Re: AltaVista Testing Paid Search Results

From: <info_at_loveworks.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 10:53:40 -0500 (CDT)

I've always been leery of posting to this list, but when I
noticed that Mark Welch posted, my fears were allayed.

I have been a customer of GOTO for a while now (8 months
perhaps) and have been a fan ever since. I wrote a tribute
to GOTO and included it on the front page of my website. I
believe in the business model and GOTO personafies that
model. If I want the top position, I raise my bid. If I
want that same position on Altavista or Infoseek, I study
the number one position holder, and then create special
pages to capture the positioning and continue to monitor my
placement. In other words, "spam the engine".

But why? Why do so many people with MONEY-MAKING SITES on
the internet believe that advertising should be provided
free. In no other industry is advertising provided free.
Why should the internet be any different. We pay for ads
for our retail stores -- why shouldn't we pay for ads for
our internet stores.

About Altavista's Paid Placement Program: I think it is
excellent. In fact, I think they should open up ten paid
spots instead of only two per search word. If they do it
right and not try to rip the advertisers off (like
LookSmart's $2500 buttons - you can email me directly if you
want my opinions on THAT search engine), the process will
work and will be beneficial for the web site owners, the web
surfers AND the search engines. And yes, I DO think the
surfer benefits. Most web-site owners are NOT going to pay
for frivolous, unrelated words -- and the search engines
won't allow them anyway. If they are spamming the engine,
they include tradenames, unrelated celebrity names and much
more so that they show up on the most unrelated search.
With pay-per-click placement, search returns CAN become more
accurate.

And since I am likely to get very unpopular mail for this
post :), I might as well come clean. I am one of those
terrible people that participated in the Yahoo survey that
asked if I would pay to get preferred treatment in the
submission of listings. I said Yes. And their $199
preferred submission program works like a charm! I
submitted one site to yahoo every Monday for fourteen weeks
to no avail. One week after the $199 program began, I
resubmitted, paid $199, and the site was in the search
engine. I figure I wasted five hours over those weeks
trying to get the site listed. It was certainly worth the
fee to finally get it included.

I apologize for rambling, but I felt that some support
should be shown for advertising that allows a business to
PAY FOR RESULTS. I wish I could get that type of
advertising for my stores.

Oh and one last thing: The internet *IS* a business to us.
It should be run that way -- with professionalism and
responsibility. That is how we have operated our stores
successfully since 1991. Thanks for considering a different
opinion.

Joe Wiseman
LoveWorks International
http://www.loveworks.com


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Received on Fri Apr 30 1999 - 11:49:51 CDT