A friend of mine advertises on Yelp for her salon, I believe she spends around $400 a month. She told me the results are okay but nothing to write home about.
Yelp is now working on an IPO.
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advis...165100481.html
My favorite passage of the article:
Quote:
But Yelp's proposed IPO has received mixed reviews. Rocky Agrawal, a digital media analyst, recently called Yelp a "rip-off" for smaller advertisers.
"Yelp is charging small businesses 1,000-times the standard online CPM rates for local ads that appear on Yelp," he wrote in VentureBeat. "Even when compared to its own ads for national advertisers, the company is charging a 100x premium? Yelp's business model is closer to that of yellow pages companies: sell a questionable value proposition to many who don't understand what they're buying."
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Small businesses want to get an edge with the Internet, which they absolutely should and can. The problem is so many of them know so little about the Internet that they think companies like Yelp and Groupon are the golden ticket when what they really need is a powerful Internet marketing strategy that combines SEO, social, and a few other guerrilla elements. Unfortunately, finding someone trustworthy to do that is close to impossible or will cost a small fortune.
I know of a few GFYers that are doing this for local businesses and doing quite well. Something to think about for those of you that are looking for new opportunities.
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