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Question 1 (WR) - Why did LookSmart Ltd decide to change LookSmart.com from a Paid Directory to a Pay Per Click model?(DS) Our customers told us to.
OK own up guys. Which one of you told them to? :)
(DS) We’re giving our legacy customers US$300 in value—that’s more than they ever paid in the first place.
Hmm.. 1 dollar more i think, but not in cash, but in "value" which is whatever LS defines that as.
Fair suck of the sav cobber. We ain't as stupid as a dead dingo's donger.
..In addition, if listings are critical for relevancy, they’ll stay in the directory regardless of paid status. ..
What does exactly it mean?
What do they consider "critical for relevancy"?
Someone who has the cash to sue them if their listing disappears, maybe?
There is NO value at .15 for EVERY click. Why not give 1 click and set the value at $600 and get this crap over with? Then Looksmart can claim they gave us more than DOUBLE what we paid.
The 20 months has just been reduced by Looksmart to 3.
Listings, regardless of their relevance, are dropped from the directory if the PPC program is not "joined".
<email>Damien,
In your interview with High-Search-Engine-Ranking.com, you said you've received few complaints regarding your change here in the States to the pay-per-click model. I wanted to let you know my thoughts.
I currently represent over 30 sites who have listings in LookSmart.com. I can tell you that I have personally spoken with every customer regarding the changes. All of them expressed outrage at the way this was handled. You are correct that none of them have to do business with you. Be sure that they won't. If you would've only handled things a little differently, there would not be the outrage that most feel. I am personally embarrassed that I brought LookSmart as a service to my clients, and will no longer do so.
You see, as much as I despise tooting my own horn, I have spoken publicly all over the mid-west United States on search engines, how they work and fit together, and how businesses can use them to their benefit to get qualified traffic. Call this SEO, promotion, whatever. I will continue to speak publicly. You might imagine what advice I'll give to people who care to listen.
As far as I'm concerned, the most compelling reason to pay to be included in LookSmart.com's listings has been MSN. According to StatMarket, MSN comprised just less than 13% of search referrals. 13% does not offset the cost of doing business with LookSmart.com. I suppose you could see my clients decision as purely business,but I think it's a little personal to them as well.
Sincerely,
Dave Stewart
</email>
I'll let you all know if I receive a response...
Question 1 (WR) - Why did LookSmart Ltd decide to change LookSmart.com from a Paid Directory to a Pay Per Click model?(DS) They wanted a guarantee. We couldn’t give them one, since results are served according to relevancy.
What kinda **** is this? All they had to do was analyse their web logs! Do LS not know about about this - oh yeah - that must be right - its too hard for them to show the click details in customers accounts.
Question 10 (WR) - For a long time now, LookSmart Australia has claimed to reach 66% of the Australian search market.(DS) Very much so – in fact, we’ve just rechecked the figure with AC Nielsen, who are, along with Red Sheriff, the authoritative sources on this subject.
It might be 66%, but its less quality!
Looksmart seem only to be fooling themselves!
..In addition, if listings are critical for relevancy, they’ll stay in the directory regardless of paid status.
Angiolo - I think its an intelligent and political way of saying:
"Old listings that appear before the commercial pay for review era will remain in the database and not be subject to pay per click"
I am left with the comical scenario of watching my old free submit sites outrank my pay for review sites and appear at the top all because no-one wants to charge their credit card past the allotted amount!
At 25 bucks a URL, its a real bargain compared to the Looksmart sliding model.
Yeah right! So when my listing disappears in 20 months or less, who do I talk to? Are they not obliged to inform their customers of such a change?
In addition, if listings are critical for relevancy, they’ll stay in the directory regardless of paid status.
I think that says: If we don't have enough paying customers for a particular keyword search, we'll keep some freebies around just so our search returns don't look silly.
Shhhhhh! Don't give 'em any ideas.
lawman
if listings are critical for relevancy, they’ll stay in the directory regardless of paid status.
>just so our search returns don't look silly.
Exactly. This means that companies like IBM, General Motors, Microsoft will be included even if they don't write a check.
In addition, if listings are critical for relevancy they’ll stay in the directory regardless of paid status
Sure, you used to be relevant, and we even said so by accepting (reviewing, editing, mangling) your submission to our directory. You were relevant when you paid us to join our directory. But now we don't care about that, you're not relevant any more until you fork over your credit card.
Any directory can have submission requirements, editorial guidelines, value-added extra-cost promotional options (premium placement, "bold type", double-headline, etc in a YellowPages analogy), but to tell 100% of your pre-existing listings:
"Your listing is most likely going away, your must join our new pay-for-every-untargeted-click program, or risk your listing going in the trash can. By the way:(1) If you (by failure to join) cause us to nuke your listing (which will be your fault, of course), if you ever do rejoin, you must submit to the new customer minimums and any other recalitrant jerk customer penalties we dream up in the interim.
And (2) We may keep some listings regardless of PPC activation if they are "critical to relevance" and whose presence is therefore required to keep our "directory" from becoming a complete joke. But we're not going to tell you which listings we'll keep or what constitutes relevancy. Firstly because we don't know, and secondly because if we did know it would still be a secret."
LookSmart Search Results:
0 matches for "Coca Cola"
LookSmart is no longer a directory. LookSmart is now a structured premium listings service with arbitrarily fixed pricing, unacceptable change fees, poor click reporting, highly suspect click accounting, and poorly targeted listing presentation resulting in poor quality, low conversion clicks.
And what's more ... The Implementation Of The Recently-Acquired Primary Knowledge Technology Will Optimize Relevance and Enhance Revenue. What this really means is that "Their Secondary Stupidity Technology will cause your listing to appear way more often in erroneously mistargeted search results, get clicked on way more often, for completely ridiculous and useless non-converting leads, thereby costing you a lot more money, and enhancing LookSmart revenue." It's very simple.
