Looklistings...$2500 montly minimum.

Is it worth it?

[crobb305]

I typically earn between $.75 and $1.00 per visitor to my site (on average). So in the past, I have been able to pay pretty high amounts for ppc. I no longer use PPC since I have very high rankings in regular search engines (and because of poor ROI on ppc because of false clicks, etc). However, I am considering Looklistings in order to drive more MSN traffic. My understanding is that it is still $.15 per click like the regular Looksmart paid listings, but you have to spend a minimum of $2500. Is it worth? Do any of you have ROI problems with the Looklistings (false clicks, etc)?

I would appreciate feedback you may have.
Thanks
crobb305

[Jillibert]

Crobb

You should read the submit a site more carefully.
The $2500 minimum spend is for Large Customers and the CPC rate is a negotiated rate.

Small business listings has a CPC rate of 15c and the monthly spend limit is determined by you.

There is a onetime listing review fee of $29 and a minimum monthly spend of $15,but maybe you should read the Looklisting section.

[listings.looksmart.com...]

Hope this helps

[crobb305]

I already have a Small Business Listing. I am considering a Looklisting. Anyone have any information directly related to my question?

Thanks
crobb305

[Jillibert]

Ok then.....do you have any false clicks NOW on your small business listings account?

If you do not,then i think you answered the question yourself.

Looklistings accounts have a much more sophisticated tracking and reporting tool available to them over Small Business Listings.

Another word of caution,if your keywords are very popular expect to pay more then 15c CPC in Looklistings.

[minnapple]

I just attempted to cancel a LookSmart account and they require you to review their TOS.
When you click the TOS link it is a 404.
Sent a message to report the problem and received a message back it could take a week before I get a response.
Try to find a page on the site that describes on how to cancel an account.
Minnapple

[dvduval]

There are so many other things you could do with $2500. With Looksmart's reputation among webmasters, the chances are extremely high you will have problems.

Microsoft's bcentral has been rolling out some new products and they are always happy to talk with you about their products. I suggest you give them a call. I'll bet even Microsoft won't recommend Looksmart! They didn't for me.

[Jillibert]

Minnapple,

This states quite clearly what you need to do to cancel a campaign.

8. How do I cancel a campaign?

You can cancel a campaign from the Manage Campaign State page. You can reach this page via the Manage Campaign State icon next to the campaign on the Manage Campaigns page. Canceling a campaign will end traffic to the listings in the campaign until the campaign is reactivated. If you would like to reactivate a campaign, simply click on the reactivate icon next to the campaign on the Manage Campaigns Page or reactivate the campaign from the Manage Campaign State page.

[Bobby_Davro]

Have we established by now that Jillibert does in fact work for Looksmart, or is related to the company in some way?

Every Looksmart thread... there you are with the helpful advice. I don't care, but it would be nice for you to reveal the extent of your relationship with Looksmart. It would be good to have you here in an official capacity, like Googleguy.

[charge]

Whats going on with this forum.People are getting fried for just helping out.Thats what this forum is supposed to be for.As far as Iam concerned good on ya JILLYBERT.
REGARDS,
CHARGE.

[Bobby_Davro]

No frying, just asking for clarification. Jillibert is clearly involved with Looksmart in some way. This has been pointed out before, but AFAIK Jillibert hasn't stated the nature of the relationship.

Someone stickied this Jillibert quote to me:
"As Jrobbio points out it is the intention of Looksmart to use the Grub results in Wisenut and it may be a little while until Wisenut is as relevant as we would like." - note the word "we"!

[webmasterworld.com...]

11 of Jillibert's last 19 posts have been related to Looksmart services.

I think that if Looksmart are going to use an employee here, then there should be some disclosure. It would be very useful to have someone here that we could ask directly about Looksmart. It is not useful to have someone slyly posting promotional material as "help".

[Jillibert]

Bobby

It is nice you take such a keen interest in some of my posts,but if you care to check all my posts from the very first day i posted here.i advised then and i will advise again now.

I have NOTHING to do with LOOK as an employee or as some other capacity.

I am not sure what you are so afraid of.

I am simply helping people out who have issues and or problems.

Should i search your posts to see if you have helped anyone out?

I simply have a keen interest in this entire sector and follow closely the machinations of all industry players.

After all,you are a part of the same industry aren't you?

And if there was NO competitive industry would you be whining there was NO competition?

[Jillibert]

And Bobby....a retraction of your allegation when you said,

"No frying, just asking for clarification. Jillibert is clearly involved with Looksmart in some way. This has been pointed out before, but AFAIK Jillibert hasn't stated the nature of the relationship."

would be greatly appreciated?

As your post is factually incorrect as i said,i have qualified my status previously and that status remains the same.

[Bobby_Davro]

I think that the evidence speaks for itself. I am disappointed that you have chosen to go down the denial route.

"I simply have a keen interest in this entire sector and follow closely the machinations of all industry players. "

Er..but especially Looksmart. In fact, more than half of your posts are related to Looksmart, and they ALWAYS present it in a very favourable light, despite evidence to the contrary.

"And if there was NO competitive industry would you be whining there was NO competition?"

What? Where did that come from? Getting a bit defensive of Looksmart, even when there isn't any criticism, aren't we?

Here is an example of your blatant promotion for Looksmart:

Question: "If you had to choose which paid inclusion to take a gamble on for several listings would you go for alltheweb/fast, altavista, or teoma? Which has the biggest "bang" for your buck? "

Your answer: "Robert..........to get into MSN is best done thru Looksmart for paid inclusion"
[webmasterworld.com...]

And just slip in this bit of promotion:
"LOOK gets you distribution across MSN,About.com,Infospace,Cnet,Road Runner plus many other distribution partners"
[webmasterworld.com...]

First in with a bit of Looksmart news:
[webmasterworld.com...]

And a bit of competition bashing:
"I personally would NOT use OVER or Google."
[webmasterworld.com...]

And of course, the original thread where you leapt in to defend Looksmart in a most bizarre fashion:
[webmasterworld.com...]

I think that, for the moment, I will stick with my original conclusion.

[crobb305]

I am glad that I started this thread...It is starting to get exciting LOL

Time to pop some popcorn!

:)

[charge]

Jillybert could be evan thornley for all it matters.The point is this forum is here for informtion and checking out jillyberts info it is no doubt informative.Case dismissed.
regards,
charge!

[Bobby_Davro]

Back onto the original thread... crobb305, I suppose the best thing to do is contact Looksmart and ask them what kind of CPC deal they can cut for you.

I would imagine that you can pretty much use your existing small business listing to give you an indication of the conversion rate that you will get.

Factor in a 15% duff click rate (standard), and work out the maximum CPC that you can afford, including a profit obviously.

[crobb305]

Thanks for the info. I feel like my conversions are high enough that I can certainly fit a Looklisting into my advertising budget. My current Small Business Listing seems to be buried in the serps such that I only get about 50-100 unique visitors a day. I would like to increase that by a factor of 10, if possible. I am a bit leery of PPC after my poor ROI with other PPC engines. I have developed a higher level of trust with MSN, however.

C