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I'm new here and I visit this forum each day; it's a great board... and I wanted to share my deception with the Inktomi program. Below, is the letter that I sent to my inktomi inclusion service provider, june 8. We are june 9 and no response yet. I will post their reply when I will receive it. And I'm sorry if there are mistakes in my message, I speak french.
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Like many webmasters in this program; when we pay for something, we want something
in return; it's normal. But with there program, I get only a few visitors each
day. My rankings are very good, and the keywords I optimized my pages for are in
a competitive market. So when I test my keywords, I am in the top 5 or top 10.
So the problem is not there but it's INKTOMI.When we look at their partners web
search, the only big ones are AOL, MSN and Hotbot.
The problem is there... their web partners. The results of Inktomi in these partners
are very very low because they prefers to put Dmoz or DirectHit results before Inktomi.
Or the surfer needs to click a button to get inktomi results.Every webmasters
will tell you that to be seen, you must be in the top 10 or top 20. On Hotbot,
I get position 40+ because of directhit and dmoz results before Inktomi. If I search
in a pure Inktomi SE like hotbot.co.uk; I get position #1 ! But no one come from
hotbot.co.uk because it's not popular in america.
AOL...hummm... where is Inktomi in AOL ?! I dunno, personnaly, I think that Ink
is loss in time with AOL. I can't find any Inktomi sites in AOL unless we click
"OPTIONS" and "ON THE WEB ONLY"... like this, we see Ink results but again, it's
only the TOP 5 sites, after this, it's DMOZ. And do you seriously think that visitors
will go to "options" and click "on the web only" ???? I don't think, because I
get only 1 or 2 peoples per day from AOL. And I know that a lot of peoples do searches
in AOL.
MSN... again there, it's Dmoz, Inktomi after. So I get no traffic from MSN.
I know it's a long message but I'm angry. I paid a lot of money in this program.
Like I said, I'm in the top 5 or top 10 in a pure inktomi search engine like hotbot.co.uk
and because of Dmoz or DirectHit before inktomi, I only get a few visitors a day;
20 is the max !!
So I'm waiting a reply from you. And by the way, send this letter to Inktomi and
tell them to do something.
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P.S. To all webmasters; if you are like me and you are angry about the Inktomi program... not sending the traffic we want... send an email to your inktomi inclusion provider, to inktomi, call them, fax them. Me, I emailed and faxed Inktomi in the past weeks but I never received a response.
"Inktomi Search/Submit rectifies this situation by:
Making content findable on the most heavily trafficked search engine on the Web available via Inktomi Search/Web partners"
Not true; Yes, Hotbot, AOL and MSN are big search engines but they show Dmoz and/or DirectHit results before Inktomi. In the case of AOL, users must click buttons to get Ink results. To be seen, like I said, we must be in the top 20. Not in the top 40+ because of Dmoz and/or Directhit.
Later, we can read:
"Benefits
Drive traffic to your web site
Inktomi Search/Submit offers the combined reach of many of the Web's largest portals"
They do not send traffic.
And:
"One Price, One Vendor, Multiple Portal Reach
Submit once to Search/Submit for a price that is often less than the cost of listing in a single search engine or directory and receive listings in many of the most visited portals on the Web. "
The first part is true but for the second part; yes we have listings for they are hard to find by surfers.
Note to INKTOMI; we (webmasters) want a pure inktomi search engine that bring traffic.
I think it is an issue you need to take up with Inktomi and their paid inclusion partner.
I sent my second message at the same time of you :)
Read my second message, maybe you will change your idea about the ink program.
Why paying $12-$30 to get no traffic ?!
Others webmasters, don't hesitate to share your experiences...
On the positive side give it a few months, maybe twink your pages a bit, and your referrals may increase.
A suggestion if I may. Read and ask questions about how others are doing with Ink engines. Finding out how to benefit from your paid inclusion from others that are already benefitting, is a much more productive way to use our forums. And "lurkers" will benefit from your questions as well.
I enjoy good Ink traffic from most of the major partners but it requires a combination of well optimized pages, a paid inclusion service, and a good LookSmart listing.
I'm no lover of paid inclusion, but I just don't see where there would be any argument that you were mislead. The details were known going in that there were no garantees for traffic or exposure. If you can find the url in any inktomi serviced engine, then Ink has done what they said they'd do.
I think I understand. What you are saying is that you have paid for a listing with Inktomi, but DMOZ and DirectHit are currently displayed ahead of Inktomi listings on the engines that you had hoped to get some decent traffic from.
I certainly understand your frustration, here's what I did, maybe it will be of help to you, concentrate on DMOZ and Direct Hit, forget about Inktomi for now.
You already have some great positions in Inktomi, they aren't generating lot's of traffic now, but who knows they might, things can change awfully fast sometimes, and if/when they do, you'll be there already. If you can get into DMOZ and Direct Hit too, then you're pretty well covered.
AIR:
You are all right. I have great positions in a pure inktomi SE. For DMOZ and DirectHit, I already submitted my sites to them 2 or 3 months ago and I'm waiting to be included. How many months it takes to be in DMOZ and DirectHit ?!?
Sorry I'm the last one to the party - Welcome to WMW and the INKTOMI forum. Caught your post last night and thought it would be quiet until a.m. - see I was wrong.
The new INK pay to play plan is like playing Blackjack. Your money only gets you to the table. What you do after you get to the table is up to you.
Remember INK holds all the cards and can shuffle the deck at any time -
-s-
