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Choices:
1 Dump the budget into overture and hope that your investment pays off.
2 Buy a yahoo and or looksmart and role the dice that the editors don't ruin your title and description, and hope that they don't change the rules on you again in the next year.
3 Pay Ink or Alta your budget and hope that they follow through on their promise to include.
4 Spend the money on building content and hope that people like your site and google will bestow upon you enough PR to get attention without a Y!/LS listing.
5 Burn the money and ask your ancestors for guidance.
6 ?????
1) Dump the budget into overture and hope that your investment pays off.
It you are positive about conversition ratio, then you can put part of your budget. However, what you will be paying per click is also a big Q !
2) Buy a yahoo and or looksmart and role the dice that the editors don't ruin your title and description, and hope that they don't change the rules on you again in the next year.
With only $ 1000.00 as your budget !! I would not go to Looksmart. However, Yahoo would be worth it, if you can get in with good title and description.
3) Pay Ink or Alta your budget and hope that they follow through on their promise to include.
Yup, worth the expense.
4) Spend the money on building content and hope that people like your site and google will bestow upon you enough PR to get attention without a Y!/LS listing.
Definetly worth spending time, but I didn't knew content building was lot of money, I mean, it takes lots of times, but how does money come in picture. Or are we talking about buying content ??? (other sites, writers....)
5) Burn the money and ask your ancestors for guidance.
In high school, I learned how to talk with spirits, send me the money, and I will ask them for you.
6 ?????
Man, I don't know what to tell you about this idea.
I'd leave some of that budget set aside and re-evaluate in a few months, rather than spend it all at once. At some point I'd consider Google Adwords which is a very good research tool if in doubt between a couple of keywords down the road. Plus, it may be that doing a couple more Ink pages might be worth it.
Overture either seasonally, or only if the amount of the bids necessary would be warranted relative to the profit expected on the type of item.
Depending on the site, it may also be that some content or design tweaking may be necessary down the road, depending on how conversions go - so having a little tucked away can't be a bad idea. Plus some sites need special seasonal promotion. I'd look at the long-range picture.
One would hope, with a one sale out of 30 conversion rate, your ad budget would be partially replenished in a few months... otherwise you really screwed something up. ;)
Interesting. Would you still bother with Inktomi if you'd spent part of your $1,000 on LookSmart? The double-up seems to big.
Thanks littleman, I've been pondering this since we were given an in-principle first year budget of US$1000 on the paid pay/place for a few domains. I'm thinking Yahoo!, LookSmart and the rest on Overture. As long as I can work Google I think that I've a good spread. Bruce Clay's chart is nice to look at while thinking about this.
Calum
Bear in mind the first two can reap you continual benefit (link pop), therefore they are an investment. Overture spending is just an expense, no long term return whatsoever, when the well is dry, so are the clicks. You may want to use overture to determine which KW's convert , but the strategy of spending for clicks is very fleeting.
I would spend the balance, after LS and Y! on PFI with INK. If you have LS and Y! you get the same engines that OV delivers ads to and once you are being spidered, you can optimize and stay on the front page of serps. The annual cost is a bargain if you weigh it against the PPC bid game in terms of time and money.
I would rather optimize a few select pages for INK than sit on the bid all day with my KW's. I can move a page up the chain with PFI faster than an "editor" from OV can "review" my titles (wasting time to market ).
Last 2 items can be substituted for more Ink or Overture.
> I would spend the balance, after LS and Y! on PFI with INK. If you have LS and Y! you get the same engines that OV delivers
OV vs. INK, with differences highlighted, seems fairly well balanced:
LS & OV: AV, MSN, AV(again), AOL, AJ, Excite, Hotbot
LS & INK: AV, MSN, MSN(again), AOL, Hotbot
Thinking another way. Yahoo! paid listing + SEO for Google = good listings on Google and Yahoo! The other biggies are AOL and MSN, and INK feeds both so I'm ignoring INK at my peril.
I should try to hate MSN less. Featured sites, sponsored sites, directory sites and then web pages. Yuck!
At least AOL just gives a small number of sponsors and then then 'matching sites'.
Calum
Most CPC ads i show on my site hardly get any clicks, so basically they are getting free branding
u might want some free branding :) How about devoting $100 (if that is enough to get a third party to sell your banner) and stick are URL within your ad then im sure that $100 would be the part of your grand best spent!
Just my 2 cents
When considering LS, you need to consider how many "featured" are in play for your KW's.
It may not even warrant a directory listing if the serps are "thin" at the top.
1 Dump the budget into overture and hope that your investment pays off.
I have played around with Overture and I just don’t get the results so you won’t find many of my pennies moving in that direction.
2 Buy a yahoo and or looksmart and role the dice that the editors don't ruin your title and description, and hope that they don't change the rules on you again in the next year.
Yes to Yahoo right now although I would re-evaluate my results in a year. A year in our industry equals a lifetime of changes. I hold off on Looksmart until I see the Yahoo results. I agree with Marcia on this one. If a keyword I’m going for on MSN has less than 10 directory listings then I opt for an Inktomi page. Anything over 10 and I figure I need a directory listing if I know I can get the keyword. I always start with ODP first though. If ODP accepts the site to the category I want with the title and description then modified slightly I figure I have a good chance of getting what I need from Yahoo.
3 Pay Ink or Alta your budget and hope that they follow through on their promise to include.
I’ve never paid Alta ‘cause I still seem to make my way in without paying. Knock on wood. Of course who looks there so what does it matter? Ok, I’m cynical. Inktomi I pay for pages that I can get a keyword in with 10 or less directory listings for MSN. I would always use Inktomi for the homepage and the main content pages though, for the presence and the opportunity for alternative keywords.
4 Spend the money on building content and hope that people like your site and google will bestow upon you enough PR to get attention without a Y!/LS listing.
If you are thinking time is money then yes, content is king no mater what program you opt to follow. With only a $1000 and the other submission expenses I certainly wouldn’t suggest paying someone to help with links, unless you have a high school son/daughter that you can rope in and buy them the latest CD or a cool pair of knee boots. Son/daughter boyfriend/girlfriend works well too with money and the chance to impress as rewards.
Content and continuing to develop the site is crucial. Creating a site that is attractive to link to is even better than trying to find folks who want to link.
5 Burn the money and ask your ancestors for guidance.
Even if folks aren’t actually doing this, with some campaigns I think their money would be better spent if they did just burn it and ask for their ancestors to guide them. You could start the next discussion and call it How best to waste $1000 on SEO.
6 ?????
Pay a good optimizer/marketer to evaluate your site and give you a map to follow so you can improve it yourself. For many folks who know a bit and think they know even more, this could be the best money they ever spend on their site.
I think a Yahoo listing is VERY wise at the moment
Yahoo seems to have a phobia of loading up "web pages" SERPs but has no problem with the "web sites" SERPs. Im not insinuating anything but thats how it is where I am
Unless you have both, the investment is not maximized.
There is no way that DMOZ can compare to Yahoo in terms of referrals and sources of traffic. In my opinion.
Your absolutely right about that, I was referring to link pop (PR on google).
Depending on how competitive the terms are, you can actually achieve high ranks on Y! through the yahoo/google search without a y! listing by virtue of good google rank. This scenario would not be likely for highly competitive search terms.
At some point it is ALL about the KW's, without that factor, this all just some "tips", not commandments.
