Yahoo/infoserve sponsored local listing

Hi, I've been watching from the background for a while, great forum with lots of good advice. Hopefully I'm posting in the right place.

I've had infoserve onto me today, about buying the top sponsored spot (out of 2 available) on yahoo local search for my primary keyword at a fixed monthly price.

They're claiming yahoo's local search rivals google's local search in terms of popularity, and that my keyword in London gets at least 10,000 local searches per month, which would work out just over 1 penny (UK) per search

The non-sponsored local results don't have links to their websites, only the 2 sponsored listings

It's one of these things that on the face of it sounds a bit too good. Just wondered if anyone has any experience with these or can spot the catch

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer

If you're wanting the top sponsored results (in the green above everything else) then you could start your own PPC campaign.

If they're talking about the top spot appearing next to the map, then depending on the terms, you could probably do this yourself if you read up on the subject and apply yourself to it.

Ranking local terms is much simpler than ranking national terms, and is something most computer/internet savvy people could do on their own (provided the term is not plagued, such as real estate, plumbers, and other such "popular" terms).

But to get your website listed there, all you need to do is sign up with Yahoo local and complete your profile. It's easy, takes about 30 minutes (5 if you don't think about it and just post the first things that come to mind).

Thanks, I will be doing everything I can to get high natural rankings

Just not sure of the value of this sponsored local thing while it's building up