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And yet we walk on eggshells with them, we don't get replies to emails, and we are charged $300 for the pleasure of being rejected or having our description butchered.
The more I read about peoples' experiences with Yahoo the more aghast I am that this Goliath feels able to treat its customers so badly because it has cornered the market.
Is 'playing God' really a good business strategy or is Yahoo shooting itself in the leg by dishing out such bad customer service to so many?
Your concerns and issues are very valid.
With all of the changes that have taken place in the industry, I've learned to focus not on questions about sound business decisions, but on how I can capitalize from Yahoo's decisions, whether good or bad.
With this attitude, I've been able to do extremely well with Yahoo and 85% of websites that I submit get listed, with a good title, description, and soon provide an ROI. Many exceed our investment very quickly.
On another note, I have noticed that traffic is down and that traffic from MSN, Google and AOL seems to have increased. This is for sites ranking well in all 4. Just some food for thought.
At the time the client had mucho bucks to spend. Now, it has been spent more wisely.
A real HOOT to get a call back 120 days later.. ROFLMAO.
It is sad to see Yahoo sinking so fast. I hope they pull it together, as an Icon of the web, it will shake the entire web, should they fall.
I wonder how many of the free mail and chat accounts will pay for the service, ala AOL. Certainly not moi.
Goo-GLE Goo-GLE Goo-GLE......
We, in effect, are distributors of their 'pay for review/play' services. To get us to use their services they don't have to indulge in expensive TV campaigns, mag advertising etc. - we know who they are, what they offer and we put work their way, unlike the end user client who, thankfully, aren't 'experts' and need a lot more convincing before they pay.
IMHO this equals very little outlay in marketing spend and high ROI when we place an order. Therefore, in an ideal world you would expect some kind of 'preferential treatment' - even if this just extends to some decent customer service or advance notice of price increases so we can adjust our terms of business and continue to 'give them work'.
I have been 'vocal' about my dim view of Yahoo's draconian acceptance policies. Because of this, I know hesitate to recommend Yahoo to any clients site which goes beyond the 'basics' and dares to use DHTML, Java or requires plug-in's. I do now recommend Looksmart, as I have never had an unreasonable rejection, can usualy get a decent description (with some negotiation) and often yields good results via MSN.
Yahoo really should 'wake up and smell the coffee'!
Just found that Yahoo have accepted a site into the same category that one of ours was in, with our business name as the title and a very similar description. The URL submitted is a competitor's site. Worse than this, our site is now nowhere to be found in the directory.
Although the competitor is obviously passing off (we are a far bigger name), we thought it fit to contact Yahoo and explain their error. They took $300 to review the site, and failed to notice the situation, so I believe that they are in error also. After comments from people regarding rejections trying to get unique original sites in Yahoo, I can't believe that they would accept such a submission.
However, they have replied saying that it is nothing to do with them and we should take it up with the competitor. We will do that as well, but we all know how hard it is to change a Yahoo listing, without some divine intervention.
I can't believe how little Yahoo care about their so called customers. I am very, very disillusioned.
this sort of thing happens all the time; they never cared that much before.
far as i can see, all this does for them is make folks LESS willing to submit new sites... why take the chance on $300?
a) They ask $300 for the chance to appear further down the page than previously… below the GoTo stuff. Same price as before, inferior product.
b) They reject sites for lack of content. However… you can parachute to #1 via GoTo with virtually no content, just a big budget.
c) You submit the same site to two different editors and your chances of success are radically different.
It’s a bit of a lottery, with a much smaller prize than before, played with our clients’ money. They compound this with poor customer service and periodic displays of breathtaking arrogance.
To the original question “Is 'playing God' really a good business strategy or is Yahoo shooting itself in the leg by dishing out such bad customer service to so many?” the answer is obvious. Any business that loses credibility with its customers is doomed.
Yahoo took the wrong path some time ago and forgot the prime reason people visit them. We’ve seen it before with the likes of the once dominant AltaVista. Some people learn nothing from history.
As for me, Yahoo is no longer on my ‘must do’ list. I have to think VERY carefully before using them.
and if the decision really is stark like that-a zero sum choice between revenues from directories vs. ppc-then i'd bet on them going with PPC and ditching overture.
if it's not zero sum, there's a better chance they will cruise the middle ground and do both (and maybe keep overture in the game). but if they see their directory revenues slip dramatically over the next several months their going to be forced to choose either-or...and in that game i cant see them "sharing" revenue.
Spend $300 at Overture, attain a number 1,2 or 3 listing, on the first page of Yahoo, AOL, Alta Vista, Netscape, etc. Choose the keywords you want (Lots of good keywords still cost only about 20 cents a click-thru..), Monitor your account and spending, cut out when you want, see results within 2-4 days.
Which one do you think would increase brand awareness of your company/product/information site?
It probably sounds like I work for Overture (which i don't :) ), but I suggested to one of my clients, he sported about $500 to start an account, so far he's tripled his investment, in about 1 week..
By the way, excellent forum, I spend most of my time in the Google forum, but I think I'm gonna swing by here some more..
Cheers..
As the directory grows, the traffic slows down, but it still seems to be one of the best investments around.
They are more consistent than ODP and don't butcher the descriptions like LookSmart.
The key differentiating factor for me is that in the directory, the $300 lasts forever, whereas for most of my keywords, $300 wouldn't last a week with overture.
