The first thought of any genuine business starting out would be to have a listing in the Yellow Pages.

People tend to still be a little old fashioned and think of the printed Yellow Pages, and than they would take it a step further and try to get listed included in the Yellow Pages Online Directory and would consider that a bonus to there success.

The first thing that comes to mind with advertising with the Yellow Pages is its Very Very Expensive, and they really have alot of power to keep there price up. The downfall to advertising is there are really too many businesses and it is very difficult to stand out from the rest especially if you can only afford a simple basic listing.

The second most valuable type of advertising that comes to mind with any new business and has become increasingly more popular as the years go on is the online world and having a website, but than with a website the next step is to be listed and be seen. The sad thing is everyone is striving to be indexed in google and all the major search engines to hopefully be noticed somewhere under a keyword that someone might type to find there business. Unfortunately even than they may not get a real picture of what they are looking for, yet just one webpage it could even be the back of a website that could be indexed, so when someone does a full search they may still not understand exactly what they have looked for.

Ok on top of that to have a website it is so technical and time consuming, to continuously have your website optimized to stand out from your competitors , its almost like having to employ a Web Specialist full time just for your business.

Would you believe Google (such a well sorted leader) are starting to put there thinking caps on about this. It was only last week when they bought a 5% share in DMOZ. Yes, that is right. For those who are not aware of this, this is a very big move on their behalf which makes it even more interesting for the online advertising world. DMOZ.com for those of you who arent aware are apparently the largest human directory in the world, the directory includes businesses mainly.

What brings to mind with this, is it seems like google are not satisfied with what they have. It seems like they need to bring out a new source in order to have a more optimized search. "The optimized search is a business directory". Inside a business directory you get what you will find what you need alot more effectively than using a search engine or of course the Yellow Pages. It is now being realized. So the real question is this - If you spend on Advertising, you need to spend on an online business directory, but one that can be used effectively and is relevant to your country/location.

I am definitely not a fan of DMOZ, I think they have a lot more work to do. It is still a very restrictive directory and also not much room for standing out from other business if you were listed. So a directory to be most effective is the real question not just with traffic but also quality visitors and unique hits.

A real business needs a real listing to be found, seen and stand out from this real messy advertising world.