I own an autoglass business. The Yellow Pages are the backbone of my
business and i cannot imagine what would happen to me – or my
competitors for that matter – with out them. People have been saying
that the directories are dead and noone uses them. Hogwash. I can tell
you for a fact that 75% – yes seventy five percent – of my new
customers find me because of my ad. My PRINTED ad. Not some seach
engine or Google or their technophone. The printed directory. Without
it I would be up a creek. They are a tad expensive, but its all about
VALUE. And i get back every YP advertising-dime in the first week of
the month.
I am tired of hearing that the printed book is old-fashioned and
worthless. I depend on it. A large amount of my customers use it and
just because some new high-tech gizmo or website does searches and
fancy digital-finds doesnt mean a large percent of the regular
population dont still use the good ol’ book. Its faster, more complete
and it works. As stated above 75% find me with their autoglass needs
because of the book. I can count on one hand the customers that say
they found me by my website or thru a search engine.
Also, there is an older population 50+ that still dont even HAVE a
computer. My parents dont and a large number of their friends dont.
Thats hard for anyone here to probably fathom, but they arent going to
show up on a webblog to state their case are they?
Using a printed directory lacks the new fangled “cachet” of an iphone
or blackberry or IMac2000 or whatever, but it still works, and my
business depends on it to continue to do so.
Its unfortunate their unit price doesnt reflect the value that the
company has. (especially on my bottom line)
But the traders are probably all part of the techno group and probably
share the misguided perception regarding YPs valuable – and still
viable – printed product.

Sorry for the rant, nothing personal, but i just wanted to get an advertiser’s point of view out there.

Thanks for my few minutes on my (yellow) soapbox.

ylo.un Seems a good place to invest for the future especially with a yield of around 15% compounded per annum.

Also, in reference to waste spending statements; the yellow pages is responsible for influencing over a trillion dollars in purchasing decisions that benefit economic health.

The yellow pages has been deceased for 20 years but I
am impressed with their after-life.

The yellow pages has been deceased since 1988 but I am impressed with their after-life.
While I appreciate opinions & assumptions there’s no doubt that some people do not use or care for the un-sexy bulky monitor shelf but it is still the most trusted medium by the u.s. consumer.

YP has an army of sales people that extract lucrative listing fees from small businesses. That data eventually shows up in Google. And Google buys it coz they don’t have that salesforce.

YP has not done a great job with their own websites, but they’re doing a good job of monetizing their data.

The sad thing is that the Yellow Pages search function is so poor that it is usually much quicker to Google it straight away. All that Yellow Pages can do is make the most of its revenues from print, until they decide to kill this.

Undoubtedly there is a large section of the population, including many seniors, who do find the directory is useful. However the burden this is putting on the recycling of newsprint is a heavy price for society to pay. It will probably need to be put out of its misery earlier than Yellow Pages might wish from a purely profit point of view.

Of course, we think HomeStars is a better form of advertising for the home improvement specialists, but we have a long way to go to convince this sector.

Also the NUMBER of companies making deliveries each year is insane. One would be ok – but I get 4-5 a year – plus the little neighborhood books too.

visit Yellowpagesgoesgreen.com for info on how to opt out – its a good site.

here’s my collection of articles ridiculing this ancient technology:

http://www.futuregringo.com/index.php/2008/11/08/the-life-of-a-phone-book/

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