Has anyone had any luck with any particuliar classified ad companies. I am using the free ones that I know about. Craigslist, Ooodle, and Backpages but I am curious if anyone has had success with any of the pay for ad services.

We've had limited success with Craigslist. Haven't tried the others you spoke of.
I think an order of appeal is:
Return customers
Referrals
Chamber of Commerces
Internet- google/yahoo/website
Yellow pages
Phone number on truck
Craigslist

I can't say I understand all the reasons ... but newspaper advertising seems to have really withered in the past few years. The classified section of the Sunday paper once was several fat sections; I think ALL classifieds, including the homes, lost pets, and help wanted ads ... added up to less than eight pages last Sunday.

Ditto for the Yellow Pages. While it certainly looks like the phone company is continuing to sell ads at the same rate as before, it now takes forever for the pile of books at their office to drop. Folks just aren't picking them up.
Someone recently saw a copy of the Yellow Pages on my truck - and were amazed. "Doesn't your phone get internet?" was his question. (It does - I think - but I have no idea how to use it )

I think that the days of printed media are quickly coming to an end. I'll admit that I use a phone book at home, but it is only 1" thick and not to inconvenient. At the office, there are seven different sets of 3" directories to cover the entire metro area. Too much of a hassle. Verizon just delivered 28 new phone books to my office. We called and asked them to come back and get them, which they are going to do. They said that they are getting a lot of these requests.

I've noticed the same thing with newspapers. They've reduced the overall dimensions so much that I can barely read it. Hardly any ads except for car and furniture dealers.

No doubt that Internet advertising is here to stay.

The way I see it!

1-Yellow pages, not yellow book, or the many other look alikes.
2-Pre screened Referrals, not from someone you did low ball work for.
3-Phone number, and nice lettering on late model clean truck.

I would tend to agree with these ideas, Ed.
I used to work in a newspaper factory, reader numbers are declining as we speak.
And the majority of people that actually do buy the newspaper, don't buy it to peruse the classifieds, they want the news and the weather.

Having said that, I get the newspaper, but it is a digital replica, that I can read on-line or download it and read it later off-line.
I almost never read the classifieds, the closest I would get to that is reading the Deaths column, to see if I'm still alive.

I have to agree with Les's 3rd point, nothing sells you like a well sign-written, clean work vehicle!

If you think about it, I'm pretty sure that pop-up ads on newspaper websites generate a higher rate of return than printed ads in the paper copy. I can honestly say that I have not 'attempted' to read my local paper in months (mainly because of my eyesight). I read my local newspaper on-line and just close the pop-ups. It's much more convenient to me. Same thing with magazine subscriptions: I've usually already read mine on-line before I get home and find them in my mailbox.

One of those newspaper pop-ups might be for a drain cleaning company at a time when I need one and there's a chance that I'll probably call them first. I think that this is the new direction in advertising, at least from a consumer's perspective.

Not to mention the "green" aspect of things. Think about all of that paper, recycled or not. It's still heavy and costly to transport. Printed media is too expensive to sell anymore. Fine by me.

Now, if my computer crashes, I may change my tune and run to the store for a paper and a few magazines!

My first post was on this very subject, Free Online Directories. I think kinetic named a few, Has anyone done some serious online research for free national Directories?

I've come up if a few, but I thought it would be good to list several.

There are some out there, that are really free or atleast until they have enough members (ala skype/netzero), but in the mean time I'd sign-up.