YellowBook/Weforia Door Hangers...

I went ahead and let YP (same system as YB) do the sales job on me on the phone one time last year. I told them straight out when they asked what it is I do "I do online marketing with directories that boost online conversions into in person sales..." basically what they do. I even told them they got my number because I was filling out directory listings for my own company.

Long story short, the bottom line price they wanted to charge me was $250 a month. I gathered that was based on how many customers I could handle and how much each was worth to me.

That was just for the listing. I said no to the web site, and marketing - this was just for my listing to be verified and have a red title instead of a black one.

Main thing I am getting at is this - they charge FAR more than anyone here does. Even if someone here is charging 700 a month; I can pretty much guarantee they are doing more for that money.

Now, becuase I went through that; I ask people how much they are paying YP. I have heard 150, 85, 55 - and so on. I can say without a doubt, that their service sucks giant donkey balls (that is my professional opinion - you don't want to hear my street version).

Now, they do have a system where they put a local guy in the area to handle accounts, and he will upsell the whole thing anywhere from 500 a year to 7000 a year. So again, they do the same thing anyone else is doing, but it is without a doubt much more bland and far less personal than any consultant with an intent to build a killer client list would do. Offline sales is kind of the new "cell phone game". YB and YP have all lost out on the print books, they then got hooked up with the cell phones systems, but now they are losing that to people savvy in using wifi and skipping the cell system completely. So all ad campaigns are pointed at offline connections and directory.

So how much does it cost? A TON - since its worthless. They can not compete with a bespoke marketing ninja; every YB customer you find is ripe to either want you or never had it to succeed in the first place. You can get more profit just by talking to them directly; while the directory companies have to go for high volume and high margin on less service. If you want to know how to replicate what they are doing with door hangers - order 500/1000 color door hangers from an online source. These will barely be expensive other than the time it takes you to design the graphics yourself. Hire a kid to go hang them and expect no more than 1% return. It could be more, but hey just plan for the best case scenario. I could probably find out how to do something similar from $250 to $1000 depending on how involved I want to get into it.