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Besides designing sites for small businesses, I have a *new* *small* ecommerce site of my own. I have read a lot about site submission but want to know others' opinions on paying to submit.
Yahoo is charging $399 - is it worth it? Should I throw money somewhere else?
To date, I have not submitted the site anywhere as I have been wanting to take it slow- but its time to step it up!
Like you I have my own small e-comm site, things are starting to go quite well, despite being stitched up on the last Google update.
I have just signed up to the google adwords campaign with a daily budget of £1.00, its not a lot of money and if it doesn't work out I can ditch it. I thing it is better than paying all that money to advertise on Yahoo, I could be completly wrong here but as far as I am aware the adwords campaign carries over to AOL and some other good S.E's.
I may be talking out my rear end here but I want to make some cash without spending any, so far it seems to be working
Regards
Curlykarl
I will look into the adwords program at Google right away.
And, I agree- I want to make money not spend it!
VERY ;-)
You write, "CAREFULLY chosen yahoo submission"
Carefully chosen- what do you mean? Can you elaborate?
I have a site with four pages of products- the other 4 pages are the home page, faq, site map, and product details.
I assume that if I submit my index/home page, that that would be the best page as that is the entry to the product pages.
Adwords is displayed only on Google. Google's index is displayed on aol's search results. Aol's sponsored listings are Overture.
>IMHO money spent on a CAREFULLY chosen yahoo submission will be the best investment you can get for the money.
Absolutely...depending on your site and the amount of competition, it could be your best ROI on paid engines/directories.
I think that, unless it is a non-commercial site, you are required to submit your index page. You may, however, submit a subdomain.
Most likely, your home page would be the best page to submit anyhow.
Carefully chosen- what do you mean? Can you elaborate?
traffic from yahoo depends on the title and description yahoo give you, here's what to do ...
1) spend as long as it takes researching your products on yahoo, the keyword combinations people might use.
2) ... identify the product/keyword/phrase that applies to you and has the least competition.
3) change your site to reflect this keyword - if you have a product, widget one, that has very little competition on yahoo but you think you can sell it, then name your site "widget one" change your header to a banner showing this name.
4) submit to yahoo using the "new name" as your title, and a description that has at least 2/3 keywords that would be used along with the product.... and pay your money.
Actually AOL used to use Overture, but they dropped Overture in favor of Adwords. Adwords are also displayed on a few other sites as well (I forget which ones just now).
1st: Lucygrrl you should definitly spend the $299 on a Yahoo listing. I too have a small e-commerce site and paid for submission 3 weeks ago. Since getting listed in Yahoo I have seen my traffice increase by 200-300 visits per day and it is coming from Yahoo. I definitly agree with topr8 on all 4 points he makes about getting traffic from Yahoo
2nd: Adwords display on Aol, Askjeeves, Earthlink, and Lycos
Yahoo is charging $399 - is it worth it?
First off it's $299.00 to have your site reviewed with no guarantee of inclusion. If the site is accepted you will then pay a recurring fee of $299 each year to keep it in the Yahoo directory.
That being said, I completely agree with topr8. If your site has targeted a carefully chosen keyword combination it can gain a good jumpstart in getting ranked for well in Google and provide a great deal of traffic directly from Yahoo itself.
To achieve the above you'll need to do your homework first.
Start with the following:
[webmasterworld.com...]
If there's anything you don't understand fully from the above thread, post your questions here and I'm sure you'll have them answered in short order.
Next, do your keyword research... read up in the Keyword forum's library, and once again ask questions until you are completely clear on your course of action.
And lastly, submit your site on the night of a full moon while waving burning sage over your keyboard and chanting fervently the sacred invocation to Our Lady Of Expedient Inclusion. ;)
Is it worth it
The short - You bet!
The long - at $0.82/day this listings can produce enormous qualified traffic, and sales (if this is your interest).
The reality - Before listing - if you already have visitors who have purchase something it is a good idea to find out why?
All jokes aside - knowing precisely what works (or has worked) to induce a sell, how they found you, time on site, did they buy on the first visit, what made them come back... what they like and hate about your site -- goes along way to a strategic understanding and placement of a CAREFULLY chosen yahoo submission.
Or if you have never had a sale... same question... get a few people who do not have any ties to your site to visit, browse, and purchase (if need be, at your expense) and survey them. (Never assume you know your market.. test yourself, test with family/friends, test with strangers/existing customers and/or consultants.
Doing all of this helps identify problem areas (site navigation, usability, content arrangement, customer service & support, etc.) and believe me it is alot easier to identify, change, fix, when you have little visitation at your site, than listing, and receiving much more qualified traffic but losing most because they're intuition is not necessarily the same as your intuition.
Good luck.
AOL.co.uk still use overture
AOL.com now use AdWords
I would wait to see how you rank at Google or until Yahoo! gives you a reason to submit. I had a #1 ranking in Y! and now do not exist in the web results. Yahoo!, please give me a reason to submit to you.
