I just made an extensive post on our Importers and Exporters blog about How to Find Manufacturers and Suppliers and how and "why" the Yahoo Directory section of Yahoo is extremely valuable to Exporting entrepreneurs - the link to that blog is located on the right side bar under links.
Briefly, however, I point out how the Yahoo directory has far better targeting of sources and WHY THESE SOURCES ARE BETTER THAN ALL other directories on the Internet.
To see how categorized the Yahoo Directory is, you can see from the following link how they break down into multiple sub-categories different business groups, in this example Direct marketing and Direct Mail -
Direct Marketing Advertising Direct Mail
I bring up the subject of direct mail because most business people ignore this means of advertising and/or making contact with other businesses now that they can "email".
Yes, you should have a website - it is your BEST 24/7 advertising billboard to the world but why not focus some attention on other advertising methods that most are now ignoring, i.e., direct mail?
In a direct mail letter you can introduce your business and provide the receiver with the URL to your website. Based on various marketing newsletters and publications I read, over 70% of all emails never reach the intended party so even though they are FREE, email is a terrible method of trying to make first contact with another business.
The MOST lucrative contracts I have ever concluded have been by means of direct contact, either by mail, fax or phone.
WORD OF CAUTION: Sending unsolicited FAX messages within the USA can get you some VERY HEFTY FINES - Faxing another business is only recommended now from one country to another. A fax message to a potential buyer/seller in another country stands a far better chance of being read by the intended receiver than an Email ever will.
In rounding out this post I want to pass along two resources that I cam upon while doing some research online yesterday using Yahoo, which by the way I recommend over Google since they changed their programming algorithm two months ago they and now return crappy results.
My Yahoo research took me to two blogs about Doing Business In Mexico that I found extremely interesting and have bookmarked them for future visits - Mexico is a HUGE market for products and services - ignore all the negative press designed to keep you off balance from what is going on around you in your own country - here are the resources -
Doing Business In Mexico
and
Doing Business Internationally - Mexico