Are the "Online Phonebook" services like Yellowpages worth anything?

[Pureum Kim]

Hello,

I did some research on YP. Here it is. Please share some feedback

1. Major Yellow Paper (“YP) Companies
1.1. List of YP in the US
1.1.1. AT&T Advertising & Publishing (Bell South, YellowPages.com)
1.1.2. Idearc Media (Verizon)
1.1.3. R.H, Donnelley (“RHD”)
1.1.4. Yellow Book
1.1.5. Local Insight Media
1.1.6. White Directory Publishers (subsidiary of Hearst Group)
1.1.7. Windstream Yellow Pages
1.1.8. Valley Yellow Pages
1.1.9. User-Friendly Phone Book
1.1.10. DataNational
1.1.11. Phone Directories Co
1.1.12. Names and Numbers
1.1.13. ypOne Publishing
1.1.14. United Yellow Pages
1.1.15. Ambassador Media Group
1.1.16. Metro Directories
1.1.17. Hagadone Directories
1.1.18. SureWest Directories
1.1.19. Pinnacle Publishing
1.1.20. Gannett Directories
1.1.21. Best Publications
1.1.22. Impact Directories
1.1.23. Area Wide Directory Co
1.1.24. Ad-Ventures Publishing
1.1.25. LocalTel
1.1.26. Your Town Publishing Solutions
1.1.27. Echo Pages
1.1.28. U.S. Hispanic Yellow Pages Market Overview
1.1.29. Seccion Amarilla USA
1.1.30. Hispanic Yellow Pages of America
1.1.31. Hispanic Yellow Pages Network
1.2. Top four YPs
(86% of market share yptalk.com is for sale )
1.2.1. AT&T Advertising & Publishing
1.2.2. Verizon
1.2.3. RHD
1.2.4. Yellow Books
1.4. Yellow Pages Association’s Largest Referrals by Number
1.4.1. Restaurant
1.4.2. Physician & Surgeons
1.4.3. Automobile parts & used
1.4.4. Automobile Repairing & Service
1.4.5. Pizza
1.4.6. Automatic Dealers- News & Used
1.4.7. Attorneys/ Lawyers
1.4.8. Dentists
1.4.9. Plumbing
1.4.10. Beauty Salons
1.4.11. Real Estate (number 34)
1.5. Key Facts
1.5.1. Usage of YP decreased from 15.1 bn to 13.4bn references during 2002-2006 according to the YPA Industry Usage Study.
1.5.1.1. Increased Internet search and non English speaking demographics it’s cause
1.5.2. There are estimated about 7,600 independent YP publishers. The number of publishers is expected to decline to competitiveness of the market and active M&A (according to Kelsey)
1.5.3. Margins tend to be lower on the internet YP than print YP (according to RHD) as they try to increase internet ad usage.
1.5.4. Kelsey Group says that internet YP usage has increased from 7%-14% during 2003-2007. Furthermore, Kelsey Group expects internet YP to grow 24% each year from 2007-2012.
1.5.5. Advertisers prefer directory advertising due to its relatively low cost, broad demographics and geographic distribution and high consumer usage rates .
1.6. Yellow Paper News
1.6.1. RHD’s yellow pages ad counts dropped 9% in January ’08 in Las Vegas and Orlando. Also, yellow papers are discouraging businesses’ making ads in color to cut costs. Additional ad space (change of font & number of columns) is also being given for incumbent businesses that spend a bit more on the ad (Deutshce Bank 3/9/08 Company Alert)
1.6.2. From “The Future of Yellow Pages,” profit of YP expected due to discounting of ad price. A survey by Kelsey Group shows that SMBs use print yellow pages 43% less. The number of print yellow pages seems stable but the frequency that they use is decreasing.

If anyone knows how much average dealerships spend on yellow paper ads that would be great

 

[Chris (blog)]

Personally I'd rather spend $200 to $350 a month paying for a PERSONAL YELLOW PAGE AD in the phone book under AUTOMOTIVE DEALERS, NEW/USED. I'm sure the payoff would be on the plus side, especially if I offered a bonus for referrals.

I've actually seriously considered the idea and don't know of any salesperson that is promoting themselves in the Yellow Pages?

The traditional YP works still, and everyone leafs through them.

What's your feedback on such an idea?

Chris

 

[Joe Pistell]

Chris,
My Notes to you:
You can't just list your personal number in the YP without it being a designated business number.

I use to sell YP and I could go on and on about why you should not do it. I have a FAR BETTER IDEA FOR YOU.

You've earmarked $4,000 for YP spending p/year.
Hire yourself a local fellow that can throw up a WordPress Blog for you. Cost: $300 to $600. You'll need it hosted: $200 p/yr, you'll need to be trained on how to post inventory to it (offer your geek pal $100 to be avail to you by phone at any time you need it).

OK, now your almost ready to fly, Do your homework on what vehicles are HOT on the net and look thru your inventory for matches. Start posting inventory into your blog like a mad man and make it personal. EXAMPLE: http://usedcarqueen.com/ (my wifes blog).

While you're waiting for your blog to fill and the search engines to index you, you have $3,400 in unspent monies to put to work (budget: $4,200 Spent so far: $800).

Spend money on PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising on Google and Yahoo.

Be sure to get a buy-in from management on your efforts (jealous sales reps will whine, whine, whine and make management miserable). While soliciting management, ask that they share 50% of the costs in the project (produce receipts), payable AFTER it's up and running.

Now, your burning with NitroMethane! (aka: kik'n a**)
Joe
p.s. Have your rent-a-geek train you on how to post inventoy to Craigs list. Also ask him for a WordPress mod to allow you to easily post inventory to Craigs list.

 

[Joe Pistell]

Chris,
I can see you're an out of the box thinker. Here’s some "ol' wize man" advice from another out-of-the-box thinker that's made a lot of mistakes along the way...

Joe Rule#1. Just because it's a good idea, doesn’t mean it'll work.
Always distance yourself from the idea and let it stand on its own.

Joe Rule#2. OUR IDEAS are NOT ORIGINAL.
Look for examples of others that have had your idea and look for hallmarks of their success (your post nails this one). FYI: Truly original ideas are rare beyond words. They come from fellas so far out that they have a hard time communicating with us all.

Joe Rule#3. Put the idea away and let it marinate.
If it's still talking to you 6 months later, then go after it. (I've got Over30MPG.com that's just dying to be worked on... grrrr)

Hope this helps,
Joe

 

[Angela (blog)]

U know wut u have no idea about advertisement and how to invest money,,,,,,,,, Wurever Superpages.com receives 17 million searches per day and if someone is spending 300$ look at the return and when u talk about something or discuss something Try to get alot of info before u talk about it And Try to mention both the advantages and the disadvantages of it to be fair enough coz if we are talking about google or any search engine so we have to say that we have window shoppers there SOOOO THE PPC paying per will be wasting money… AND SEO is not guaranteed at all … FOR UR INFO no one goes to any yellowpages just to watch it THEY ARE REAL buyers .. I know somebody is advertising on superpages for 4 years on arrow .

 

[Steven Isakson]

Very interesting topic here. I can not justify using this type of advertising, because the way I see everyone look for a phone number is typing the info into a search engine. The company’s website will pick it up most of the time. And since all of us have a website, I can not justify using online phone books. I do believe that the paper phone books are excellent roi however.

Also, has anyone used the spanish phone book? I was approached earlier this year to get in on the first release in Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland.

 

[Steven Isakson]

Angela,

Can you please use English not texting type.
Thanks