I've done the yellowpage route.

I have a 1/8th page ad in a regional
Christian oriented directory.

I have a full page ad in a community phone book,
and a column inch ad in the larger metro book.

The first, covers about half of the metro area.
The second is targeted to a specific neighborhood,
one that I perceived to be perhaps higher than average
in terms of people that would own their own businesses.

Third, is the metro  yellow pages, which are broken
into two large books.

The first year in the main yellow pages, I used a two line ad.
It produced no results other than to generate lots of folks
calling to sell me something.

The second year with the large ad, has resulted in a couple sales,
generating about enough to pay for the ad.

The neighborhood directory has generated one call for an upgrade
to their site, but no sale.

The end result for me is that the neighborhood directory with the full page
ad will not be renewed.

The big metro book may get a renewal, still a few months out for that.

The Christian directory has proven to be the best of the yellow pages for me.
The clients derived from that source tend to pay on time and are easier to work
with on a daily basis.


Referral and word of mouth still generate the most work for me.
Online results are best where the most effort is maintained.
Newsgroups when worked regularly tend to be more effective
than search engine for me.  

Some of the websites I manage do really well from search engines,
some get no benefit at all.  Unique products seem to do the best.

Two clients have just started their marketing plans, which I am watching
with interest.

One is going for the "green sheet" advertising, that being the free want ad
type newspapers that list all the garage sales, personals, and used stuff
people are trying to get rid of. He has also started with the little plastic signs
planted along side the highway.  They tend to last only until the "ad police"
come along and remove them -- a few hours during the week, maybe all day
on a weekend.

 The other is targeting industry specific trade magazines and newspapers.

Guess the bottom line on phone books from this end, is that they will
pay for themselves, but not much more.  It does leave a residual with
the monthly hosting fees and site maintenance however.

Joe






From:           	"John Safrit" <john(at)safrit.com>
To:             	hwg-business(at)hwg.org
Date sent:      	Mon, 9 Apr 2001 22:18:38 -0400
Subject:        	Advertising in the Yellow Pages....

> 	Just a quick question for those "smaller" web design owners 
> and others who might be just starting out or still moonlighting at 
> site design.  How important is it to advertise in the phonebook?  
> How much business comes from phonebook ads vs. online listings 
> and search engines?   How many of you don't think it is worth it?  
> 	
> 	I'm really diving into my business 100% now and considering 
> my marketing options (within a budget, of course).  Just looking to 
> this list in hopes of learning from your experience.  
> 
> John Safrit
> john(at)safrit.com
> www.safritsolutions.com
> 

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