Are The Yellow Pages Still Effective?

Are the Yellow Pages still effective is a popular question I hear asked time and time again. So what's the answer? Are they still a good place to advertise your business? It depends. What you have to determine is the area you service, what is the demographic? If you find that you service an older community with an abundance of senior citizens, then the Yellow Pages might still be a good place to run an ad. If you are in a lower income demographic the Yellow Pages may still be good. The younger generation has never touched a Yellow Pages book and never will, so advertising there in that demographic may not be the best bang for your buck.
Another thing to consider is the price you are willing to pay for the ad. In the past the Yellow Pages were at a higher price and rightly so, it's the place everybody went to search for a business online. Today you should expect to pay a lot less for an ad in the Yellow Pages because they don't have the same amount of eyeballs. Their distribution of the books might be the same but a lot of those people just don't use them anymore.
So to answer the question "Are the Yellow Pages still effective?" The answer is, yes and no. Figure out your target client and then determine if they are the type of person that uses book to find your business.  Or you could use them for a bench to relax on.