Master Mark

We live or die in the yellow pages...

and I have faced the fact that they have
me by the balls a long time ago

and they have treated me like dirt becasue
they know that they can do so.

I have alwyay wondered how big a sap
they have played me for.....telling me what a great deal
I am getting this year , ect ect...

Its a closely guarded secret what people pay
and the yellow page man wont reveal any
of this to me every year he comes out to shake me down

sometomes I wonder what the very big
people pay for the fullpage color adds..

Their is one company in town with three full color pages
and more in last years book ... I always wonder what
that probaly has cost them....

my guess is about 5000 per full color page plus all
the other frills.... It probably works out to 20-25,000 per month ....They DO get a lot of work...

I think we got a very good deal this year because they knew we were gonna pull back our horns, so they gave us everything we got for basically half price.....

is this something that is taboo to talk about???

or has the Yellow page people got us all fooled into fighting against each other even across state lines...???


I will post what I pay per month if you post yours...

__________________
God created man, Sam Colt made them equal."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQMO1eyMRuM

Pipedoc

I found that once my account progressed in size and I was given a Senior Ad Rep that the deals got much better. I know another guy in town and we share info on ad cost. My prices were far better than his. It is amazing how much some people are paying for comparble size ads when I know I am probably paying way too much myself.

I absolutely hate signing that contract every year.

I sarted doing work for this ad rep and got to know her pretty well over the years. She is now retired. She tells me that the books will be gone with in ten years. The yellow page companies are well aware of this and that is why they are getting more in to the internet advertising. The companies won't go away but the format is going to change.

Do I beleive her? Well.......? Take it for what its worth.

Bollinger plumber

yellow pages have been good to me and the prices are reasonable. I only have a small 1" ad and it does well. I also have an ad in the yellow book which to me is a total waste of money. I havce gotten 2 calls all year but both of them were just price shoppers, I am canceling after it runs out.

__________________
http://alsdrainservice.services.offi...m/default.aspx

Only two devining forces have died for you. One is Jesus Christ and the other is the American soldier. One died for your soul the other died for your freedom.

UnclogNH

Due to my area and population size.
Phone book prices are not bad.

I did dump Yellow Book AKA PDC pages $1,200 for a small 2.5" x 3"
ad This was the biggest out of all competitions listings basic phone number
Thought I would give it a shot. NOT ONE Call all year
$1,200 down the tubes
So I dropped them have basic free listing and still have a good easy to find listing

Verizon/Idearc has been doing OK for me over the years with fair prices. Thank God I'm not in the city with heavy competition Bigger $$$$ I would have sank.

__________________
Charging less does not mean more call volume it just means you have to work harder to reach your goals.

Master Mark

Their will always be a yellow page bok,
its just a fact that they now have competition
that they never had before.....

I got 2 1/4 page adds in the big book...plumbing and heaters

we are in the south, west, and north subarban books.
with dollar sized adds under plumbers and water heaters...
alllso in the coupon section of the big boook

all black and white adds. no color..

this town and the surrounding area probably has about 2 mil people...

all for the price of $2600.per month...
this is under about half of what we paid in 2001 for about the same thing..

so I assume that Ameritech is now begging to
keep people sending them their lifes blood.....


now does that seem too resonable
or is that a good deal?? Does it depend on the area
and demographics of the region???





Also like others have stated...
the YELLOW BOOK is a total, complete joke

they do make good door stops...

__________________
God created man, Sam Colt made them equal."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQMO1eyMRuM

Miguel

I guess I was lucky. Was paying about $1200 for an 1/8 pg ad but was starting to get ticked at all the nuiscance calls at 2 a.m. from ppl that couldn't keep a regular plumber because they always seemed to be in some sort of "financial crisis" at invoice time.

When the yellow pages lady called I told her I wouldn't renew. Period. Thanks and bye. The next day the sales manager called because he was sure it was some mistake.
The last words I heard from him were, "Are you stupid?!?"
I almost snapped but instead just answered, "Not as stupid as you. DUMBASS!" and hung up.

My client list was fairly long with some really good customers so I didn't think that I'd suffer that much. Turns out I never did suffer at all and I never showed up at another appointment where the inconsiderate HO had simply called everyone in the yellow pages until someone finally showed up.

I hope that SOB sales manager is doing well selling shoes at Walmart.

Phat Cat

It is regional what ads cost. Depends a lot on distribution.

One book we have 1/2 page, two spot colors

2nd book a double truck add full color

The 2nd book is cheaper than the first, but is distributed to only one county. The 1st book goes to both counties.

__________________
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. – Edmund Burke

Bollinger plumber

I have dealt with the yellow pages people quite a bit and they have always been respectful and courteous to me. never have I had one get out of line.

__________________
http://alsdrainservice.services.offi...m/default.aspx

Only two devining forces have died for you. One is Jesus Christ and the other is the American soldier. One died for your soul the other died for your freedom.

user823

I haven't had a yellow page ad in over 6 years and I can hardly keep up with the work. We do have three different small books for my area and this year I decided to put a small quarter page ad in one of them. The guy came by yesterday with the proofs, very nice color ad, $118.00 a month. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, I might go for it.
The internet advertising in my area doesn't work, nobody looks on the computer for a plumber etc., just does't happen here so I'm pretty sure the books will be around for a long time.

SewerRatz

They are taking us to court stating we did not pay any of our 2006 bill. Thing is in 2005 we told them we are no longer advertising with them. So we have a letter from them confirming this. Also the so called contract they produced, has our presidents name printed in block letters where the signature supposed to be and its misspelled.

Another company of ours was taken to court by them, same basic ****. But this time it was due to them making a mistake on our ads, so they offered us 24k in free advertising. So when they took us to court they produced a contract that my father had signed, which originally had all zero's written in the charges, but was later scratched out and prices added. There are no initials by any of the scratch outs at all, so it is a spoiled contract. During this lawsuit we asked them to produce all the phone books from the year prior to the contract. They never did, and the judge ruled in their favor since we do not have the book in our possession any more with their mistake. Oh the mistake, someone else's phone number in our ad.

So we have not advertised in any of their books since 2006.

__________________
Ron Hasil Lic #058-160417
A-Archer Sewer & Plumbing specializing in:
Tankless Water Heaters | Drain and Sewer Cleaning
Sump and Ejector Pumps | Backflow RPZ Testing