Small Business and Yell.com

I am new to running my own business, so when I started out I thought an add in the yellow pages or yell.com was the way to go. I contacted yell and got a quote from them, the price was spread over one year and works out at nearly £40 per month. I thought it was pricey but went for it anyway. Around the same time, I started a pay-per-click advert campaign with Google adds. This is set to never spend more than £1 per day, so i usually get two clicks (40p per click) a day. I think its good value for money.

But what about Yell.com, well the facts speak for themselves.

Over the last two month period Yell.com sent me 21 visitors at an average cost of £3.90 per visitor.
Over the same period Google Adds sent me 133 visitors, at an average cost of £0.40 per visitor. Yell.com works out nearly 10 times more expensive or less effective, depending on how you view it.
I phoned yell and asked them to cancel the contract, no they tell me, this cant be done. I'm in for 12 months and thats it. I asked what they were going to do about the pathetic return on investment figures, noting constructive they tell me, its all down the the Great Recession you see.

Needless to say, I'm livid and I'm not the only one. Check out these three web forums, full of disgruntled Yell customers and have a look at yell's share price over the last two years.

Says it all really.