No, we're not in Kansas anymore, but as in the myth of the Wizard of Oz, we want to go home, enlightened by the strange and beautiful and scary journey we've been on. The internet is Oz, and paid directories are those evil flying monkeys.
Example: The Yellow Pages. Faced with loss of ad revenue in an increasingly online world, the classic yellow book is on the web. However, instead of publishing a partner version of the book--a real benefit to the user--the online version is a separate entity. IF the directory does list all book entries, it's only after the paid
spaces, which come after the premium paid spaces, and there will be no link to your expensive and meticulously created online presence.
I'm all for making money, but isn't The New World of Work about conducting business in a way that benefits the customers rather than sapping the life out of them? It's not just the yellow book, Toto, it's all paid directories.
Using the internet as the internet dictates, we Google. Or Yahool. Or occasionally MSN. And we don't google "directoryname new york yoga studio," we google "yoga new york." Just because you're new at this does not mean you have to be scared into giving money to the for-profit directory du jour! "Use the Force, Luke" --or my case--the Luke Force: my own brave intuition. Here's my traffic, based on the last 5,000 hits.
#1 Links from email notification of blog posts, followed and sometimes surpassed by
#2 Links from search engines (generated by frequent blog posting and other unpaid techniques)
#3 Links from blog to web site or vice versa, which originated as No. 1 or No. 2
To quote Dennis Miller "Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."
Just say no.
The Yellow Pages just don't get the internet. They are not looking to provide real value.
Posted by: Ben | May 09, 2006 at 06:11 PM