Australian Looksmart & NineMSN

Anyone know if NineMSN is dropping Looksmart Australia too?

[graeme]

I stumbled across this forum a few months back, but haven't had time to have another look at it until now - looks great! I hope to have a read through it regularly.

Now for my post: With MSN recently announcing they are dropping Looksmart results early next year, does anyone know whether this also holds true for NineMSN and Looksmart Australia? I've tried asking them about it but am not getting a reply.

I'm in an unfortunate position of having a Looksmart Australia listing due for renewal now. If I pay up for another year, it may not be worth as much from next year, and if I don't pay up, my NineMSN traffic is going to drop until they replace their web directory/sponsored site with something else next year. NineMSN is currently my 3rd highest referrer of traffic.

Any info, or suggestions how I can find out would be much appreciated.

By the way, Looksmart are ignoring my requests to find out how many clicks my listing got over the last year. Bit rough I reckon.
Cheers
G

[whats up skip]

I read it somewhere, but I cannot remember where now.

Ninemsn, Optus and I think it was Yahoo Australia will continue to use Looksmart Australia.

Basically they have no real option at the moment. Overture has not started an Australian section, but this would see Yahoo Australia switch.

Ninemsn is not likely to switch to Overture Australia or Google, but may drop Looksmart when the Microsoft alternative has an Australian version (read does look like this will happen in the first release) and it compares with income they get from Looksmart.

[sanity]

At this point Ninemsn, Yahoo Australia and Optus have stated they will stick with LookSmart.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7550311%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html [australianit.news.com.au]

[graeme]

Thanks for the advice guys.
I notice in the Australian IT article it says "The ninemsn venture — jointly owned by Microsoft and the Packer family's PBL — would still offer LookSmart's LookListing premium paid search service, chief executive Martin Hoffman said, but general LookSmart web directory services would be discontinued"...

which I presume means Smartlistings will be dropped but Looklistings continued. It's a smartlisting I'm wondering whether or not to renew. hmmm...

Looksmart have got back to me about click through rates for my last year of Smartlisting. I'll ask them about Looklistings costs too.

Anyone had any experience with Looklistings/Smartlistings and can provide a comparison?

G

[Janet]

Graeme,

I don't have a lot of experience with Looklistings but I have a client who uses it. You'll need a big budget. My client spends around $1000/month (flat rate) + click through $ for his Looklistings account. It gets him at the top of ninemsn and Yahoo australia. My understanding is that the rates LS charge vary according to the competitiveness of the search terms being targeted. He is also very savvy and doesn't spend money to waste it. You can be sure he's getting his ROI for the money spent (accommodation business).