I stopped advertising with the Yellow Pages a few months ago.The reason being,is that nearly everyone is using Google to find goods and services on the net.

Sensis were reluctant to give me stats on the number of clicks on my website for their monthly fee.Upon analysis it was costing me via Yellow Pages Online $38.00 per click as opposed to Google's average of $1.00 per click on my website.

If Yellow Pages or Sensis is to continue to exist, they must take Google on at their own game.The following should be their strategy.

1/ Put out a DVD with all the info in the Yellow/White books that no one looks at anymore,so we can download them on our computers.When we download the info on their DVD,an icon will appear at the top of our browser as a reminder to use Yellow rather than Google.

2/Yellow Pages need to develop their own search engine independant of Google.They must get a more intimate knowledge of Aust businesses and their needs and match these with those of prospective customers.They can beat Google by providing a better service to both businesses and customers.

3/ Match Google with a cost per word but give a better service.

Marketing is as complex and variable as the whims of our society.It takes a lot of research to know what works.

Google's aim is to dominate the market and charge what they want.I don't want to see Yellow Pages (Sensis) enter oblivion since it will cost both business and the consumer much more if one player dominates.

I, for one, use yellow pages when I need a service, and as opposed to shmoogle that takes money for lost visitors that try to sort among myriad of irrelevant links, I don't browse yellow-pages because I'm bored, but because I really need something very specific, so when I look at the category I need, I WILL use the services of one of them.

Yuyutsu, Yellow pages have been used to be almost a monopoly power.They have been caught out by the power of Google.This is why they are spending so much money on advertising to stem the bleeding while they figure out a new strategy.

Dear Arjay,

I, as a consumer, use yellow-pages because it's the standard and proper way to seek a service.

If I want something, then I should be the one to initiate the search - anyone who throws an ad at me, is being immediately blacklisted!
(I did, however, install every possible piece of software to not see that disgusting stuff, including on this site)

Yellow pages provides an orderly, solid, Australian directory based on my location and the specific service that I need. Sometimes I use the physical yellow book and other times the online service, but in any case, I wouldn't go searching for a local service at an American site, how much more so a criminal company which systematically evades people's privacy by publishing aerial photos of their homes, streets and backyards.

The Stats are Yuyutsu that most people today are using Google to find a service or product and Google is cheaper that most competitors. Yellow Online is too expensive for the service they provide.

It is obviously commendable that you are standing firm against the tide of progress, Yuyutsu, but I suspect that King Canute would have a few words of advice for you on that subject.

But it is only fair to point out that you are looking through the opposite end of the telescope from Arjay, who is seeing the impact of the various internet search options from the perspective of a product provider.

>>I, as a consumer, use yellow-pages because it's the standard and proper way to seek a service.<<

Actually, it is neither "standard", nor "proper" any longer.

My company has been invisible to Yellow Pages for more than five years. And every time they try to solicit my business - usually close to the end of a quarter - I compare their offer to the mainstream search engines, and find it somewhat pathetic. As Arjay points out, they are ridiculously expensive, and can only justify this expense on the familiarity of their product to a certain section of the public.

What will eventually happen is that those businesses who still fork out for their service will realize that it is not actually reaching the 100% of the public that it used to, back in the days of plain old telephones and bulky telephone books. And the public will simultaneously discover that not all businesses can be found in there...

All good things come to an end at some point. Mostly when they become irrelevant.

<<Yellow Online is too expensive for the service they provide>>

Oh thanks, I didn't know that - I was assuming that every Australian business has a line there with at least the business-name and address (having an area advertisement is of course more expensive, so I wouldn't expect everyone to have it). This way I was expecting to not miss any and I'd probably go by the flags and choose the one located nearest to me.

Perhaps I should stick to the printed version!

i understand yellow pages..is sepperate from telicom[telstra]..whatever..yet i feel they are the same

it has the oppertuinity to out google google[in ya dreams]
but it can serve its custom base better..[by being australia specific]

and offering all [everyone]
a free web acces..of say half a gig
that buys loyalty...starts us on their page*

the first search puts their 5 best custom suggestions
plus a google top 5 plus a yahhoo top 5

as their page would appear first
their picks are first

and iyt all begins with giving EVERYONE..
LIMITED..gig..plus web acces..for free
24 million sims..or offers for limited free web acces

more
once we sign a contract
we repeat this globally..

each DEDICATED serving its own people..LOCALLY...*first..
se google owns the search..yellow pages [or who ever]..

needs to give a bit more..[buy our loyalty
..with gig/web acces...for zip]..as a public service

I find yellow pages as a leson in frustration and do t bothe using it anymore, unless I really have to.

NOT HAPPY JAN!

It's time to move on.

Yuyutsu, it is costing me $320 per month with Google at the moment.For a comparable service from Yellow On Line,it would be $11,400.per mth.

Sensis is part of Telstra and I don't think a Govt body has the survival instinct to evolve into something more competitive.The best they could offer was a 7% reduction in premium for another 12 mths contract.

If Sensis become specialised in Aust Business and concentrate on helping businesses find customers and the reciprocal of this reality,then they will prosper.With the hard times beginning to bite this yr,I like many businesses have begun to look at costs and returns.

Probably the best thing for it's survival is to sell Sensis off to private enterprise but I don't think it is now worth much.

On this topic Pericles and I agree.

Dear Arjay,

How much will it cost you to put a LINE, just one single line in yellow-pages to let people know that your business exists?

When choosing a service I'm not looking at any glossy stuff (in fact, that puts me off), I just need to know that there is a provider near me, their address and phone-number, then I choose the one closest, if they don't answer I call the next closest, simple.

What's "Sensis" anyway? (and why should I care about it?)

Look, I'm just offering you my 2c advice, to let you know that some people are not into this computer/internet craze and can still open a real book made of real paper. Better not forget them because they can become good customers of yours!

I suspect - although I don't know for certain, Yuyutsu - that it might be possible to have a one-line entry in the Yellow Pages that gives the name of my business, its address, and a phone number.

Frankly, that is about as much use to me as tits on a bull.

No URL, no email address, no description of what my business does. They don't even have a category that is accurate enough to identify my business - "find by category" yields 693 results in NSW, 193 in Greater Sydney, and 63 in my postcode. Which is irrelevant anyway, because I don't have a shopfront. So having a free entry in a place where no-one can find me is a total irrelevance.

But intriguingly, if geography were of interest and relevance - if, say, I were a restaurant...

>>I just need to know that there is a provider near me, their address and phone-number, then I choose the one closest, if they don't answer I call the next closest, simple.<<

Not necessarily. You would constantly be swapping backwards and forwards between the address in the yellow pages and a street directory(!).

What many people are doing these days is using their smartphone. One app finds the restaurant, together with details of the cuisine, the price bracket and some reviews, and shows the restaurant's distance away. And, for good measure, a map, with directions of how to get there from where you are standing.

Now *that* is simple.

And free.

To you.

But not, as Arjay points out, to the restaurant - they pay, in order to be visible to you.

>>Better not forget them because they can become good customers of yours!<<

In ever-decreasing numbers, one suspects.

Sensis, by the way, is the advertising and directories arm of Telstra Corporation, and is the company that owns Yellow Pages.

Dear Pericles,

<<Not necessarily. You would constantly be swapping backwards and forwards between the address in the yellow pages and a street directory(!).>>

That's why I found the online version attractive - it places little flags with numbers on a map, so I focus the map on my area and look at the closest flags.

Only now, Arjay is telling me that not every business is there, so I may have to go back to the printed version and sort the category by post-codes.

<<No URL, no email address, no description of what my business does.>>

Once I know your business-name and address, a quick search can find the URL (if you have one). An email is completely irrelevant - I'm not going to write that much, introducing myself, opening myself up to spams and then having to wait for replies.
I also have no reason to believe descriptions - I often found that advertisers don't provide what they seem to promise. The best way is to phone, and see whether I get to talk with a real person who is available and can understand exactly what I need. If I get passed to a switchboard instead and treated like a number, then I hang-up and look at the next entry.

<<To you. But not, as Arjay points out, to the restaurant - they pay, in order to be visible to you.>>

In the end, it is I who pays the bill - advertising costs are simply included in the menu. That's just one reason why advertisements are a turn-off: I rather pay for the food (in the case of a restaurant) and support a local family-business. If I find that rather than paying for a meal, some of my bill goes to shmoogle instead, feeding some American computer-geeks, I may not enjoy the meal that much!

You can search locally via your mobile for anything and all the information you need will appear then you push the phone number on the screen to call them.

You can even open an app with pre-set search queries, hold the phone up, and it'll tell you the distance to that business, offer a map, and if you want to call them.

Yellow pages. lol

Dear StG,

<<You can search locally via your mobile for anything>>

That would be an interesting experiment as mine is made of thin air!

Does this mean you don't have a mobile phone, Yuyutsu?

>>That would be an interesting experiment as mine is made of thin air!<<

It would certainly go a long way towards explaining your attitude to Yellow Pages.

Mind you, it does also paint a picture of someone who, faced with Caxton's fifteenth century breakthrough, would have grumbled that the entire concept of reading books was vastly overrated.

Yuyutsu,

Right, well, luck with that when they're gone. You've obviously got a computer. Whereis.com has your yellow pages - OMG YES, they're online too - and everything else you might need.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

Thank you StG, I tried "Whereis.com" and it worked beautifully.

I noticed that all the entries there had a "yellow-pages" symbol besides them. Does it mean that I wouldn't see those businesses that are not in the yellow-pages?

---
The answer is Yes, Pericles: I find it immoral to send electromagnetic radiation through other people, animals and birds, though I have no wish to impose my own moral standards on others.

Hmmmm. Most worthy, Yuyutsu.

>>Yes, Pericles: I find it immoral to send electromagnetic radiation through other people, animals and birds, though I have no wish to impose my own moral standards on others.<<

Better keep the budgie away from your computer, eh.

http://www.emwatch.com/Computers.htm

Any damage from the use of a mobile phone is also likely to be self-inflicted, in exactly the same way that you are exposing yourself to EMR from your computer. Outside of that consideration, you are doing your fellow-humans no harm...

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs304/en/index.html

Unless you believe the World Health Organization is lying, that is. Which is of course a possibility, I suppose.