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I gave into Yell

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After all my moans about Yell... I've finally spoken with someone pleasant there and been given 40% off the advertising rate with the first month free. They must be making the mad dash to hit targets! :D

I know some people are going to shake their heads and tut at me but to be honest I'm now willing to give it a shot in my bid to get noticed locally. At the end of the day, I only need one small design job to come in and cover the cost. Been trying everything else to get noticed - not sure if people are sitting on my details or what.

I get 18 bullet points and I intend to use as many as possible. I'm gonna do everything possible to make it stand out. :D

I'll let you know if it works. I hope it does!!
 
I'd be interested to hear how you get on!

I've been advertising on a PAYG with Yell for about 6 months now (one of many avenues I'm trying as a new business).

I must admit, I've hardly noticed any impact - last month (June 10) there were only 42 views - with 4 actually clicking to my website (You can access the ad via Yell.com by typing "kitschagogo" or my website add http://www.kitschagogo.com.

I've gone to town on my ad with keywords, photos - every detail I could think of... not sure I'll renew the ad though... Maybe I've got to revamp the ad?
 
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SOTRC,
Did you deal with a rep. or was it telesales from Reading or down south somewhere.?

I have been having a bit of a ding dong with the local rep and basically all he wants to do is increase his sales which includes me going back into yellow pages which I really think is now a waste of money.

Would be interested what you have ended up paying ... if you don't want to post it , just send me a PM.
 
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I don't thin people use yell.com as much as google anymore.

Your money would probably be better spent on seo for your site.

I will outrank yell for my terms soon.
 
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Yell.com is just too expensive, its untargeted for many businesses as most will be B2b or in the technical/professional fields like Computers/PC repair, Web services, Printers or Caterers etc.

Seems to me whenever they drop/negotiate a lower fee, then people sign up with them? Is this a sign that Yell are indeed overpriced, they are just a general directory service after all, and not a bot-driven search engine.
 
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I have some mediumweight yell ads and I must say that they are strikingly average.

They tried to upsell a banner and I told them where to go.
 
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eventdomain said:
Yell.com is just too expensive, its untargeted for many businesses as most will be B2b or in the technical/professional fields like Computers/PC repair, Web services, Printers or Caterers etc.

Seems to me whenever they drop/negotiate a lower fee, then people sign up with them? Is this a sign that Yell are indeed overpriced, they are just a general directory service after all, and not a bot-driven search engine.
Click to expand...

Oh also on this, I managed to get them down to about one third of what they originally said.

Haggle like crazy with Yell, they are some slick kippers!
 
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SOTRC said:
After all my moans about Yell... I've finally spoken with someone pleasant there and been given 40% off the advertising rate with the first month free. They must be making the mad dash to hit targets! :Dquote]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Good luck, we just got a similar deal with yell, and after around 8 phone calls to the add office, they still haven’t got my add correct. It seems to be problem after problem [/FONT]
Click to expand...
 
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op you mention about bullet points - everyone uses bullet points so if you use the lines of text instead, your listing will stand out for that reason alone. Also, few people make use of a thumbnail image on their listing so put a stiking one on there asnd again it'll make your entry stand out...

also beaware that you can advertise month by month with no yearly contract. This option costs more per month than if it were contracted but it does give you the chaance to see what response you're getting from your yell.com ad before committing yourself. I did this myself and found that click throughs to my site were vitually nil also enqurires nil also so I cancelled it all after 2 months...
 
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Just had a good look at how people are using their adverts and seen a couple of examples of how some businesses have tried to make the most of them by adding more description, bullets and photos whereas others haven't bothered.

I'm gonna try putting as much useful info as possible and have thought carefully about what to put in my initial bullets which appear in the listing. I don't want to be identical to other listing in the same industry.

So, I'll see what happens - if it has any effect. Might as well take a gamble. If it doesn't do anything I won't use it again, if it works - great!

Think the guy I spoke to was a rep. A nice Irish chap!
 
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I've tried most things with Yell, online and in the book; small ads, big ads, featured listings, and sponsored listings (that wasn't cheap). I can safely say that it was all money down the drain and the small amount of business we got from it didn't cover the outlay. Complete waste of time.

I've been a soft touch before, but this year I put my foot down when the rep came round. Her last ditch attempt to get me to advertise was that our existing customers might have forgotten who we were, and would find us in the book! Don't think so.

I think they must be losing out big time at the moment. I've had customers come to me saying that they're spending 5k + per year with Yell, and can we do anything online for them for that money..... er.... yes - and it will actually work!
 
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The last time I used them was 3 years ago. I would be interested to find out what you payed.

I also heard some stories in the business press that Yell wasn't doing that well financially.
 
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I really do jope it works out for you, but waste of money IMHO. As others have suggested, it is a dying business and best to invest your hard-earned money into search marketing as people use search engines to find companies nowadays rather than Yellow Pages.
 
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Your money would probably be better spent on seo for your site.
Click to expand...

I agree totally. Think about it. How many times do you use Yell yourself? I never use it and AFAIK hardly anyone else does.

.
 
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Id rather burn my money than give it to these halfwits. When we started I was quite prepared to sign up with them but after missed appointments, not returning calls and some Irish chap phoning me 5 minutes after every gumtree posting I make they can go swivel. Dispicable company.
 
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I would agree a waste of money, yell have had their day, and looking at this thread not 1 single success story i think that says it all.

R.I.P Yell you had a great life
 
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I'm quite amazed that you decided to sign-up when all I ever hear about Yell is incredibly negative stories about how almost every penny is wasted.
 
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I've got to say I think it's a waste of money too. I don't think any of our clients who have used it have seen a return. As a previous poster said, he doesn't use it, so why would his potential customers?

Whether it be SEO or making new contacts at a local networking event, I really do think the budget can be used to better effect......Sorry:(
 
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You are right OP. You are mad. You may as well have emptied your wallet down the toilet.

I'm serious. I worked in ad sales for 10 years and 80% of it just doesn't wash it's face.

You will totally regret it. I assure you.
 
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80% of it just doesn't wash it's face.
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Pretty obvious why - that 80% is just over-priced untargeted, 'follow the leader' advertising in the wrong publications.

A general publication cannot cater for all tastes, every industry sector is different, it has a specific market group to reach.

The waste of ad space must be huge these days with 80% of ads never being seen by its intended group, purely bcos that group never goes near these general publications. Its that simple is it not.

Plus, these publications will lose advertisers when the ad space fails for them - they won't return to book slots again. That's why all these companies went niche, its better, its targeted and it works!

No wonder Yell isnt effective, it doesn't work for that 80% anymore, sad, but true.
 
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Thought I'd do an update.

Well... looks as though I didn't waste my money in the end. Not because the ad worked but because they never sent out the forms they were supposed to, my ad never appeared in the 'My Account' area for me to edit, and the bigger advert went back down to a free listing a few days ago. So, I've decided not to chase it and leave it as is. If they try and bill me (which I doubt) they'll have a huge argument on their hands. Fortunately they don't have my card details. I'm seeing it as fate stepping in.

The good thing is that my business name has randomly been put in all capital letters which I guess helps it jumps off the page more. :D
 
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I'm on yell.com and get business from it every single day near enough.

Though that is only becasue it ranks near the top of google for the term that people search for to find firms like mine.

I don't have a website so it's useful for me and not really all that expensive.
 
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If you are doing central heating in Llandudno there is no reason why a simple website would not get you much more traffic that Yell.com at a fraction of the price. Local serarch engine optimisation is relatively easy for businesses like yours

.
 
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Have they reduced the page size and depth of the publication to allow the delivery agents to get it through letter boxes instead of sitting it outside on the door step where the local louts come past to play 'create a yellow brick road'? Or also so that people who don't use their front doors as an access point (there are many on new build areas) can find it? I'm just wondering, or is there another reason for the change in size?

Our yellow pages ends up in a drawer somewhere, I don't even know where the most recent is and the only time I've ever used an edition was when my home internet ceased to work and I needed to contact a local computer business. So maybe PC businesses would benefit most.
 
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If you are doing central heating in Llandudno there is no reason why a simple website would not get you much more traffic that Yell.com at a fraction of the price. Local serarch engine optimisation is relatively easy for businesses like yours
Click to expand...

I agree it probably is easy but that kind of thing is double dutch to me.
 
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What would really p1ss me off is if yell decided to start optimising their sites to sit in the top 3 of the serps.

Currently because they have some authority they can float around page 1 and two for most service related terms but from what i mostly see its usually the lower half of page 1 so they wont get much click through traffic.
 
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*wishes people would spend their money on being proactive*
..if you want to get noticed locally talk to local businesses, tell them who you are, what you do, why you are great at it and who you have done a brilliant job for in the past!
 
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Hiya. I don't know much about Yell, but I had a quick look on Google and you come up high for Graphic Designer Stirlingshire anyway. You don't come up quite so high for Graphic Designer Falkirk - you could put that on one of your page titles or within the copy. Make sure your FreeIndex listing has these keywords too.

Also, I'd make sure your website has the best possible chance of converting - for example, put a short, catchy testimonial on the homepage, and it would be great to see more items in your portfolio (obviously this depends on how much time you have had to build a portfolio). Ooh and your blog page doesn't work so that might put people off.

Sorry - I expect you didn't start this thread to get website comments - I'm just nosy!
 
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Yell.com rang me yesterday, not the sales department, the listings department.

They've changed my free listing to include a link to my website. Srsly, how well do they hide the fact that you can get that for free?
 
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