"Yellow Pages bleeding red ink" (via B to B Magazine)

Click here to view article.

Excerpt:

Mitch Goldstone, president-CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com was a loyal Yellow Pages advertiser for 18 years. But the photo scanning and finishing company stopped using Yellow Pages ads completely this year after the Yellow Pages in Orange County inadvertently left his ad out of its 2008 book. Goldstone opted to advertise with Local.com, a search engine that targets a business' message to local customers. The Local.com ads made his phones ring more than the Yellow Pages ad did, but at half the cost, he said.

Watch the ScanMyPhotos.com Commercial for Local.com

WATCH THE COMMERCIAL: Click here

My Local.com Success Story

In 1990 Mitch Goldstone, president and CEO of Irvine, Calif.-based ScanMyPhotos.com and 30 Minute Photos Etc., began purchasing the largest-sized display ads for their photo finishing category with several of the larger phone companies’ Yellow Pages services.

In August 2007, Goldstone noticed his usual ad which had run for 17 years, was not in one of the newly published directories. He alerted the company to the mistake and months later he received a letter of apology; but since Goldstone had signed a contract that absolved the company of publishing errors, he had no recourse for action.

This error created other problems for him: “Not only was I going to have to wait until next August to see my ad since the directory was already published, but without it, I looked like I was out of business. This is detrimental not only to potential customers, but to the industry and my competitors.”

In October 2007, Goldstone decided to look into online local search advertising. He had been hearing about how local search providers can geographically target a business’s message to local customers conducting online searches. Local search providers use keywords and search phrases to attract local customers to a company’s website by delivering results that are relevant to the company’s geographic region. They also provide free or paid listings that can be quickly updated unlike traditional Yellow Pages directories which are updated annually.

“My business continues to grow and change and we are always adding new products and specials,” said Goldstone. “Having the ability to quickly update my information when it changes, and reach customers in my area with my message, got me very excited about trying local search.” According to global Internet information provider, comScore, Inc., 47 percent of local searchers visited a local merchant as a result of their online search.“Having the ability to quickly update my information when it changes, and reach customers in my area with my message, got me very excited about trying local search.”

“Within just a couple of weeks after placing my ad with Local.com, the phone started ringing and hasn’t stopped since. I’m getting at least 10 calls per day from customers who have found me on Local.com. I can’t believe how easy it was to get started!”

In early November, Goldstone placed his first ad on Local.com: “Within just a couple of weeks after placing my ad with Local.com, the phone started ringing and hasn’t stopped since. I’m getting at least 10 calls per day from customers who have found me on Local.com. I can’t believe how easy it was to get started!”

Goldstone is utilizing Local.com’s Local Promote™ advertising program for his advertising needs. Local Promote provides an easy and cost effective way for businesses to guarantee that their listing will appear at the top of the search results page in a specified category and region. The annual subscription service allows businesses to reach targeted consumers already searching for their products and services online.

“Local Promote offers businesses an affordable, alternative advertising solution that guarantees their listing will appear at the top of Local.com search results”

“Local Promote offers businesses an affordable, alternative advertising solution that guarantees their listing will appear at the top of Local.com search results,” said Jennifer Black, Local.com vice president of marketing. “Local Promote businesses are screened to confirm that they are in good standing with the Better Business Bureau to ensure an exceptional experience for Local.com users. Local Promote is also considerably less expensive than competitive ad programs and offers great value for businesses wishing to target local consumers.”

For 17 years Goldstone placed ads in traditional Yellow Pages directories, but never got the response or the results he is getting with his Local.com local search ads. “I should have been doing this years’ ago. When I look back now, I realize that I just advertised in the Yellow Pages’ directories more out of habit and not results. I was just like any other small business out there looking for a way to get my business noticed and didn’t know of another way.”

Goldstone continues to track his local customer leads, which are growing as a result of his relationship with Local.com. “Not only is Local.com connecting my business with new customers, they’re helping me build my business. The return on investment is incredible. I’m getting the exposure I never received with my traditional Yellow Pages ad and it’s costing me half the money.”

For over 17 years, Goldstone’s two businesses, ScanMyPhotos.com and 30 Minute Photos have attracted nationwide customers. But he says attracting local customers requires a different strategy. “To survive as a small business, you need to reach local customers in your neighborhood. And to do this, you need a geographically focused strategy. Local.com helped me develop my strategy by reaching out to potential customers using local search. I’m really excited about the future and feel at peace knowing that Local.com will be right along side me as I grow my business into the future.”

[source: Local.com]

Sphere: Related Content


photo scanning, slide scanning, how to scan photos ATT Real Yellow Pages, Local.com, Mitch Goldstone, news on ScanMyPhotos.com

"Why are phonebooks still around in the first place?" (via MyInvestingBlog.com)

Click here for a very smart posting on how to handle the millions of unwanted yellow page directories.





"How about a new way to get in our out of phonebook deliverings?"

[photo via MyInvestingBlog.com]

"Consumers Top Ten Suggestions to Stop Getting Telephone Books" (via YellowPagesGoesGreen.Org)

YellowPage the Dinosaur thinks the number one reason why the telephone books will stop being published is because advertisers are pulling out. Take ScanMyPhotos.com for example. Having invested nearly $400,000 in display print yellow page advertisements since 1990, this coming year we are spending only about $70 a month.

Last week a manager for the AT&T Real Yellow Pages visited our business and the offer was for a 75% discount for all our display advertisements in their Coastal and Central Orange County, California directories.

Remember the AT&T customer profile explaining that for each dollar invested in advertising you can expect to earn $30 in added sales. Guess, sales aren't too great any more from these antiquated "investments." Seventy-five percent off; that's more than a fire sale, even retailers closing down shop only pull out those discounts at the very end.

Our story is well documents in previous YellowPage the Dinosaur postings, but even with that discount, we chose not to run any display ads. Display ads are becoming obsolete and a waste of money for advertising investments. And, we know, as ScanMyPhotos.com is regularly profiled by the national media for our 18-years of business success and entrepreneurial inventiveness. [See our "In the News" section linked from our homepage.]

For more insights on how to stop getting the phone books and contributing to landfill waste, read on from YellowPagesGoesGreen.org:

www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org continues to notify the Telephone Book Publishers with thousands of names of people that are “opting out” from wanting telephone books. One of the most intriguing parts of the site is the suggestions that the customers have sent to www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. Here are the top ten suggestions to help stop the delivery of the books to people that do not want them.

1. Have an automated system like www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org where people can sign up to “opt out”. (Thanks for the idea! We think it is a good one!)
2. Have the telephone book dropped off a central site (grocery store, gas station, etc) that people can pick up a book if they want one (and drop off the old book). Leave this central site stocked for a seven day period.
3. When they drop a book off at houses have them come back the next week to pick up the old one in the recycled bag they left the new book in.
4. Have the industry mail a postcard one week before delivery with a sticker to be placed on the mailbox if we want the book. If there is not a sticker on the mailbox do not drop off the book.
5. Charge a fee to the telephone book company to allow them to drop off books in the local community. They are getting paid billions of dollars and we are being left with the trash and landfill issues.
6. Enact a national “opt out system” similar to the “National No Call List”. Except make is an opt in program. We need to call to allow you to deliver us the book and not we have to call to stop you from delivering the book. If we don’t call to sign up do not leave us a book.
7. Quit sending the books and move everything to a CD and just mail them.
8. Have a five year plan to migrate to the web. The industry can take the time to educate the customers and tell them they will be completely on-line in five years. Do a campaign similar to the going digital television format that is happening now.
9. If they can pay people to deliver the books they can pay people to walk up and down the streets to pick up old books. This would give kids a chance to make some money, be a great fundraiser, help recycle, and ease landfill use.
10. Impose littering rules on the publishers. Why should they get to dump trash in my door and run?

R.H. Donnelley Corp. Q4 2007 Earnings Call Transcript

R.H. Donnelley Corp. Q4 2007 Earnings Call Transcript

EXCERPT:

• "...[O]ur Board of Directors has decided not to initiate a dividend. We believe that given the near-term economic outlook and our current level of debt, it's more prudent to direct excess cash flow to debt repayment, until we see a more positive selling environment."

Yellow Page Demise: $400,000 Down to $70

The best that AT&T could do was send a sales manager to visit with us earlier today. Since 1990, ScanMyPhotos.com [30 Minute Photos Etc.] has invested nearly $400,000 in traditional yellow page directory advertisements in Coastal, Central and South Orange County California books.

With last summer's lost add (AT&T forgot to run our contracted ad), the pressure was on them to help revise this once admirable partnership. Instead, the sales manager's plan was to sell more ads and didn't understand just how irate we were. Would you go back to a restaurant that you had an awful experience at? We didn't quite leave the restaurant, but we did slash our ad to a paltry $70 per month commitment; that's if they don't again forget to run our ads.

The Yellow Page directories have become so irrelevant that this ad scheduling practice was always cloaked in vault-like secrecy until the new edition was released. Advertisers were always cautious of what other competitors might do. With the new irrelevance of the directories, we really don't care. Having competitors know what our advertisement plans is no longer important, just as the yellow pages are no longer important.

The only reason we even selected a few tiny advertisements anyway is because some Internet search engines require a yellow page presence to be tracked on their sites.

We even explained to the sales manager that one of AT&T's competitors is now using us in their national marketing campaign and aggressively promoting the reason why we are so tired of AT&T Real Yellow Pages. They have the entire profile on their website and are drawing attention to the AT&T Real Yellow Page's irrelevance. Last week, a video commercial was shot at ScanMyPhotos.com and highlights our displeasure with phone book directories. We are eager to see if AT&T even cares and how that might challenge our passion to draw national attention to what we think will be the pending extinction of traditional yellow page directories.

"New York Times Company Posts Loss" (via NY Times.com)

As a precursor to the demise of the phone book directories, we read this article today about the expanded worries at the nation's newspapers.

• The New York Times Company, the parent of The New York Times, posted a $335,000 loss in the first quarter — one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen — falling far short of both analysts’ expectations and its $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier.

"Consumers: Stop Dropping Yellow Pages Books At Our Doors!" (via Natural Search Blog)

Click here to read today's posting by Chris Silver Smith from Natural Search Blog on the Yellow Pages.

Excerpts:

• "I’ve mentioned before along with other analysts about how there are indications that usage of traditional yellow pages is dropping off, though there’s a lot of disagreement as to how much longer the print products can survive. The decrease of the print YP book industry alongside simultaneous evolution of Internet business directories is going to continue to define the characteristics of accelerated business evolution in the modern age."
  
• "I noticed this article from Boston today, “Bothersome business pages“, which outlines residents’ irritation over receiving print directories which go unused."

"YP Industry Pledges Counteroffensive" (via The Kelsey Group)

According to an April 8th Blog posting by The Kelsey Group, The Yellow Pages Association is responding to the critics questioning the longevity of the traditional print yellow page directories. The arguments made are reminiscent to us of those pledged by the film manufactures a decade ago as picture-takers transitioned from along to digital imaging.

Blogger "When Was the Last Time You Used the Phone Books?"

Click here to read this well prepared essay from Blogger "Pink Shoes" about the Yellow Pages

Excerpt:

• "When was the last time you you used a phone book? When was the last time you flipped through the yellow pages looking for a theater or for a plumber? Does this happen anymore? I can't remember the last time I used the yellow pages for anything unless it had '.com' attached to the end of it. If you ask me, the idea of finding phone numbers on yellow pages is a thing of the past (another topic for another time is the archaic use of newspapers). No one I know uses the phone book for the reason it is intended. When the kid was here, we used a few of the stockpiled books as a booster seat so she could reach the table. Other than that, I have no use for these delightfully colored books."


• "For information on how to opt-out or sign a petition, visit enviromom. She's a smart lady. She's a mom. It only makes sense."

Menu of Popular Recent Postings

Jay Leno: Comments on The Yellow Pages

Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org Promotes Eliminating The Unsolicited Delivery of Yellow Page Directories

Yellow Pages, The New Buggy-Whip?

Retailer Says: AT&T Real Yellow Pages® Advertisement is Deceptive

YouTube: Inventive People Around The World "Recycling" Yellow Page Books

Inefficient Yellow Page Books Will Be Dinosaurs: Says Photo Industry Entrepreneur

AT&T Letter to ScanMyPhotos.com

The Missing Ad

Yellow Pages Association Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas

It may be anything but a "Vegas Baby" theme at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on Monday.

We can't imagine anything less hip than a yellow page convention. It reminds us of the photo industry during the transition from film to digital. Back then, the prospects were gloomy - not many open bars with free shrimp stations. We wonder if the same chirping crickets will be mimicking the swan song we heard - also in Las Vegas at past photo imaging conventions? That was a darker time, before we commercialized and helped pioneer a reinvention of the photo imaging industry.

For more on that, ScanMyPhotos.com has another news release prepared for Friday.

To find out about the Yellow Page Association's gathering next week, read this link from YP Talk - "The Voice of the Yellow Page Industry." In our opinion, it better be a very loud voice to be herd over all those chirping crickets.

Wonder if they will invite Jay Leno and Bill Gates to address the audience too?

Recent Media Coverage and Blog Postings About the Yellow Pages' Demise

Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

"Do Yellow Pages Have You Seeing Red?" (via MSNBC)

On April 2nd, Herb Weisbaum, MSNBC contributor, wrote this article, "Here's how to stop receiving all those unwanted telephone directories."

Excerpt:

• >The companies that publish phone directories realize they have a public relations problem on their hands. They also know a growing number of people use the Internet to find phone numbers.


• >Something has to be done The National Waste Prevention Coalition is working to make it easy for you to opt-out of getting unwanted phone books. “For some people, it’s just five or ten pounds of waste," says Tom Watson, a recycling expert with the Solid Waste Division in King County, Wash., who coordinates the coalition.

>At least 660,000 tons of phone books are distributed across the country each year. “That’s a sizeable amount of paper when a lot of it is unwanted,” Watson says. And the recycling rate is not that high. Even in the Seattle-area, a national leader in recycling, it’s estimated that less than 40 percent of old or unwanted phone books go in the recycling bin. The rest wind up in the trash.

>The coalition has been working with directory publishers to develop an opt-out system that would let people choose which phone books they don’t want. Watson says it would be similar to the Do Not Call Registry. “This would be a do not drop list. Do not drop the phone book on my front porch.”

>I’ve seen how these books are distributed. Publishers use independent contractors who race through neighborhoods. I find it hard to believe that they will slow down in order to keep track of “no thank you” requests. Especially when there is no penalty for getting it wrong.

>This week, I opted out of the various phone books that come to my house. I’ll be interested to see what happens the next time that the phone book fairy visits my neighborhood.

R.H. Donnelley Executives to Discuss State of Yellow Pages Industry at 2008 Yellow Pages Association Conference and Exhibition (via Press Release)

[Reprinted from the R.H. Donnelley Press Release]


LAS VEGAS, April 2, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- R.H. Donnelley NYSE: RHD, a leading print and online local search company, today announced that three members of its leadership team will be featured presenters at the 2008 Yellow Pages Association Conference and Exhibition. David C. Swanson, R.H. Donnelley's chairman and CEO and chairman of the Yellow Pages Association, will deliver the keynote address and opening remarks at the Conference, while Peter J. McDonald, president of R.H. Donnelley, and Jeffrey H. Porter, vice president of DexKnows.com, will also present on separate panels. The Conference begins April 5 and will be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

In his keynote, Swanson will address several points, including the state of the industry, why the print Yellow Pages remains an important component of local businesses' marketing efforts, and the importance of selling value versus just selling products. His keynote address will take place April 7 at 8:45 a.m.

McDonald will offer his thoughts on effective sales strategies as part of the "Sales Panel" to be held April 7 at 11:30 a.m. McDonald will discuss how publishers can address sales challenges and ensure continued revenue and customer growth.

Porter will be one of the speakers on the "Local Mobile Search Panel: New Media and Video Tools, Adoption Driving Usage or Usage Driving Adoption." As one of the key leaders behind DexKnows.com, Porter will discuss the increasingly important role the Internet plays in local search. The panel will take place April 8 at 11:00 a.m.

"Matsu’s World: The One Less Traveled": Views and Ideas of an I.T. Manager

Excerpts from Matsu's World.

• A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post about the new telephone books arriving — with Yellow Pages — and referenced some statistics I read when surfing an article on MSN about the same topic. I had no idea I would be visited by the editor of the Yellow Pages industry website, YP Talk — his name is Ken Clark.
  


• I don’t know if my quotes of the MSN article bothered him or it was the number of people all over the world cutting back on their use of the phone book (including Yellow Pages), but he definitely seemed upset when he left me a comment here. Then, on his website he wrote
  


• My guess is most of those phonebooks are not picked up because they are not needed nor wanted in some homes. Eventually, they are moved from the driveway to the trash can, never entering the house. Again, that’s just my guess. Of course, I’ve done that myself and just this week I watched my neighbor do that. I took the photo in this post before they threw away the phone book. It had been sitting there for more than a week

Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org Promotes Eliminating The Unsolicited Delivery of Yellow Page Directories

Click here for more info on YellowPagesGoesGreen.Org.

From their website:

• Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org is an organization working to educate consumers and promote the green movement to eliminate the unsolicited delivery of Yellow and White Pages books. This site is aimed at starting a national movement to solicit the White/Yellow Pages industry to proactively stop the delivery of books or to begin moving legislation to mandate the stoppage of this activity. This movement should be similar to the National No-Call Registry that have stopped and/or decreased the number of unwanted solicitations telephone calls to consumers.
  


• A college student who was renting a house in Liberty, Missouri founded Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org. The number of telephone books delivered to the house was overwhelming and the work required to recycle them was daunting. When he spoke with his neighbors they all told him they just threw them away. Due to the use of technology, he felt these books were now outdated. However, he understood that some people may still want them and felt the best way to limit this tremendous waste was to mimic the National No-Call Directory. Additionally, he wanted this site to serve as a depository for information and educational issues concerning the green movement.
  


• Yellowpagesgoesgreen.com was started because we are continually bombarded with Yellow and White Page directories at both home and office. The movement is not intended to stop the use of such directories, but to eliminate the unsolicited delivery of the books. If we want a book we will call and order one.
  


• Over 500 million of these directories are printed every year. That is nearly two books for every person in the country! These directories produce a staggering amount of waste, not only in terms of misused natural resources but also in filling of valuable landfill space.
  To produce 500 million books:
  19 million trees need to be harvested
  1.6 billion pounds of paper are wasted
  7.2 million barrels of oil are misspent in their processing (not including the wasted gas used for their delivery to your doorstep)
  268,000 cubic yards of landfill are taken up
  3.2 billion kilowatts of energy are squandered
  


• The cost associated with the delivery and disposal of these books is exorbitant. Unfortunately, these unsolicited costs fall heavily on consumers. Why are we paying for something that was delivered to our homes and offices that we did not ask for?

Jay Leno: Comments on The Yellow Pages

During The Tonight Show on Tuesday evening, host Jay Leno had a segment called rewriting corporate slogans. The punchline was obvious when he held up a phone book, but here it is:

Leno: The Yellow Pages slogan has always been "Let your figures do the walking. The new slogan: For the three people who never heard of the Internet."

Recent Media Coverage and Blog Postings About the Yellow Pages' Demise

Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

"Is Your Decision Not to Advertise in That Phone Book Based on Fact or Emotion?" (via WorldWide Media Group Weblog)

Click here to view the WorldWide Media Group Weblog posting on the Yellow Pages.

Excerpt:

• "Yellow Pages publishers realize the uphill battle they are facing. Every day I hear some radio DJ or news reporter talking about the impending extinction of the phone book."

Retailer Says: AT&T Real Yellow Pages® Advertisement is Deceptive

NEWS RELEASE

(Irvine, CA) March 31, 2008 -- Based on BrandWeek reporter, Mike Beirne's March 30 article about the forthcoming AT&T Real Yellow Pages advertisement, the new campaign is being called deceptive and misleading, says ScanMyPhotos.com, a retail and Ecommerce business, based in Irvine, CA.

Even though it represents the new tagline for AT&T Real Yellow Page’s® advertisements, you will not always "find what you need," says a former advocate for yellow page directory advertising.

According to Brandweek Magazine, the new AT&T Real Yellow Pages advertisement calls all other phone book brands "posers" and expounds through the theme of an upcoming promotion that only their directory delivers ["Your World, Delivered"].

"This is a weighty, arrogant claim made by AT&T Real Yellow Pages that is going to be broadcast in all the major U.S. markets. It is also somewhat misleading and deceptive too," explains Mitch Goldstone, president and CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com. For nearly two decades, Goldstone’s company had been loyal AT&T [Pacbell, SBC] phone book customers in several books. They were even featured in a corporate testimonial and in a widely distributed newsletter to all other advertisers in the PacBell [now AT&T] yellow pages throughout California.

"Over the years we had royal treatment and even were provided with concert tickets (using their corporate seats) and enjoyed access to their entire corporate sky box lounge for several Anaheim Angles baseball games for our staff and family members. We were steadfast in our commitment to the phone book directories, loyal supporters and absolute advocates for this marketing tool, until they forgot to run our contracted advertisement last summer," said Goldstone. The ensuing months of ineffectual handling of the matter led ScanMyPhotos.com to reevaluate its commitment to traditional yellow page advertising and study alternatives. [B to B: Marketing News & Strategies]

Goldstone's company had invested about $400,000 in phone directory advertisements since 1990.

When the AT&T Real Yellow Pages simply forgot to run the local advertisement for ScanMyPhotos.com they dropped the ball. It took more than a month to get a quasi-letter of apology and the ineffective remedy intensified the strain in their otherwise solid relationship. "It was a partnership gone bad. On one hand, AT&T lists testimonials from advertisers achieving thirty-times in sales for each dollar invested in display ads, but when the ad doesn't run, they falter," said Goldstone who as a nationally known consumer advocate [ex. EPICCUSA.com, WayTooHigh.com, Operation Photo] decided to broadcast and share his experience to other entrepreneurs and business owners through a website called "YellowPage the Dinosaur" [Blog.YellowDinosaur.net]

The new AT&T Real Yellow Page advertisements explain : "It's all on its way in the new AT&T's Real Yellow Pages delivering now" and "Stop hunting. Start finding."

"Well, you better bring along enough provisions on the hunt," cautions Goldstone, because it’s not "all on its way in the new AT&T Real Yellow Pages;" they did not deliver and you will not find his ad. It simply was not published, even though Goldstone, who meticulously preplans every yellow page display ad months in advance had a signed contract and longtime relationship with AT&T Real Yellow Pages.

According to Brandweek, Ken Ray, AT&T Advertising and Publishing's chief marketing officer explained that "consumers get frustrated when they go though what they define as the spin cycle and they have to start looking for something again... That's why we're trying to push that there is nothing more up to date and we've got more information than any other book."

"While Mr. Ray is concerned about yellow page users getting 'frustrated' when they cannot find a listing, the marketing executive should equally be occupied with what happens when their contracted advertisers can’t find their advertisements either," explained Goldstone.

Since the ScanMyPhotos.com advertisement was not published in the Orange County, California central edition, Goldstone has been studying the industry and alternatives. His broad-based comments about how the antiquated print yellow page directories are becoming a dinosaur, along with his experience and in-depth profile of an industry in transition is regularly updated at Blog.YellowDinosaur.net

Recent Media Coverage and Blog Postings About the Yellow Pages' Demise

Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

When Your Trade Association Issues a Statement Advising They Aren't "Obsolete"...

We couldn't resist this softball pitch from the Yellow Page Association, as reported by the Associated Press on March 27th. According to the phone book industry's trade association, they are not obsolete. They're not, they're not, they're not...

This reminds us of the photographic film industry retailers and manufacturers as people began ditching their film cameras for digital. Everywhere we went, people were using camera phones and digital cameras, but at least our trade association helped steer us towards the digital age without these goofy-type proclamations.

The Yellow Page Association uses statistics and assertions, but, instead they should ask America's youth and young adults when was the last time they used the phone, other than for making YouTube video spoofs?

As consumer advocates, ScanMyPhotos.com is using YellowPage the Dinosaur to warn other business owners to not face what we went through and to recognize that smart entrepreneurs are using modern-age marketing to reach their customers.

• R.H. Donnelly's stock has lost 91 percent in the past year.

Yellow Pages Association Study Says Its Ads Work

B to B: Marketing News & Strategies

Recent Media Coverage and Blog Postings About the Yellow Pages' Demise

Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

YouTube: Inventive People Around The World "Recycling" Yellow Page Books

• Lesson: Didn't the Yellow Page Directories Already Know Their Antiquated Books Are Now Obsolete?
  



• There Are Many Ways To Recycle Your Phone Book, Or You Can Just Demand They Not Deliver it.
  



• Rip And Recycle Yellow Page Cartoon.
  



• How to Recycle Phone Books With Your Bicycle.


• 
  


• College Students Invent A New Way To Have Fun With The Yellow Pages
  



• YouTube posters are having a blast of fun at the expense of the Yellow Pages. We certainly do not recommend this, but, this is what people are watching.




• Yellow Pages, the New Way to Exercise.




• One Way to Recycle the Directories.
  



• We Don't Think R.H. Donnelley, AT&T Real Yellow Pages, Verizon Yellow Pages, Yellow Book, The Yellow Page Association And The Hundreds Of Independent Phone Book Publishers Would Like This Gym.




• Next To American Idol YouTube Clips, It Seems Another Popular Subject To Watch Are Those Showing Their Strength By Tearing Up Yellow Page Directories.




• A Clean Way To Recycle Yellow Pages.
  



• Teens Understand That Yellow Page Books Are Dinosaurs.
  
  


• The Myth: Pulling The Yellow Pages Apart
  



• How to Recycle Yellow Page Books And Stop Global Warming.

Businesses are not the only ones recognizing that traditional display Yellow Page directories are obsolete and we're not the only ones doing something about the eco-disaster from the wasted books. Check out some of the more creative minds and their YouTube video productions from around the world.

Recent Media Coverage and Blog Postings About the Yellow Pages' Demise

Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

"How to Stop Receiving Phone Books and Yellow Pages" (via CommonCraft.com)

Click here to read the latest on CommonCraft.com

More About The Editors of YellowPage the Dinosaur

Photographic film and phone book directories share a connection as two former business models that faced extinction due to technology. Film is dead and close behind are the phone books. We know, our business successfully transition from film to digital. However, ScanMyPhotos.com was too slow in recognizing that our nearly $400,000 advertising investment dating back to 1990 in print yellow page directories were facing the same fate. It took AT&T Real Yellow Pages to really impact our business by forgetting to run our ad, that we realized there were smarter alternatives.

Today, our new marketing campaigns are replacing what once was singularly invested in local yellow page directories. For some insights on how we grow our business, see the In The News menu of national media coverage on ScanMyPhotos.com, from The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reader's Digest, USA Today and scores of other publications.

So, who needs the Yellow Pages today?

We asked other entrepreneurs and they too share our insistence that one more business relic from the last century is going to melt away. And, who can argue with Bill Gate's comments too?

"Market Spotlight: Yellow Pages" (via AP)

Click here to read the March 27th Ernest Scheyder report in the Associate Press on the Yellow Pages.

Excerpt:

• "Yellow pages in America can't get any respect. That's the sentiment of those behind this multibillion-dollar business who have seen revenue head south amid a declining economy and the advent of Internet search engines."
  
  
• "Beyond economic issues, however, is the Internet's effect on the industry, especially for younger generations growing up with the ease of search engines such as Google and Yahoo."

Inefficient Yellow Page Books Will Be Dinosaurs: Says Photo Industry Entrepreneur

News Release

Inefficient Yellow Page Books Will Be Dinosaurs: Says Photo Industry Entrepreneur

(Irvine, CA) "Impractical, obsolete, dinosaurs" are labels used by consumer advocate and photo industry entrepreneur Mitch Goldstone as he warns other business owners to move beyond traditional analog phone book marketing tools from the last century.

Goldstone’s retail and Ecommerce business once relied on traditional yellow page advertising as the primary marketing tool to reach new customers. When his company was founded in 1990, the second investment, after signing the lease for his retail photo center, based in Irvine, Calif., was to buy the largest-sized yellow page advertisement in his category. "Back then, the phone book was the smart way to reach customers; but, this was before the Internet, Blogging and other innovations began," explained Goldstone, President and CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com®.

"The partnership with our local photo book company [PacBell®, now AT&T Real Yellow Pages®] was so strong that they even profiled our company and published our story in their widely-distributed newsletter. But, I doubt they would publish what we are cautioning today, because their industry mirrors what happened to the photographic business as film transitioned too digital. Technology forced an ocean-sized shift in the way consumers think - from film to phone books, and in my opinion, it is making many products and services obsolete," explained Goldstone.

Goldstone has led several national pro-consumer advocacy campaigns, including www.EPICCUSA.com, which brought 5,000 people to NYC after "9/11" to support the airlines and commerce in the Big Apple. He is also the lead plaintiff in the nation’s largest antitrust litigation, representing all merchants against Visa, MasterCard and major banks for their merchant interchange fees. The litigation is being chronicled with daily news and commentary updates at WayTooHigh.com - The Credit Card Interchange Report, which Goldstone co-edits.

As for the expected extinction of the print-edition yellow page directories, Goldstone is in good hands. Even Microsoft's Bill Gates explained that the "Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to zero -- near zero -- over the next five years." This comment, along with daily updates, including YouTube phone book video clips about the Yellow Page’s decline are available on Goldstone’s Blog: "YellowPage the Dinosaur" [

www.Blog.YellowDinosaur.net]

"Just as our film business transitioned too digital and we were forced to reinvent and pioneer new ways to preserve photo memories, ScanMyPhotos.com was forced to rethink how we marketed our services when the AT&T Real Yellow Pages forgot to run our display advertisement last summer," said Goldstone.

According to ScanMyPhotos.com, the missing local yellow page directory listing forced the photo imaging company to look at alternatives. It made them acknowledge that their marketing campaign was stuck in the last century. Yes, the phones stopped ringing after the advertisement was dropped, and yes they were damaged, but they also retrenched and reevaluated what had become customary. ScanMyPhotos.com explained they could not wait a full year to get into the new annual book print cycle. So began their journey to study alternatives and launch a more modern way to reach their customers.

"Sometimes the wake-up call comes from someone else’s error to pull you from complacency and push you into the modern way to market your business," explained Goldstone.

Since the B to B article [see related posting] was published in early March, ScanMyPhotos.com heard from the district manager at AT&T Real Yellow Pages with rich incentives to advertise again. However, for Goldstone, the future is now without that former partner which speaks volumes about the value of a product when it is reduced by more than 65% and the advertiser still opts-out.

"Buggy-whips are long gone and film is dead too. But the phone books don't yet know they are in the same drowning boat. They still think their antiquated way of reaching customers is relevant. A polling of other business owners shares our growing view," said Goldstone, who explained that he "doesn’t want other business owners to have to experience the fiasco forced upon ScanMyPhotos.com by AT&T Real Yellow Pages when their ad disappeared."

Goldstone wants to wake up other entrepreneurs who might have also become complacent. His daily news and commentary updates on the decline of traditional yellow page print directories and the failing of this once dominant marketing tool is being chronicled on a Blog called: "YellowPage the Dinosaur" [www.Blog.YelowDinosaur.net].

Background: ScanMyPhotos.com began in 1990 as a traditional retail photo center, based in Irvine, Calif. Not only have we run ads in several books since 1990, the Yellow Pages even used us in glossy print testimonials that were distributed to their customers explaining why we had so valued their books; that was more than a decade ago; today, in our opinion, phone books aren't dying off, their readers are. It's obsolete.

Take It From Bill Gates: Yellow Page Usage to Drop 50%...

From Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates’ predicted in a company address last spring that: "The Yellow Pages are going to be used less and less. When you go to this service that's going to take our technology and Tellme technology that we acquired, when you say something like "plumber," the presentation you get will be far better than something you get in the Yellow Pages. After all, we know your location, and so we can cluster around that. We can take the information and show you the names, and you can expand the information easily. These things always take time, but Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to zero -- near zero -- over the next five years."

"I Remember When….. (via NashsMom.com)

We're not the first, but there are so many stories about the prior relevance of the phone books. Here's a March 24th posting from one blogger with a "I Remember When..."

How To "Opt-Out" From Receiving Phone Directories

Until there is an "opt-in" system for requesting a phone book directory, you can manually "opt-out" to request that the phone book directories are not delivered to your address.

Here are some popular numbers to call:

AT&T Real Yellow Pages: 800-792-2665

Verizon: 888-266-5965

Yellow Book: 800-373-3280

Does anyone know if an easier online or automated way to "opt-out" from all phone directory deliveries, including the regional YP books? Add your comments to YellowPage the Dinosaur

Eco_Friendly Phone Directories

Take it from us, long-time traditional Yellow Page directory advertisers. PacBell [now, AT&T Real Yellow Pages] even used us in their State-wide customer newsletter and as a testimonial campaign. We now assert, the new way to promote eco-friendly phone directories is to review Internet and other innovative ways to reach consumers.

When we were forced to look for alternatives to our regular display ad that the AT&T Real Yellow Pages forgot to run, we identified many new ways to be smart and advertise ScanMyPhotos.com.

The traditional paper directories are becoming so obsolete that when we did a search for "AT&T Real Yellow Pages" most of the results led us to online selections, rather than to the traditional phone book listings. Why, even their home page's first paragraph promotes their online directory network. Or we could choose to download the local phone book online - that would have taken us 21-minutes. Either way, online links to the traditional directories are becoming as obsolete as has photographic film, fax machines and other technology relics from the last century.

There are several ways to promote your business, from Google's free listings, to designing your own Blog [Tales from the World of Photo Scanning] to paid local search results.

We Found It! The Yellow Pages Directories Are Still Used

Although just recently launched, YellowPage the Dinosaur is flooded with reasons why the phone directories are obsolete and not being used any longer. Until now. Click here to watch, as perhaps the last Yellow Page user flips through the book.

"Phone Book Proposal Ban Could Head West" (via Wicked Local)

Click here to read the posting on Wicked Local by Erin Smith.

"So, City Councilor Sam Seidel’s proposal that Cambridge residents should be able to opt out of receiving phone books has been getting a lot of attention lately. We just got a call from a guy in California who wants to bring the proposal to his hometown area. He runs the blog Yellow Page the Dinosaur. In other news, Sam Seidel just told us he even got a voicemail from Yellow Book about his proposal. The corporate types at Yellow Book can’t be too happy that the City Council wants to eat into their business."

"POLL: Should Cambridge let residents opt out of receiving phone books?" [Wicked Local]




Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

"Say goodbye to your printed Yellow Pages! I guess you can use those hefty yellow tree-killers as stepping stools or doorstops. I know I won't be opening them to find a bike repair shop or music school anymore." (via Eric Holter, Newfangled Web Factory Website)

"A Serious Case of Pulp Friction" (via Boston Globe)

Yellow Page Directory distribution is unconscionable, anti-environmental and a giant eco-disaster. Because so many people are beginning to fight back, the Yellow Page companies are responding by, not responding. Click here to read this March 18th Boston Globe article by reporter Tania deLuzuriaga.

Abstract:

• "Days after hundreds of thousands of the 2,000-page, 4-pound tomes were delivered, they began showing up in recycling bins and trash dumpsters. From Beacon Hill to Jamaica Plain, they moldered on porches and driveways, lay strewn across sidewalks, and sat in large, untouched piles in condo and apartment buildings."
  


• "'All that's waste,' grumbled Gerri Cummings, 70, eyeing the waist-high pile of phone books orphaned in the foyer of her South Boston apartment building. Yellow Book delivered stacks of its yellow pages directories, enough for each of the residents of Cummings' 96-unit building for the elderly and disabled. A few days later, Verizon did the same."
  


• "A few blocks away, 33-year-old Jason Muth vented his disgust in his blog [PlatinumElite]. 'Each time I'm greeted by piles of bound paper at my doorstep, I think the same exact thing: what a waste," he wrote. "The energy to distribute and manufacture these, the raw materials used to print these, and our time to dispose of them properly.'"
  


• "'We get complaints from people when they don't get their phone book,'" said Stephanie Hobbs, a spokeswoman for the Yellow Pages Association, the industry's trade organization.

[YellowPagetheDinosaur Editors note: We then need to start letting Stephanie Hobbs and the Yellow Page Association® know when directories are receive and not wanted. Here's the contact info: Stephanie Hobbs, Mktg Communications Vice President Yellow Pages Association, 908 286-2392, Stephanie.Hobbs@ypassociation.org]

Nationwide Yellow Page "Recycling" Program Announced by YellowPage The Dinosaur

Attend your next local city council meeting and request that they initiate a resolution to enact the ultimate Yellow Page recycling program in your city. It's easy, just ask that they require an opt-out program so people who do not want to get the antiquated Yellow Page print editions dropped at their front door are spared the anti-environmental waste of throwing out bulky directories.

With the growing number of consumers turning to their keyboards to surf for phone numbers, why tolerate the phone books, unless you have small children that need to be propped up at the dinner table?

Make sure your community have an easy to request Yellow Page opt-out program.

See blogger postings

"Proposal to Ban the Distribution of Unsolicited Phone Books"

"City Council declares war on phone books

CNBC's "Fast Money" Asks: "Are the Yellow Pages Dead"?

The Yellow Pages on Television

Since launching YellowPage The Dinosaur, we have been accelerating this issue of the demise of Yellow Page directories among other business owners. The assessment is universally the same - Yellow Page print directories are quickly dying and with the same powerful speed as did photographic film and other analog products.

On March 6, Lee Brodie from CNBC's "Fast Money" asked the same question ["Are The Yellow Pages Dead?"].

The cause: "plunging advertising revenue."

The reason: "Yahoo, Google and your cell phone." technology, young-adults and consumer's modern habits, record high energy costs - associated with the production and delivery of the heavy, non eco-friendly YP books, soaring paper costs, housing sub-prime mess causing homeowners to stay put (often the YP's were used largely by people new to a neighborhood), Internet online directory searches.

RIP: AT&T Real Yellow Pages, Yellow Page Association, and many other publishers, like R.H. Donnelley.

On March 13, CNBC added a new update [We Ain't Dead!] after one of the leading Yellow Page publishers, R.H. Donnelley's shares fell more than 90% during the past year.

CNBC interviewed David Swanson, CEO of R.H. Donnelley Corp, who's remarks mirrored many of the leading photo industry executives' when digital imaging first took hold - their heads were also deep in the sand. In the case of film manufacturers, they pointed to overseas sales potential rather than recognize that low cost digital cameras would get a jump on all world markets. Mr. Swanson relied on forecasts. But, the statistics we have are forged by asking business owners and our ScanMyPhotos.com consumers; the ones we polled no longer use any print YP directories.

According to the CNBC interview, it seems that YP manufacturers are dreaming of their enchanted memories from last century when they had market power and were the only game in town.

From lessons at business school, we know you are in trouble when you begin redefining "debt." In the case of Mr. Swanson, he said "[d]ebt is all about cash flow." Debt is all about when you account receivables are marginalized by reduced revenues. However, the R.H. Donnelley executive did explain they are diversifying - a smart thing because the antiquated print Yellow Page books are quickly melting away in today's all-digital world.

New Address for YellowPage the Dinosaur

Click here to visit our new address: blog.YellowDinosaur.net

Why the Yellow Page Directories are Dinosaurs

Talking with one of our employees at ScanMyPhotos.com today amplified why traditional phone books are no longer relevant.


She represents today's youth market and regularly text messages Google for free to search for a business. Whether it is a specialty super market or tanning saloon, she types in the business name or topic, along with the city location. Within moments, Google replies with the list of names and complete contact information. Eco-friendly, fast and always as far away as your cell phone.

• B to B: Marketing News & Strategies
  
  
• Recent Media Coverage and Blog Postings About the Yellow Pages' Demise
  
  
  
  
  Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

"Are Your Prospects Still Using the Yellow Pages to Advertise?" (MSWebSolutions)

Excerpts from the MSWebSolutions Merchant Circle site.

• "Are your prospects still using the Yellow Pages to advertise?" [see link]
  
• "Researchers at the Kelsey Group have found that as younger generations begin making larger purchases, they will move away from traditional search methods like phone books and “use online resources at the expense of traditional media.” The Kelsey Group adds that businesses will have to adapt to these new online methods as the phone book becomes obsolete."
  
  

B to B: Marketing News & Strategies

Riddle: What Do Visa and MasterCard's Interchange Fees, Photographic Film and the Yellow Page Print Directories Have in Common?

Click here to read our updated opinion, commentary on the Yellow Page industry at WayTooHigh.com - The Credit Card Interchange Report

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Want to know more about lead plaintiff ScanMyPhotos.com? Click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

More Troubles For AT&T Real Yellow Pages®

Since ScanMyPhotos.com began editing "YellowPage the Dinosaur" just days ago, news travelled fast.

Today, we received a notice from the Superior Court of the State of California advising us, as longtime advertisers in the AT&T The Real Yellow Pages® and previously with SBC Yellow Pages and the [PBD] Pacific Bell Directory [all owned now by AT&T], that there is a class-action underway.

It seems that the Pacific Bell Directory allegedly breached its advertising contract by failing to distribute the full number of directories. While it is a plus for them on the eco-friendly side, a partial refund of advertising fees collected might be realized.

Click here for page one, two and three of the documents we just received. The court has not yet decided whether PBD is liable and PBD denies that it is liable, then again, how can they remember if they distributed all the assigned directories if they forgot to run our ad?




Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

Disclaimer: Please Read

Disclaimer: This informational web site was created to provide opinion and commentary only. None of the information posted on YellowPage the Dinosaur is intended to constitute legal arguments; it reflects only the opinions of its editors. The information is not guaranteed to be correct, complete, or current. We make no warranty, express or implied, about the accuracy or reliability of the information posted by YellowPage the Dinosaur or at any other Web site to which this site is linked.

Yellow Pages, The New Buggy-Whip?

Rhetorical question: Buggy-whips, film and yellow page print directories. What do they have in common?

We know best. Our film business transitioned to digital. And, the way we advertised for years also had changed too.

If the local yellow page directory didn't force us to look at alternatives, we would still be stuck in the last century. Yes, the phones stopped ringing and we were damaged, but we retrenched because we couldn't wait a full year to get in the new book. So began our journey to launch more modern ways to reach our customers.

Sometimes, the wake-up call comes from someone elses error to pull you from complacency and push you into the modern way to market your business.

Since the B to B article [see related posting] was published we heard from the district AT&T Real Yellow Pages Manager with rich incentives to advertise again. For us, the future is without that former partner. That speaks volumes about the value of a product when it is reduced by more than 65% and we still opt-out.

Buggy-whips are long gone and film is dead too, but the phone books don't yet know they are in the same drowning boat. They still think their antiquated way of reaching customers is relevant. A polling of other business owners shares our growing view.

And so begins our chronicle: "YellowPage the Dinosaur" to address the failings of that once primary marketing tool - yellow page directories.

ScanMyPhotos.com began in 1990 as a traditional retail photo center, based in Irvine, Calif. Not only have we run ads in several books since 1990, the Yellow Pages even used us in glossy print testimonials that were distributed to their customers explaining why we had so valued their books; that was more than a decade ago; today, in our opinion, phone books aren't dying off, their readers are. It's obsolete.

Some in the phone book business will not grasp the reality of this issue any more than did our competitors who didn't reinvent and pioneer new business models. For us, the scores of national media profiles on our new business paid off and all without the yellow pages.

Do you remember the Steve Martin film, "The Jerk"? Well, that was us from the scene when his character jumps with excitement when the phone book arrived - his name was in print for all to see. Each season, when our newest marketing investment arrived, we too would quickly rush to evaluate the ads; ours and our competitors in the photo industry. Eventually, that was the only time we even opened the cover.

Then it happened. Last summer, without notice, we flipped the pages to see our new advertisement - the one we spent months planning for. The one we had that extensive legal contract with that was binding and thorough. Except, our local Yellow Page provider [AT&T Real Yellow Pages®] forgot to run out ad. That's right. It was omitted without reason. They forgot to run the ad!

For an industry, that in our opinion, has a trajectory that is spiraling downwards, you would think that Yellow Page display advertising businesses would make certain that those loyal customers' ads would be placed.

It took more than a month to get a quasi-letter of apology. The problem: our competitors and customers thought we were out of business, and the phones stopped ringing. The bulk of our marketing budget was placed in the Yellow Page display ads, but it wasn't there.

What to do?

First we assessed the situation, spent thousands of dollars in legal advice and then rushed to have a cloud of confusion impact our business.

B to B: Marketing News & Strategies



Want to know more about the authors of "YellowPage the Dinosaur?" Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

Yellow Pages, The New Buggy-Whip?

Click here to read commentary

AT&T Letter to ScanMyPhotos.com

On Thursday, September 14, 2007 we received this letter from AT&T. Note that it was dated September 5th and we had ten-days to respond.

The ad that was to have cost $435.00 each month.

The offer - in exchange for not placing the ad we had legally contracted to purchase was to not charge us for the missing ad, and that was it.

Thoughtful? Not.

As the AT&T Real Yellow Pages website explains, customers like us can expect to generate 30 times in sales for each dollar invested in advertisements. That means that our lost revenues were $78,480 - $156,600, plus the adverse message to our customers and competitors.

30:1 Sales to Advertising, As Explained By AT&T Yellow Pages




Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

The Missing Ad

This is what the missing Yellow Page display advertisement should have looked like in the Orange County, CA Central edition. But, it never appeared. They forgot to run the ad and we have to wait a full year to have the ad rerun.










Want to know more about the authors of YellowPage the Dinosaur? Visit ScanMyPhotos.com and click here and read their daily blog: Tales from the World of Photo Scanning

30:1 Sales to Advertising, As Explained By AT&T Yellow Pages

Click here to understand why the lost revenue from a display advertisement is so substantial, according to the AT&T Real Yellow Pages® site.

B to B: Marketing News & Strategies

Recent article about ScanMyPhotos.com and our run-in with the Yellow Pages and our solution.

Click here to read the BtoB article.

Recent Media Coverage and Blog Postings About the Yellow Pages' Demise

"A serious case of pulp friction" - Boston Globe

"You Make The Call" - Bob Bauder, TimesOnline.com

Sprint's Bum Deal, Sears's Plight, Yellow Pages' Fall: Timshel - Bloomberg

Micro-hoo, AOL-hoo, Goog-hoo: The Internet Yellow Pages Perspective - Search Engine Land

Shares in Yellow Pages Publisher R.H. Donnelley Plunge 48% - WRAL

Yellow Pages posts 69.9% plunge in Q3 earnings - Business Times

"City Council declares war on phone books"

"Say goodbye to your printed Yellow Pages!"

Are The Yellow Pages Dead…or Are They Still Effective For Attorneys? - The Attorney Marketing Blog

YellowPages.com Not Worth It! - Michigan Business Hub

Printed yellow pages, but why?

"Proposal to Ban the Distribution of Unsolicited Phone Books"

Will the Yellow Pages soon go the way of the dinosaur?

Print Yellow Pages Vs. Online Yellow Pages / Local Search

Are the Yellow Pages a Dinosaur?

How to Stop Receiving Phone Books and Yellow Pages

Yellow Pages Advertising Closing Soon

More People Use Internet Search Engines than Yellow Pages

Could Nanotechnology Save Print Yellow Pages?

Will Search Engines Slay the Yellow Pages?

Print Yellow Pages Vs. Online Yellow Pages / Local Search

"If You Lost 70% of Your New Customers, Would You Notice?"

"Good-bye Printed Yellow Page Directories." (via tim horan)

"The Ever Growing List of Obsolete Skills"

"Are your prospects still using the yellow pages to advertise?"

"The Real Yellow Pages, Really?"

"I knew Yellow Pages were going the way of the dinosaur when I noticed people looking up phone numbers on Google...."