Wondering what everyone thinks about YellowPage Advertising - both in their print media and online? Do you think it's worth the investment?

I used to do it years ago, but unfortunately the reality of things now is that people don't reach for a phone book when they want to find out about something, they go to google or the web.

I had a yellowpages online for a while which was used only as a link back to our site, but they went to a nofollow and google wasn't indexing, so the money wasn't worth it (to me).

For what they want me to pay to be listed in their book, I can get some highly targeted traffic in google adwords instead. At least, that's what I've experienced in the hosting world for us.

That's sort of the response I expected. I paid $18,000 for my first print ad back in '96 and suprisingly, it did pay off. I have my doubts about getting an acceptable ROI today though.

Yeah, $18k would be hard to get a decent ROI in todays market. Back in the 90's and early '00 we saw great returns on the yellowpages, but even spending the $500/year for ONLINE advertising with YellowPages can be a rough ROI for web hosting. Years ago, if you weren't in yellow pages, you weren't anyone!

"Let your fingers do the walking"

For webhosting. Nobody looks for it on yellow pages. If you got the money, stick with google

It depends what type of business products or services you are offering. If they target an audience suitable for yellow pages, than only you should go for yellowpage advertising. Its all about analysing you target market.

Best of luck!

It's been about 6 years since I used a YP to look something up, and even then I knew who I was looking for - i think it's time has long since passed.

For "need it now" services like a plumber when your bath is leaking it *might* work but for business services, no chance.

I think it's more the type of industry we are now in, an example could be that, most of us don't have our car's sign written with our hosting company name and details... look at any building, plumbing, electrical firm most wouldn't be seen without it.

In that respect I think the yellow pages are still essential for trades, as many simply don't have an online presence or a limited one at best (even some of the multimillion firms) and most trades work within a certain distance.

For most if you were asked to find your nearest supermarket and their opening hours, Google would probably be the first point of call, If you were asked to find a local plumber or plant hire company... yellow pages.

Over time the yellow pages has gone from Google to the cupboard under the stairs, in terms of usage and they have made attempts to make a dent on the web, although limited.

How true. Even though I had a site for my Salon, I still had the name on our cars for local branding and awareness. And we did have clients find us via YP online.

I second stickers on the car, it's free! Well, besides printing them that is..

Basically, yellow pages is mostly used by those people who wish to target a specific region or target their local regions. Getting listed into yellow pages may cost high for some people that are tight on budget. Instead, as suggested by steve, there are many such ways for local branding. People who are economically weak, can opt for such techniques and increase awareness between people about their products and services.

I see results from the yellow page, print and online. But do not purchase a big ad or it is not worth it.

Surprisingly enough, the yellow pages still make quite a bit of money on subscriptions, but when thinking about a global market place, the money would probably be better spent in other places, instead of your local market.

YellowPages makes a decent living not just on subscriptions, but on licensing of their data. GPS navigation, Foursquare, Facebook places, Google maps, etc etc etc - YellowPages data powers a lot of software and information databases around the world and devices.

I do think, however, that they can do a lot better. With such a strong brand name as YellowPages, they could have gone a more social route to enable reviews/networking capabilities on their website.

YP seem to have lost their topicality as the means of promotion and advertising.