yellowpages.com listing.. currently worth it?

[Dan_J]

Hi Guys, I'm about to pull the trigger on listing my company on the first page of yellowpages.ca. I'm the only computer repair shop in my city (population near 1 million) that has reviews on their yellowpages listing. However i'm on page 9 because i have not yet paid to have my listing on page 1.

When "computer repair" is entered in to google the yellowpages listings are the first results displayed.


My question is, do any of you get a real good response from the online listing? Before i commit to paying $70 a month for a year i'd like to get a few from people who have and how they feel it worked for them.

I know there are a lot of threads on the topic but i'd like your input on my specific scenario as well as some more current responses.

Thank you so much guys!

Dan

 

[lan101]

I'm in a rural area and I feel around my area it's still worth having printed ads in the phonebook. It's fairly reasonably priced now and it's just something you are going to have to try out. It may work and bring you a lot of business or it may not. I know the first year for me it probably paid the bill and made a little profit, but some of the customers I gained from it have been really good ones.

If you work for a lot of older folks, than I would suggest at least trying it for 1 year and see what happens.

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

We tried yellow pages for two years and got almost nothing from it, we are right outside of Boston mass so there's plenty of people in the area around here.

 

[Dan_J]

Hi Guys, thanks for the replies. I'm not going to be doing the printed ads because a lot of people here say there is very limited exposure.

However what i am asking about is the yellowpages.com listings. The ones on their website. I'm asking because for 68.50 a month i can have my ad as the number 3 spot on their website under the computer repair category.

When you do a google search for practicly everything computer related. The yellowpages is the first result.

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

Not only do I not know anybody that still uses the printed version. I have never heard of anybody using the online version.

If I am looking for something. I goggle it and start my search from there.

Yellowpages.com isn't even in my thoughts when searching for anything local.

 

[tankman1989]

Not only do I not know anybody that still uses the printed version. I have never heard of anybody using the online version.

If I am looking for something. I goggle it and start my search from there.

Yellowpages.com isn't even in my thoughts when searching for anything local.

I second that! But it really depends upon the demographics you are targeting (45+ age group probably use yellow pages more).

 

[lcoughey]

As far as I'm concerned, Yellow Pages is a scam. Be careful with how they word things, too. Apparently when they show you a price total for a 1 year ad, it is not the annual total, rather the monthly total. When discovered, they will take you all the way to court to get their scam money. If they cannot make money from providing a good product, they'll get their money scamming it.

I also recently discovered that Bell forces you into a new 3 year contract unless you tell them otherwise. Even when you call to inquire about switching services, they never tell you about the auto-renewal. On top of that, they hide a notice within your bill, under a line item called "other services" with zero dollar balance. They seem to think that everyone should read every page of their bills every month...yeah, right. If you want to post a notice, it should be on the first page in bold.

 

[Dan_J]

Hmmm, alright. Thanks guys! It was sort of a mystery as to what exactly they were saying they were going to give me. She kept saying it will bump my listing up on the web page but never said to where. I also asked whats going to stop them from calling the competitor that i bumped lower and having them "upgrade" to a package above me again. She really didnt give me any concrete answers.

I'm just looking for a paid advertisement that will bring me a little bit more traffic. I've run adwords and set the account up to the best of my ability while setting up keywords and areas to target. I find with adwords i'll get some traffic but it's never really worth it. I seem to make just over breaking even with it.

My big winner so far has been "kijiji" which is similar to craigslist. I've been getting about 3 drop offs per day from a free ad. I still need more.. much more.

 

[mraikes]

...snipped...

I'm just looking for a paid advertisement that will bring me a little bit more traffic. I've run adwords and set the account up to the best of my ability while setting up keywords and areas to target. I find with adwords i'll get some traffic but it's never really worth it. I seem to make just over breaking even with it.... snipped...

My default answer on Yellowpages and the like is simply "no".

However, from past threads it seems there are still some areas where Yellowpages is worthwhile. Perhaps yours is one of them.

Your comment that Yellowpages is the first result in computer repair searches might be worth considering.

If that's true, then $68 month, limited to a 12 month trial, is worth considering. The break even point is pretty low - maybe 6-8 new customers over the course of 12 months. The monetary risk isn't huge.

If it's your gut feeling that YP online plays a significant role in your community then give it a try.

 

[Dan_J]

That's exactly it. Its the simple fact that the yellowpages.com listing for computer services occupies that #1 spot on the search engines. I've got a feeling customers may frequently click that to view what is in the area.

I suppose i may be stressing myself out and pushing myself away from it because of so many posts on yellowpages not working out for people. I know it's not a huge monetary loss. Perhaps you're right. The only way to find out for sure is to give it a shot and see what happens. Atleast i'll know if it works or not.

 

[lan101]

Also what's also helped me in my area is I'm the only one that offers a flat rate onsite visit, whereas everyone else legit in the area either doesn't offer it or charges by the hour ( a lot more than most want to pay )

Right in my ad, it says we make business calls and house calls.

As many in here are trying to do now, I am trying my best to get to where I'm doing more businesses instead of residential. I still feel that there is good customers in the residential market that are willing to pay for good sound service.

I've probably not worked for one person under the age of 50 that said they found my number in the phone book. So obviously it's the older crowd that still use it.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Sounds like a plan I was in, I pulled out as it did not work at all. They kept telling me I was getting calls but I knew I wasn't.

Hi Guys, I'm about to pull the trigger on listing my company on the first page of yellowpages.ca. I'm the only computer repair shop in my city (population near 1 million) that has reviews on their yellowpages listing. However i'm on page 9 because i have not yet paid to have my listing on page 1.

When "computer repair" is entered in to google the yellowpages listings are the first results displayed.


My question is, do any of you get a real good response from the online listing? Before i commit to paying $70 a month for a year i'd like to get a few from people who have and how they feel it worked for them.

I know there are a lot of threads on the topic but i'd like your input on my specific scenario as well as some more current responses.

Thank you so much guys!

Dan

 

[Dan_J]

Hey, thanks Tony! I've got a lot of things going on right now and i'm trying to get my head on straight so i can make the right decision. I'm opening my first store front in 60 days. (super nervous and excited) I just want to start doing a bit of marketing beforehand so i can really get the fire burning once i'm in the store. I'm going to hold off on the yellowpages right now and invest it in to better signage for the store front i think. It's going to be in a retail plaza that gets LOTS of traffic. It's beside a tim hortons and accross the street from a bestbuy. Pretty stoked. Hope the best buy thing works in my favor.

A lot of my current customers are people that went to best buy and were either quoted high or didnt have a problem solved.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Hey, thanks Tony! I've got a lot of things going on right now and i'm trying to get my head on straight so i can make the right decision. I'm opening my first store front in 60 days. (super nervous and excited) I just want to start doing a bit of marketing beforehand so i can really get the fire burning once i'm in the store. I'm going to hold off on the yellowpages right now and invest it in to better signage for the store front i think. It's going to be in a retail plaza that gets LOTS of traffic. It's beside a tim hortons and accross the street from a bestbuy. Pretty stoked. Hope the best buy thing works in my favor.

A lot of my current customers are people that went to best buy and were either quoted high or didnt have a problem solved.

Thanks again guys!

Best buy would send me 3-4 customers a week. I had my store in front of Bestbuy. They do not do laptop repairs nor replacement of motherboards. So if they cannot get someone to buy a new computer and transfer their data they will tell them to go to CFI (Me).

My recommendation is that any computer Techs come check you out, be very nice, buy them a cup of coffee and ask them if there is ever a way we can work together just let me know. You never know who is going to be an ally tomorrow.

 

[Dan_J]

Very True, I actually had a guy here in town that was stealing my website content...including my customer testimonials and changing the names in them to match his own site with fictitious customer names.

Well, I gave him a call to let him know that i was watching him and i'd like it changed. I was very respectful and professional in the matter. He apologized profusely and changed it immediately. He expressed how he was extremely embarassed and was sort of lost when it comes to doing this sort of hands on tech work.

A couple of weeks later i began getting phone calls from people that had been referred to me by him. Had I handled the situation in a more confrontational aggressive manner i wouldn't be picking up these referrals for more advanced repairs like motherboard rework, screen replacements,hard drive replacements and the like.

There will always be the lesser skilled guys out there, it's important to let them know that you are able to take on the more advanced work.

I used to work for best buy when i immigrated to canada. I needed a job BAD after being unauthorized to work for 3 years. It's amazing the items that i was forced to send out for a 2-4 week repair that could have been resolved with simple things like bios updates and re applying thermal compound. When I left best buy even virus removals were done by overseas "technicians" that often left the systems in a worse state than they were dropped off in. Glad to be out of there!

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Congrats on opening your new shop. Wish you well.

 

[djyox]

I know this thread kinda went away from the yp.com. Anyhow, I have the opportunity to go with yp.com, however I am disappointed so far.

First, they are in no rush to help me, which I suppose I can't complain too much due to the fact they already have a contract with another business who is trying to transfer over to my business. They are getting paid one way or another so why work.

Second, I think the cost of $200 per month is a bit high. They say they can go cheaper, but the cost racks up so fast when your sitting with them, the cheapest was around $70 per month. (now I haven't heard the whole sales pitch but from what I can tell, you're better off paying your few hundo to yext.com and let them do it all as I think its the same, OR even better yet, over the next few days, you post yourself to all the sites yext would)

I'm just not impressed with advertising, and maybe I need to just find a better way. I am thinking of dumping into two of the local free news papers for cheap.