What's the difference?

This is a picture of the Yellow Pages (source amplify.com).

The Yellow Pages are an exhaustive list of all the businesses in an area. That's why they're so thick.

Consumers pick up the Yellow Pages when they're looking for something. Most people don't put a yellow page book on the coffee table or in their office's waiting room. Consumers don't tend to talk about the yellow pages with friends or co-workers around the water cooler. And I don't know anyone who would carry one of these things into the bathroom for a little light reading.

As a business owner, you pay to have yourself listed and you can pay a little extra to make your listing bold or even include a coupon or ad. You don't have a lot space to be creative, and you have little control over how good your ad looks (it's on yellow paper after all).

A lot of internet companies are trying to replicate the usefulness of the Yellow Pages. They buy business listings and they make websites that list as many businesses as possible so that search engines like Google and Yahoo will turn to them first when consumers search online. These are called "directories". A couple good examples of Internet directories are OpenList, MojoPages, Local.com and Yellowpages.com.






This is a picture of a monthly city magazine (source Portland Monthly).




A city magazine has paid journalists who know their city really well, some could say are experts, writing about the best things in the city. They review restaurants, shops, gyms, museum exhibits, live music.

Consumers love these "best of" editions because they provide great ideas for ways to enjoy city life more. These editions are resources people refer to all year long because they love lists of the best places. They talk about who won this year and they debate whether or not the magazine got it right.

Businesses can pay to advertise on full-page sections of the magazine with beautiful glossy photos and compelling ads that help their businesses stand out. These tend to be expensive ads so it's not the same kind of advertiser that uses the yellow pages. You see more banks, franchisees, and jewelers.

This is what CityVoter is doing nationwide on the Internet. We're building best of lists and helping consumers debate what they love about where they live. We're creating premium advertising space for brands that want to target specific cities. Because we determine the best businesses in more than 100 categories and because we offer coupons to local business owners, we start to look like a directory. We are not. We'll leave that to the other guys.