Yellow Pages on sales drive for web links

[engine]

Yellow pages are on a sales drive to sell links from EYP to your site for only £190!

Anyone out there with EYP listings that work?

[rcjordan]

In the 3+ years since YP links have been pushed here in the US, I've never heard of any of them generating traffc.

They will sell a few to the clueless, mostly small businesses that buy on the "YP" brand and don't know to ask questions about impressions and CTR.

[Videoman]

....as I told the rep and the woman that phoned me "£190 for a link, Jimmy Tarbuck is looking for some new Jokes!!!!"

On a serious side it is working out what the "searcher" will use. Over the years there have been many directories (paper) that have come and gone all promising the earth and delivering compost. Yellow Pages have had Talking Pages for around 10 years not exactly a runaway success yet Yellow Pages goes from strength to strength despite the Internet explosion. I believe they have NOT got the right people to get EYP as a brand leader- when it was launched they had "mini sites" for free and instead of building on that base for a nominal fee, say £25, they said £190 or your off...to which most replied we're off. Ultimately the market will decide so if none of us part with 190 notes, the price might come down BUT if its crap then no one will use it anyway. Although I've joked about Essex Pages, (which I am told will get a relaunch) the idea of a regional directory is very sound yet all of my internet enquiries have come from everywhere but...! Yellow Pages-Worth every penny spent- EYP I think not. Back to the Tarot Cards :)

No, one last thing. A Multimedia directory (paper and Web)contacted me today, claiming 100,000 hits per month. Another bunch with a sense of humour- is there yet an organisation verififying these claims (like the free newspapers have a Verified circulation??)

[rcjordan]

>a Multimedia directory (paper and Web)contacted me today claiming 100,000 hits per month.
'hits' or 'pageviews' ?? Be careful here, I've found MANY that still knowingly use the confusion to mask their numbers.

>is there yet a way of varififying these claims
Audited web sites are still relatively rare. Tell them you want to serve the graphic, or ask for an industry standard ad-serving package such as CentralAd. The client can audit his own stats.

[mark roach]

I have a client who has a one page website listed in the yellow pages. Here are the referal stats

reqs: site
----: ----
62: [search.yell.com...]
45: [yell.co.uk...]
17: [eyp.co.uk...]
16: [search.yell.co.uk...]
11: [netcraft.com...]
6: [accountingweb.co.uk...]
1: [f22.mail.yahoo.com...]
1: [bbk.co.uk...]
1: [209.185.131.251...]
1: [au.f34.mail.yahoo.com...]
1: [jayandco.co.uk...]
1: [altavista.co.uk...]
1: [altavista.com...]

That's pretty impressive ? beating AV by a magnitude of over 100 !

Until you are told the stats are for the past year :)

Oh and before you ask, I just created the page, I wasn't asked to submit or optimise it. They are based in South Woodford so perhaps I should recomend that they get listed in Essex pages. ;)

[rcjordan]

Compared to what I've heard, 45/yr is pretty impressive for YP.

[engine]

Yellow Pages (printed version) is really good for finding plumbers, builders and alike. The online versions should transfer nicely - but not at £190. When I challenged the sales person that the cost is too high, they replied, "...we've done a lot of research and this figure is about right."
I asked them to take it back to their marketing department with the message that it is too much.
I remember having this conversation with them a year ago.
Oh, BTW, they claim 10-million page views per month.
Mark - it's interesting what the stats say. I suppose it depends on their industry, etc. Will the client go for it again at EYP?