Ya...I first did Phone Book Covers with a Co out of Green Bay WI. I charged $555 per ad. $185dep, $185 on proof & $185 on delivery (which the company got) for 5,000 mailed

These were "Soft" covers with 10 ads on each side (20 ads x $555) I then went with a Hard cover with a metal spine and put 60, 2 line ads on each side in Alphabetical Order for $245 ea (120 ads x $245) for 5,000

And haven't done anything with them for years AND...last year I was in a realtor buddies office and he showed me the Soft Cover he bought and ad on for $245. (10 ads on each side)

I was then in my insurance rep's office and whala, another cover he bought an ad on for $297 (Totally different cover)

Then I was in my auto repair guy's office and....another Different Cover.

This got my interest up, so I did some checking.

I found a Cover maker in Cincy with a good price for covers. I then looked at the 3 covers I had collected and all 3 cos were from the Cincy area.

Apparently...there are 5 different cos soliciting ads for phone book covers from the Cincy area. It seems one co started doing these a few yrs ago, hired some salespeople and trained them and...these salespeople decided they could make phone calls themselves and get the covers from the cheap maker.

Now...why 3 of them chose my dorky town of 25,000 to solicit ads for their covers within about a month of each other, is interesting. I know they are separate operations...actually competitors....so why they chose my town, I'll never know.

One thing I do know....NO ONE EVER RENEWS A PHONE BOOK COVER AD!

That should tell you how "effective" they aren't.

Don Alm
P.S. One thing I also know for sure;
The same 3 cos who solicited and sold ads on phone book covers in my area, last year....WILL be soliciting and selling ads to DIFFERENT advertisers in my area THIS year.