One of the fastest-growing segments of the internet is Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs). There are dozens of these sites online and more are introduced every week. It makes sense: 80% of purchases are made locally and the number of people using the internet continues to climb.

Having a website makes some sense for almost any business but there's no getting around the costs. More than the cost of the initial design or web hosting is the cost to update your site. If your hours or phone numbers are inaccurate, you've got unhappy customers. If your copyright date or other dates are months or years out of date, it reflects badly on your company. So if you don't have a website already, be sure to take these costs into account. If you can't update the info yourself, budget for someone else to do so.

The first step in promoting your business is to check over your listing with your local phone company. They don't have the time or motivation to make sure that your name is spelled properly or that your listing address matches your billing address. Make sure that all the details are right. Almost all yellow pages, paper or online or both, use those listings as their main source of information. Did you move? Do you use a different number for your new customers?

1) Check your business name for proper spelling.
2) Verify that your address is correct.
3) Are the numbers you want published listed?
4) Are there numbers you don't want published, like a special line for your best customers?

There are 4 major paper-based yellow pages: SmartPages, RealPages, Dex and SuperPages. We're going to eliminate the first 3 because they don't provide any way to enhance a listing for free. SuperPages will let you publish a link to your website and an email address. Be sure that it's an email address that has good anti-spam protection because they show the link for people and spammers. SuperPages allows you to add these for free and you should do so.

How much good it will do you depends on how competitive your industry and location is. In most categories, there'll be up to 20 national, regional and premium local advertisers before the listings start.

There are 3 major search engines: MSN, Google and Yahoo! MSN.com uses SuperPages data with its own layer of advertisers on top. Google and Yahoo!, on the other hand, have introduced "local" versions of their search engines. Yahoo! will let users sort by price (where data allows) or by distance or alphabetically. Google allows for a distance sort only. Both Google Local and Yahoo! Local are relatively new but growing steadily. It's a very good idea to list your business with them.

As for "pure" internet yellow pages, the ones you should consider most seriously are baltimore.md.mypages.com and www.bebaltimore.com . They let businesses list themselves for free and return results in unbiased order. Users can choose to sort by distance but the default sort is "latest". Businesses that have updated their information are shown first since they're the ones with the most details and most recent details. In addition, baltimore.md.mypages.com and www.bebaltimore.com pages are indexed by all of the major search engines, meaning that people who don't know about the "Local" flavors are still able to find you.

If you are looking for a no cost way to get your business noticed – update or add your business listing with the free internet yellow pages. Be sure to take advantage of all of the free features – it is a quick and easy way to promote your business to millions of potential customers every day.

© James Deibele and Danette Collins 2005

About the author:
Jim Deibele was the President and majority shareholder of Teleport Internet Services in Portland, Oregon. When Teleport was sold in 1999 it was the largest independent ISP in the Pacific Northwest. Danette Collins was the Chief Financial Officer of Teleport Internet Services. Danette is a CPA with a diverse business consulting background. Jim and Danette now work together in the area of technology and online business development. Visit www.siriusventures.comfor more information.