LiveDeal, under new management, has moved away from its roots in Yellow Pages and classifieds, and begun a strategic focus on high-end SMB services. As part of its strategy, the company has been selling off many of its directory-related accounts, which CEO Mike Edelhart calls high maintenance, high churn, low yielding and declining.

To date, 24,000 accounts have been sold off, including 14,000 yesterday to Local.com, which paid $3.1 million. That leaves roughly 25,000 of LiveDeal’s original directory accounts.

Edelhart notes that the typical Internet Yellow Pages account has been bringing in just $380 per year, with as much as 45 percent going to third parties and billing costs. They often have delayed payments to boot.

By contrast, its suite of SMB services brings in $3,500 per year. Included in LiveDeal’s suite are URLs, Web sites, SEO/SEM and click to call. Most are being sold via telemarketing. “We’re good at that,” he says.

The company’s clean, new, sophisticated Web site also plays a role. “It encourages people to call us.”

“We’re [no longer] selling other people’s capabilities,” says Edelhart. “We’re selling things that we service ourselves,” which allows the company to extend customer relationships.

At this point, LiveDeal has 1,500 leads-related accounts, on top of the remaining 25,000 directory accounts. In the end, Edelhart hopes to acquire many more leads-related accounts, while keeping just 10,000 of the directory accounts — the ones that come from higher-yielding national and automatic clearinghouse accounts.

Classifieds, however, are not a current focus (remember, LiveDeal started life as a classified company). But Edelhart expects that they’ll eventually be integrated with the new offerings.

With the sales of the directory accounts and the SMB services’ stronger cash generation, the company has developed a cash hoard of $11 million, Edelhart adds, up from $3.8 million in September. “This business model accumulates cash,” he says.

The company also has a management team “that is entirely new,” says Edelhart. “We never had a VP of marketing before. We never had a VP of product.” The company now has 120 employees in total, half of whom are in sales.