Hey, Have a Business? Want to Find a Shop? Use Our Patch Places and Take the Patch Challenge

Did you know that Altadena Patch is more than just articles, bloggers, and interesting discussions?

Besides all that we also have a page for every business located in Altadena? Yep, if you go to our Patch Places you can find all sorts of shops by category, or by typing topics into our search box (and yes, if you want to, you can do a search for 'check cashing' and 'liquor store').

On each page is a photo of the business, the hours of operation, the phone number, accepted payment methods, handicapped access, address and even a handy map showing where it is.

If it's in the neighborhood, it should be here. (Go ahead, give it a try right now.) We challenge you to find a place that isn't listed. If you find a Altadena business that isn't here, then let us know right away (send the name, address and website to dan.abendschein@patch.com). Sure, sometimes a business has closed up, changed hands or been renamed, and we'll try to keep up with that, too (with your help), but you'll see that it's a fairly thorough list.

And, if you want to write a review or rate this business, you can do it, too. Feel free to praise, scream or yelp about any local place, and give it a star, or two, or four. And see what your neighbors say about it.  We do in fact already have businesses reviewed - check out this list of rated businesses in our Food and Dining category and if you feel like it, add your own rating.

If you own or run one of these businesses, guess what? You can take charge of your own page and put up events and sales and notices about what is happening at your shop. You'll have the right to put up better photos of your store, maybe feature a few items inside, and even post videos of your business.  A good example of this is the , which has extra photos and full, updated information written up by the owners.

Local businesses get extra bonuses when they claim their free listing.

Owners or managers can sign in and search for their business. Underneath the photos, there is a box with the question: Do you own or manage this location? Claim it! Just click Claim it! and a form will pop up asking for contact information and authorization to claim it. Within a few days, someone from Patch will contact you to verify your authenticity. You'll then be approved as the business owner and will see a "Manage Your Listing" button.

From there, you have lots of options to add photos, see your statistics and edit the listing.

Here are the tools you'll see and what they mean:

Your Stats:

Here you can see how many users have rated, reviewed or follow your listing. You can e-mail your customers to seek out more reviews, and link the Patch Place to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Edit Listing:

Add photos, website information, hours of operation, contact information and more under the Basic Info tab. Some of this information cannot be changed, but you can request a new description if you think your business is inaccurately described.

Choose Extra Info to add information like the founding date of your business, what kinds of payments you accept, parking information and more.

Manage Photos & Media:

Here you can add and edit photos and choose which image is featured. If you have a video or PDFs, you would add that here.

Reviews:

You can see what people have to say about your business and respond to reviews.

Free Tools:

This is an easy way to post events and add job openings to our classifieds section, also known as the Marketplace.

Paid Tools:

You can upgrade your listing with a video profile, add a message from the owner and become a featured business on the Places page for a fee. You can learn more about these options and see how to get in touch with a sales team member.

Claim your listing today to help keep Patch users up to date with your company and keep your listing looking fresh.

Questions? Contact Altadena Patch Advertising Manager Kevin Kelly at kevin.kelly@patch.com