the website, we gave away $1,000 a week for 52 straight weeks. $52,000 CASH!! 52 very lucky Winners. Rick Dees was the voice of our radio and TV campaign. We had a huge billboard teaser campaign. The town was buzzing about this "TOPS!"

Every hour on the hour, we watched as people started visiting the website. Click, Click, Click and more clicks. It was all so exciting to watch the numbers grow.

TopsInLex.com was off to the races. Day after day, month after month, traffic grew at a very rapid pace, and we knew we were onto something.

Our photographers were everywhere, covering the TOP EVENTS and the TOP PEOPLE. Our calendar became another important destination to find out what was going on around Lexington.

TOPS MAGAZINE

After a year of posting thousands of photos and hundreds of articles on our website, I thought "How hard could it be to take all of this content and make a great magazine?" Well, as it turned out, much, much harder than I ever dreamed. It takes a village to put together a magazine!

Layout, Design, Writers, Photographers, Ad Sales, Printing, Proofing, Uploading and Distribution. It's like building a nice home from scratch every two months!

Tops Magazine is now distributed in 300+ locations in 10 Central Kentucky Counties, and has over 71,000 dedicated, loyal readers. It is rated #1 most read magazine in many of the most key income and age demographics important to advertisers by the Media Audit.

LEXSCENE BEGINS

While TOPS was attracting readers in every demographic possible, we made a decision to launch another website and magazine to super-serve the 20 and 30 somethings. A real key for many Central Kentucky businesses.

LexScene magazine and website was the ultimate evolution of what began as TopsOnCampus, TopsTV, Scene Magazine and finally it all morphed successfully into LexScene.

The magazine has over 30,000 readers and is distributed primarily around Lexington.

It is the same formula as TOPS, and it is rapidly becoming another "must read" magazine and website for Lexington.

WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL

Owning a business is one of the most challenging things you can ever do. It is the ultimate high wire tightrope act. I read dozens of books and articles about all the mistakes new entrepreneurs make. Well, I would be smarter than they were! Nope! Made just about all the mistakes I read about. Someday I will be happy to share all that wisdom. In a book!

THE REAL CREDIT

In the very early days of any new company, your first customers are like gold. TOPS got off to such a great start thanks to many visionary business people who believed in us. So if you enjoy our company's magazines and websites, thank our advertisers.

Our Exceptional Staff.

Our Great Photographers: They are everywhere and do exceptional work. Special thanks to Paul Atkinson, Frank Becker, Jesse Caylor, Ann Christine, April Cole, Laura Donnell, Jaron Johns, Cara Kucginski, Steve Moline, Alex Orlov, Beth Pope.

Video: Cliff Matekovich, Chad Perkins, and Kyle Lake.

Our Webmasters; Jonathan Moore and Phillip Farmer.

Top Freelance Writers: Kathie Stamps, Tanya J. Turner and Robert Bolson.

Our Fabulous Interns.

Other talented people who contribute to our company; Kellee Edwards, Natalie Barrett, Julie Lowe, Jay Cooper, Chad DeBoard, Biz Ruby, and Jennifer Sandefur.

Our Media Partners: WLEX 18 TV and Cumulus Radio.

Our IT partners: IT Networks and Store It Off-Site.

Other pioneers; Nina Clarke, Stepfan Jeffries, Kevin O'Dea, Adam Trumbo, Ginger Sanders, Melissa Rea, Kathy Sink, Donna Wilson, Amy Jackson, John Tomme, and Ed Brown.

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