Getting a nonProfit site into Yahoo?

[jady]

Greed seems to dominate the entire Internet world today! Especially search engines. Perfect (other) example, we have been trying to get a free, non-commercial cancer support forum in Yahoo for years with no luck! (Mind you, I am a Cancer survivor who started this site to educate people and give them a good place to meet others in the same shoes - and I fund it 100% from my pocket!) Never a response, never a listing. But paying the $299 got out Client's commercial site a nearly instant listing!

PURE GREED!

[agerhart]

Greed? or Business?

[bcolflesh]

How exactly is this an example of greed?

Regards,
Brent

[jady]

It is not Greed to charge $299 for a business listing - This is business! But it is greed to NOT list non-commercial non-profit support sites..

I have no problem paying $299 for a yahoo listing for our business endeavours, but I do have a problem when a company will not help folks get their community service site out there.

[bcolflesh]

"But it is greed to NOT list non-commercial non-profit support sites..."

I can imagine that it is very frustrating, but it is definitley not an example of greed:

/An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth/

Regards,
Brent

[Marketing Guy]

I would say you are missing the issue Brent.

The actual definition of greed is irrelevant, as is what word you would use to describe Yahoo.

The fact is that they put more emphasis on those who will pay them than on those who represent a good cause.

Im sure many people will quite gladly hide behind the "it's just business" excuse.

But that doesn't change the fact that it is horrible.

Scott

[chiyo]

I think its more to do with the fact that Y! must get thousands and thosands of free submissions and the chance of ANY site being seen by staff that can approve non-commercial sites is very low - especially now where they are changing systems. We got one "free" listing for one site a year ago after 2 weeks. Another one hwoever has been submitted 3 or 4 times in the last 12 months with no response.

So it may well not be heartless. Just that they havent seen it yet.

Its a pity. But i wouldnt worry too much about Y! Im not convinced that the free listings are worth much anyway. Better to get it listed on Ink and Google.

I do feel sorry for your predicament and if there is some way a Y! rep reads this, or someone with "connections", you may get a response as it seems a very good cause for a free listing.

[Napoleon]

Jady... if you are not already in there, submit to the ODP (dmoz.org) and send a friendly email to the category editor. If no response (they could be moribund) try another editor in a higher category.

The ODP isn't driven by profit and it is extremely influential on the web.

[Craig_F]

Jady, I'd try contacting the Y! editor that approved your commercial listings and mention your difficulties. You never know, and it certainly beats the submit and wait game.

[Critter]

I think everyone's missing the point here:

Exactly how is Yahoo being greedy by not putting your link on *their* site for free? They pay good money for their bandwidth/hardware/etc.

Your definition of greed needs revising...

Peter

[agerhart]

Yahoo! is running their website as a business, and a business needs to make money.

Do you think that a high volume magazine or newspaper would give you a free advertisement just because you are a non-commercial/non-profit business? Not a chance.

[Jane_Doe]

Based I my experience I would guess that Yahoo is more likely to give you a free listing in areas where they don't already have a lot of paid customers in order to beef up the categories with less entries.

I suspect that for cancer they have a lot of paid customers. Plus for any free listings for a major category like cancer I would think they would be more likely to list the major foundations and hospital sites over a one person funded cancer site.

[choster]

There a certain other web directory [dmoz.org] that was created expressly because of these kinds of concerns. Good luck.

[agerhart]

Choster, that certain other directory has its own mountain of problems.

Most of the time I would rather pay Yahoo! the annual fee than have to deal with the ODP.

[bcolflesh]

Hey - the title of this thread was changed - I think that is an example of WebmasterWorld greed!

;)

Regards,
Brent

[choster]

I'm not arguing that other options don't have problems or making any point about the relative merits of listing in one place over another. Just that other options exist. While $299 is a relatively minor sum for even home offices, it is not pocket change even to medium-sized non-profits. There are plenty of free directories out there, not to mention Google and the other free search engines.

edited for clarity

[edited by: choster at 7:52 pm (utc) on April 1, 2003]

[agerhart]

There are plenty of free directories out there, not to mention Google.

I think we are all well aware that the Google directory is the ODP.

[jady]

ODP gave us a listing without cause and yes - they are a free directory for all. Some of you got my concerns - right on the nail, but others of you are missing my point.

It is not bad to charge money for a listing - infact, I commend them for charging the $299. As a Internet consulting firm, we pay (on our Clients behalf) thousands of dollars per year to Yahoo to list out Clients websites.

It just bothers me, that a site that is being submitted to a PLAINLY clear "Cancer Support" section of their directory has been ignored. The site is not suffering traffic wise, as it ranks top on Google and gets tens of thousands of hits - but I would just like to see "some" good faith from Yahoo! from good folks who start sites like ours that help others....

[kevinpate]

I too have been making efforts to place a NFP site in Yahoo via unpaid listing.

No success so far, but well, they seem to make it pretty clear that the free submission service is carrying no guarantee for a listing coming about. For that matter, doesn't even the paid submission state one is only paying for assurance of review within X days, not for assurance of a listing?

Like your NFP site, ours is a breeze to find via G-town (and elsewhere), although we don't have your volume of visitors.

Yes, I'd enjoy seeing a listing in Yahoo for our site too, but no, I don't think it's a matter of greed that yahoo hasn't obliged.

And if I'm wrong, and it's some kind of slow play until a paid submission arrives, well, we're merely wasting each other's time a lil' bit every now and again, no biggie.