Yell.com

[skillsassessor]

Hi ,

Has anybody used Yell.com for either their website building and hosting service and also for advertising on Yell.com itself ?

I am looking to get my own website, register a domain name and then sign up with an advertising site to hopefully start getting more leads to grow my business ( sole trader )

Met with the rep from Yell today and he has quoted me £360 incl vat for a professional looking website, £42 a month for hosting it and another £68 a month to advertise my buismess in one local area.

£110 a month is too much for my budget at the moment, what other options do you guy's recommend?

Any tips or advice most welcome

Thankyou

 

[Murdoch]

Get a local web designer to design one for you and fingers crossed they can host it too for around £100 per YEAR

Avoid Yell is my advice.

 

[Sharpend]

I’d agree, Yell is a has been relying on its reputation of the paper book. 

 

[Tony S]

Have a look on NameHog.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Any tips or advice most welcome

Thankyou

£110 a month sounds very expensive for a small business!!!!!

First of all I would go and see if you can purchase the domain name(s) that you want to best suit your business name.

Have a search on somewhere such as https://www.123-reg.co.uk/ to see if your preferred name is still available.

Decide if you want to own more then one domain to increase the probability that your site will be found....

e.g.  If you wanted a particular ".co.uk"  domain but someone else already owned the ".com"  of the same name there could be a risk of someone finding some other business when searching for your site.

Although there are loads of other website name extensions....

.net     .info.      .uk       .ltd    .online     etc...  etc.... etc....

I do think that the two biggies that still carry more weight are the ".com"  and ".co.uk"

I own the ".co.uk",  ".com"  and the ".uk"   for my domain name.....

which at the last renewal (April 18) costs  £43.16 for all three for 12months.   (That is with 123-reg.)

And via my account at 123-reg I can divert any search traffic for the ".com" or ".uk" domains to go to my ".co.uk" where my actual website pages live.

From a forum link many years ago I use Cloud9Dynamics for my website hosting,

(I think some other forum members also do?)

I am on a package called  "sharedhostinglite"  currently listed at £60 + Vat per year.

https://www.cloud9dynamics.com/management/cart.php?gid=1

But you need, (or someone on your behalf), to produce your own web pages.

Not too hard with Wordpress if you are reasonably computer Savvy.

With any website you need to consider how easy / expensive it is to add or change pages at a later date.

There are loads of sites with out of date or un finished web pages, broken links etc..

If you want to amend items, keep things current, remove any out of date content you don't want to have to pay bucket loads for corrections.

If you are a customer searching for some info, it is not very impressive finding a half written - inaccurate site to promote the prospective contractor you are thinking about using!

I have been and still am in Yellow pages, with free listing on Yell.com..  Via the NICEIC this is less than £240 per year....

So far every year it has paid for itself, so based on my "If it ain't broke don't fix it" policy..

that is still active, But the Yell.com page has minimal info then links my website.

I also created pages on free social media, Facebook, Nextdoor etc...…

So on rough figures for me It is less than £350. per year.  For personal Website + Yell.Com + Social media  etc...

Which is more like £30 per month, so you can definitely do better than £110 per month!!

Also as with all advertising, you must think about who is your target customer....

As I think Industrial/Commercial/Business customers would be expecting a  different style of website than one that is more acceptable to private customers?

(but this is just my opinion)

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Guinness :C

 

[ProDave]

I’d agree, Yell is a has been relying on its reputation of the paper book. 

If it is doing that, then it is onto a looser.

When I first started SE I advertised in the printed copy of Yellow Pages and that got me a lot of work and got me established.  I gave that up many years ago when I was not satisfied with the cost, and the palava that it had become to renew it every time.  Since then, the printed book has shrunk in size and is now a pathetic thin comic that I doubt anyone takes seriously.  Who ever masterminded or was in charge as it transitioned from a well respected useful directory into a pathetic embarrassing junk publication should be a candidate for unemployment imho.

You can still get a free basic entry on yell.com, I am still listed there but you can't have a link to your website with the free listing only, just a phone number to contact you.

Agree with others buy a domain name and set up your website yourself. You do not want it or any part of it under the control of yell.com

 

[Evans Electric]

I know nothing about hosting web sites  but I know its the way to go .      What you describe sounds massively expensive to me .  Follow the above advice. 

I was in Yellow Pages for a while ,  never had a call  through it TBH. 

As I always say to this question ,  if you are Commercial / Industrial   you need contacts not advertising ....always who you know /who knows you . 

If your customers are local ...Domestic  / small builders .....then again you cannot beat recommendation , which takes time to establish  ( Then protect it with your life) .

Also van livery is important  locally  and cheap advertising in local  free papers / church leaflets etc  .   

In other words  people need to know you are there.

If you are doing your van , keep the message nice &  simple  .  I see vans plastered  with information , stickers ,  Checkableedin' trade ,  Fair Dinkum Trader etc   .  No one wants to read it all  ...looks cheap .... looks like over egging the pudding. 

All you need is :-  

Company Name 

Electrical Contractor

This Town 

Tel:   123 456 78911 

Website info. 

 

[skillsassessor]

£110 a month sounds very expensive for a small business!!!!!

First of all I would go and see if you can purchase the domain name(s) that you want to best suit your business name.

Have a search on somewhere such as https://www.123-reg.co.uk/ to see if your preferred name is still available.

Decide if you want to own more then one domain to increase the probability that your site will be found....

e.g.  If you wanted a particular ".co.uk"  domain but someone else already owned the ".com"  of the same name there could be a risk of someone finding some other business when searching for your site.

Although there are loads of other website name extensions....

.net     .info.      .uk       .ltd    .online     etc...  etc.... etc....

I do think that the two biggies that still carry more weight are the ".com"  and ".co.uk"

I own the ".co.uk",  ".com"  and the ".uk"   for my domain name.....

which at the last renewal (April 18) costs  £43.16 for all three for 12months.   (That is with 123-reg.)

And via my account at 123-reg I can divert any search traffic for the ".com" or ".uk" domains to go to my ".co.uk" where my actual website pages live.

From a forum link many years ago I use Cloud9Dynamics for my website hosting,

(I think some other forum members also do?)

I am on a package called  "sharedhostinglite"  currently listed at £60 + Vat per year.

https://www.cloud9dynamics.com/management/cart.php?gid=1

But you need, (or someone on your behalf), to produce your own web pages.

Not too hard with Wordpress if you are reasonably computer Savvy.

With any website you need to consider how easy / expensive it is to add or change pages at a later date.

There are loads of sites with out of date or un finished web pages, broken links etc..

If you want to amend items, keep things current, remove any out of date content you don't want to have to pay bucket loads for corrections.

If you are a customer searching for some info, it is not very impressive finding a half written - inaccurate site to promote the prospective contractor you are thinking about using!

I have been and still am in Yellow pages, with free listing on Yell.com..  Via the NICEIC this is less than £240 per year....

So far every year it has paid for itself, so based on my "If it ain't broke don't fix it" policy..

that is still active, But the Yell.com page has minimal info then links my website.

I also created pages on free social media, Facebook, Nextdoor etc...…

So on rough figures for me It is less than £350. per year.  For personal Website + Yell.Com + Social media  etc...

Which is more like £30 per month, so you can definitely do better than £110 per month!!

Also as with all advertising, you must think about who is your target customer....

As I think Industrial/Commercial/Business customers would be expecting a  different style of website than one that is more acceptable to private customers?

(but this is just my opinion)

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Guinness :C

Thank you, very helpful and much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[sprocketflup]

From my personal experience, keep away from Yell

 

[binky]

Yell is a dead duck  eadHorse:  OK donkey 

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

Thank you, very helpful and much appreciated.

Cheers

No problem.....

As a rule most forum members will give reasonable answers or advice to the best of their ability to help others with a genuine question.   Guinness

Its when you get unskilled people out of their depth asking how to do potentially life threatening wiring tasks that volunteering ones knowledge becomes less forthcoming.....

It was one of the founding principals of the original owner many many moons ago...

The much esteemed Wizard of Wales!  :Salute  

To help others by imparting our knowledge and experience between each other...

None of us are to old to learn a bit more or share our experiences.

opcorn  

Yell is a dead duck  eadHorse:  OK donkey 

This year IS the final year of the printed book....

Which by coincidence we have just had a copy pushed through our door today...

136 pages!

:innocent

 

[binky]

Thompson book has ceased printing

 

[M107]

I binned yell back in Jan..............they still have not got the message as they still call asking if I'm happy with the advert  :wacko:  

It used to pay for itself but then they changed hands & the price rocketed. Usual calls ensued 

"well as you are a member of a scheme you do get a special larger advert on a dedicated page"...................yes & now you want to take an extra £115 off me. so they got courgetteed of in to the twilight. 

 

[Evans Electric]

It never fails to amaze me as to  how many hands are out there trying to pick your pocket  :C

You go out to a job that takes an hour  ,  you come back thinking you've just earned yourself ..say £40 .     

Then you remember ...  a percentage of that hard earned , technical & physical  hour spent... must go to : -

Gov.   Road tax

Gov.  Income tax

Gov.  VAT

Gov.   N/ Insurance

Gov.   Fuel tax

Gov.  Insurance tax

Scam membership fee

Yell. 

Website host

Accountant 

PI insurance

Vehicle insurance

Yet another Regs book 

 

[Andy™]

quit yell years ago. still get the odd call from them

 

[Sharpend]

It never fails to amaze me as to  how many hands are out there trying to pick your pocket  :C

You go out to a job that takes an hour  ,  you come back thinking you've just earned yourself ..say £40 .     

Then you remember ...  a percentage of that hard earned , technical & physical  hour spent... must go to : -

Gov.   Road tax

Gov.  Income tax

Gov.  VAT

Gov.   N/ Insurance

Gov.   Fuel tax

Gov.  Insurance tax

Scam membership fee

Yell. 

Website host

Accountant 

PI insurance

Vehicle insurance

Yet another Regs book 

At that price I should hope that it goes 'cough' unnoticed 'cough'. ??

 

[Evans Electric]

Thats a bad cough you have there Sharpie .   

 

[Sharpend]

Yeah it comes and goes, what baffles me it’s no ordinary cough it appears to be dependant upon posts on threads :shakehead   :C  

Is their an antiviral I can’t take for it? 

 

[Evans Electric]

Is their an antiviral I can’t take for it? 

..erm....  yes I'm sure there are many that you can't take  , in fact  you can't take ALL of them if you didn't want to .     :innocent