local listing services

[figment88]

Has anyone used the listing services from RegisterLocal or List&Found?

They largely seem to resell the service from Localeze (which is front for Amacai) and add on some other distribution.

I cannot really tell what is going on, though. Their websites are largely uninformative and sending sales inquiries returns riddles. I have no idea why they are so secretive about what they actually do for the service fee.

For $200/location, though, I need to know more before I can recommend such a service to my clients.

[Silvery]

Why use an aggregated registration service at all? It's just not that hard to go directly to register at top vertical sites for your industry, the top search engines, and the top directories...

Save the $200.

[figment88]

Well listing manually is fine for a few sites but when you have multiple clients each with multiple locations, time can get really eaten up. I think Localeze charges about $25/location which seems sensible. The services built on it don't seem to give you much, though, for the extra $175.

BTW have you ever listed a local bricks and mortar business. It is much more difficult than listing a website or a national business. The IYP's and local search sites are atrocious. They are slow and buggy - usability is poor. They all work differently.

[GameMasterM]

Save the $200. I understand Localeze gets you into MSN local and that's it. I might be wrong. Their user interface looks simple however it's extremely clunky and the services are not explained well.
I find using any other directory easier to use including YellowPages.com who are notoriously slow. (plus you get a hard sell call two months later)
I place my clients into more than a dozen directories and the major SE's. It's laborious but the effort is worth it for the client. Instant visibility, zero to sixty in a day!
The most effective campaign for local I find is using local targeted AdWords, no question.