Re: Yahoo (Price) Suprise!

From: Mark Bishop <markb_at_aala.com>
Date: Tue 22 Jan 2002 16:36:24 -0500

Actually Yahoo's paid submission program "Yahoo Express"
is not new. It's been going on since late last year.
It's part of a small trend of major search engines and
directories that are charging to get one's business
related web site indexed. Largely due to the fall-out
of the dot.coms and the lack of advertising revenue
based on banner impression advertising. However, if
your business is non-profit, and your web site is
not listed in Yahoo's Business/Commercial categories,
you can still submit your web site for free.

As a web site promoter, or Internet marketing person, a
number of my clients say "ouch" when I tell them that on
top of my fees, there's the Yahoo Express submission fee
of $299.00, and then there's the other major search
engine, LookSmart <http://www.looksmart.com> that also
charges $299.99 per URL to get one's web site listed.
And now there's what we call the Paid Placement search
engines arising. Is it all really worth it?

One very popular paid placement search engine is called
Overture where you bid actually on your own keywords
relevant to your site. For example, if my web site
sells shoes, and I decide to setup an account with
Overture and bid to have the keyword "shoes" added, I
might have to make a bid on that keyword (so that
"shoes" ranks up higher among my other competitor shoe
web sites) for say $0.71 per keyword used. The lowest
amount one can bid on their keywords is $0.05 per
keyword. In short, when users search for the keyword
"shoes" my web site hopefully will be displayed at the
top of the listings.

The higher you go, the more frequent your web site
shows up. For more information visit
<http://www.overture.com>. Keep in mind that Overture
has various payment plans, including a fixed monthly
budget where you can allot yourself $100.00 a month, or
less, and when that amount runs out, your listings are
placed on hold until you pay again. Overture's search
engine results are displayed within the search results
of many other major search engines too.

I've found a lot success for my clients in also
utilizing INKTOMI's paid submission search engine
<https://www.netsol.com/en_US/enhance-it/inktomi-guidelines.jhtml>.
Inktomi's search results are also displayed in these
other major search engines: Hotbot, AOL, MSN, iWon,
Overture and LookSmart. On the other hand, LookSmart's
paid search engine service results also are used by many
other (and some of the same) major search engines and
directories. However, the cost for getting in Inktomi
is only $30.00 per URL.

I would suggest to any small and medium-sized web
e-business that they get listed in Yahoo, LookSmart
and Inktomi and then if possible, in having a
monthly budget of around $50.00 to $150.00 utilize
Overture. Moreover, don't forget uBid and eBay outlets
too. I know many product related businesses that have
had success in placing some of their products on these
auction sites and selling them. Both allow for you to
also setup your own auction store web site too and link
that right to your own web site. Even Yahoo Stores can
be beneficial, but you still have to pay their $299.00
URL submission fee regardless if you have a Yahoo store
or not.

Lastly, let's not forget that any serious business person
will hire people who can get the job done right. The
total advertising expenses to get your web site listed
and decently ranked is fair in comparison to what you would
pay just to be listed in other traditional advertising plans.
And it takes time too. I just finished marketing a 60 year
old manufacturing firm in Los Angeles that now ranks top
among 2,000 other competitor web sites. However, it took us
3 months to accomplish this goal.

Enough said!

Mark Bishop




Received on Tue Jan 22 2002 - 15:36:24 CST