Spend a few minutes talking to a plumber, cab driver or pizza delivery person and you'll know that yellow pages advertising is key to many professions.

Among the products sold by Yellow Pages companies, the most common are: Yellow Pages advertising or basic listings items, Internet Yellow Pages advertising and Web sites, and local banner advertising. Internet Yellow Pages are becoming more powerful as sites such as Superpages, Smartpages and AreaConnect garner more eyeballs.

The growth of Internet Yellow Pages Advertising will come at a cost to print yellow pages advertising, though the big book in offices and homes still reigns supreme.

Yellow pages advertisers are typically offer a choice of several packages. If you are in a competitive field you will have little choice but to buy one of their top offerings.

Most of the major US telephone publishers are pursuing regional Yellow pages strategies, in which they focus on delivering a strong directory in their geographic regions. This strategy makes brand sense to the individual publishers, and the advertisers as the book they advertise in should dominate the region.

Another evolving alternative is the Pay per Click search engine, which can convert into considerable sales if used properly. Try Overture or Findwhat and see if they fit your needs.