LS, YAHOO!, ODP, About

Who takes the cake?

[skibum]

Been doing more directory submissions lately...ODP is a mixed bag, sometimes fast and reasonable, sometimes edited down to a minimalist description after a long wait, but free is nice.

Threw out a few LookSmart submissions, with mediocre results.
Maybe a little rubber cement would have helped the descriptions stick a little better. From a readability point of view, they turned out just fine, but from a KW point of view, well they got watered down. I can't exaclty complain that they are not accurate descriptions, just not what had been hoped for.

Then YAHOO! They have been phenomenal. Who'd a thought? Not one word or category changed thus far. $199.00 no longer seems like such a big chunk for a fast accurate description.

About.com - never had to deal with About for promotional purposes, but guides have been helpful, cordial, and friendly.

NBCi, It midas well be a search engine now. Wortha submission to the Live directory but never much of a source of traffic..

For SEO purposes, YAHOO! leads the pack so far.

[skiguide]

get in contact w/ Sprinks if you are interested specifically in a certain page, not the homepage of her site or whatever, because they are testing new ways to do just that - get different sprinks on different pages.

i didn't look at your site...is your product something you can send her to review? If so, then try emailing her suggesting that you send it to her for her review. sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease....

[Robert Charlton]

>>The commercial/non-commercial idea is a thought, as most of her I Ching links are academic.<<

Hilary - This may well be it. I've only taken a quick look at your site, but I was immediately struck not only by its commercial nature, but by how extremely expensive the services you offer are. Probably not the kind of material that an editor with an academic or general-audience orientation would want to include...

[Hilary]

'Extremely expensive'?? £20 for about 2 hours' specialised, academic work? What's the minimum wage where you come from? (Maybe the £ is expensive right now?)

Seriously, though, what I charge is pretty normal for the business (it varies hugely from $5 to $150), and the site has 100+ pages of free content, and even free, personal readings. Thanks for taking the time to visit the site, and thanks also for the reassurance that you can tell I'm selling something. (So many people have said they couldn't - not good...)

I will take your comments to heart, and ensure any future links I suggest are to the purest of the pure content pages!

Or maybe go the full commercial route as Skiguide suggests and offer her a free reading... There's an idea...

Skiguide, thanks for the Sprinks tip. Last time I asked they said no - good to hear that things are changing.

I really appreciate all the advice :-)

[Robert Charlton]

It was the 100 pounds figure that stayed in my mind. I think the rates now are better than how I remember them from way back, when one pound was US$2.00. Anyway, I don't want to get into whether what you charge is or is not reasonable or worth it... that wasn't the point. $200 simply hit me as a large figure to encounter on what I'd expected to be a free informational site.

[Hilary]

That's fine - your first impressions are important. They might just reflect a certain About guide's impressions - if she ever visited the site. ;-)