In article <49brfa$de3@rigel.pixi.com>, resgrig@ohana.com says...
>In article ,
> johnson.1133@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu (cheryl) wrote:
>>We are thinking of putting in a yellow pages ad.
>>Do you have one if so, why? If not, why not? Do you get calls from it?
>>Do you do jobs from it? Any recommendations in what to say in it?
>>What is a good size? Is bigger better, does it draw more people?
>>Anything else which could help in marketing an new photographer?
>
>As a consumer, I concentrate on the larger ads, not the individual >listings. I want answers such as when a business is open, brand names >sold, types of work performed, et cetera. I would say 9 out of 10 >times, I don't even mess with the individual yellow page listings >unless I run out of large ads in my attempt to find a service I'm >looking for.

This is understandable, but if you ever tried to "BUY" one of those
large ads., you would appreciate: (a) they are horibly expensive,
and (b) you, as a customer, must wind up paying for the large Yellow
Pages ad. you like to look at ($7000 - $15000 is not difficult to
spend for one issue of the Yellow Pages!). You may find that those
who just have a line listing can give you better pricing. As to the original poster's questions, my experience was this: I tried a one
inch x one column ad. one year (about $700, with the extra cost of
the required business line [and that was a first-timer's discount price!]). Result: in the year it ran, I broke even (gross, not net)
by getting about $700 additional business that I could attribute to
the ad. Additional cost: several years later (I placed the ad. only
one year), I am STILL hounded by people trying to sell me space in
this-or-that spin-off "Yellow Pages", Yellow Pages plastic covers,
movie theater lobby magazine, etc., etc. - I guess when they spot a sucker, the ad. sales folks all zoom in for the kill! On the other
side, some people DO find the Y.P. ads. useful, and they can help
some kinds of businesses. Mine works better from direct contacts and referals, I guess (newspaper ads. didn't do much for me either).
Hope this helps.