Looksmart Australia, how effective is it?

Is it worth the money?

[minidisc]

Dear all,
I'm thinking about paying the $440 odd dollars per annum for Looksmarts Australias looklistings. As I couldn't find anywhere on the net with any results I thought I would as in this forum.
Has anyone here submitted into looklistings and what numbers did or has it generated?
Any tips you can share?

Thanks

Wing

[stricko]

We submit our clients to Looksmart as a must, not to get a Looksmart listing but to get into Ninemsn network. Most of our clients receive about a 3rd of their Asutralian traffic from Ninemsn search.

The benefits of paying are to be included in Looksmart, Ninemsn, GoEureka and Optusnet.

I would go for it!

[Woz]

Hi minidisc, Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

We had a discussion recently about PPC in Australia [webmasterworld.com] which has some more information for you.

Onya
Woz

[keeper]

Looksmart have a good thing going, as they seem to have worked hard on accumulating a good list of syndication partners.

The main one, pointed out by stricko, is Ninemsn - currently the most popular Australian based search engine and it consistently delivers decent traffic with a good Looksmart submission.

[minidisc]

Thanks for your replies. Just needed some reassurance before dishing out $440 which isn't even guarenteed of submission. I made a submissiong yesturday :)
Has anyone got any numbers of before looksmart and after? Just curious.

[keeper]

Numbers will vary according to your industry, so its hard to say. I would benchmark your search engine referrals from last month and see how the next three months increase.

Let us know how you go!

[cherryl]

Just another late addition to this discussion.

You really need to run some of your target keyword/s through NineMSN and actually see what you get in the way of directory results (i.e. from Loooksmart). For some of my targets there aren't any directory matches. Or your likely Looksmart Title/Description/Category may only give you a very narrow range of matches. My strategy is to aim for high web page results across a greater variety of keywords using several different relevant pages of my site and going through Inktomi/PT paid indexing program. I'm quite certain this is more effective ROI for my field. My homepage was already listed in Looksmart, but I'd struggle to justify the current annual charges for listing.

[minidisc]

Thanks for your tips.

If I typed Minidisc Australia our site we be listed top, but if we typed minidisc it wouldnt be seen for a couple of pages. Most people would type minidisc into ninemsn instead of minidisc australia so $440 is a good investment for me. I'm waiting on what rank I will receive.

[cherryl]

Yes. In your case that should put you up there with the three Australian Directory Sites, and ahead of the US directory sites.

[minidisc]

ok im in the listings now, actually the top listing for smartlistings under the serach term minidisc
After the site has been submitted is it too late to suggest other keywords to the looksmart people?
They also say 3 urls per domain, i never seen this option to enter more in?