I received a call yesterday afternoon as I was leaving my office.  My assistant said it was the AT & T Yellow Pages to finalize my tiny one-inch ad.

Once on the phone, I asked about the details of my little ad to confirm everything was correct.  The phone rep didn’t know anything about the ad.

Instead, her motive was to sell me a paid listing on the Yellowpages.com website.

Hmmm…that sounds weird (My salesman radar was up)

Like all yellow page reps, she used the typical tactic, “You’ll never be found if you don’t purchase this ad.”  So since I’m interested in online advertising, I started asking questions.

I pulled up the Yellowpages.com directory and first noticed the paid banners had “no follow” links.  This means Google doesn’t spider your incoming link.  I asked her about the link value and she had no idea what I was talking about.

Next I asked, “How many people a month are searching Yellowpages.com for carpet cleaners in Pensacola (my city).”   Surprisingly, she shared the number with me.  On average 260 people per month are searching on their site.

So here’s where really knowing about the internet can help you make a wise choice.  Around 1000 people per month are searching for carpet cleaners on Google for my city.  So that’s four times the traffic of Yellowpages.com.

Now, the big question…

“How much is an ad on Yellowpages.com?”  It was $230 for a higher position and $85 for a lower position.  And get this, a ONE YEAR commitment was required.

Let’s compare Yellowpages.com directly to Google Adwords.  If 1000 people are searching on Google, I may get 20-60 clicks from an Adwords campaign.  In my city the click for top position is about $1.80.

Worst case scenario, I’m paying $108 to show up on EVERY single Google search for carpet cleaning in Pensacola.  Keep in mind, these numbers are assuming my Google Adwords account is set up well.  If it’s not set up right, I could easily spend three times this amount for the same result.

Google Adwords=$108 for 1000 impressions.

Yellowpages.com=$230 for 260 impressions.

An impression is the number of times your ad is seen.  Not everyone clicks your ad.

In other words, if you’re advertising on Yellowpages.com with 260 impressions per month, you may get anywhere from 5-50 clicks to your site per month.  You’d be paying anywhere from $5 – 45 per click.  Ouch!  With Adwords, you’d be paying only $1.80 per click.

If you test out Yellowpages.com for a month and find you’re paying $30 per click, you can’t cancel.  With Adwords, you can cancel at a moment’s notice.

The other great thing about Adwords is you spend whatever you want.  If you only want to spend $50 in a month, you can do it.  If you want to advertise for just a week, you can do that too.

So that’s my rant.  I just wanted to make sure you were educated on this subject so you’ll know how to respond.  More often than not, you can get better advertising on Adwords MUCH cheaper.

To get my complete training package on Adwords go to www.Hitmanadvertising.com/adwords