Looksmart

Anyone using their PPC service?

[TWhalen]

When Looksmart switched to the PPC model several months back, many here (including myself) balked at the thought of paying them any more money, other than the fees we already paid for "permanent" directory listings.

Has anyone here actually paid any extra money for their listings (i.e. - Relevancy Keywords, Add a Category, etc.) and if so, would you recommend anyone else to do so?

Has it been worth it for you?

[bnhall]

I use LookSmart, ang get decent traffic, mainly from MSN. Conversion is pretty good too. I did pay the extra $49 once to update my keywords. I do consistently get top 5 results for my keywords, although your mileage may vary.

There's another interesting LS thread here [webmasterworld.com ]

[lgn]

I listed with looksmart back in 1999 and paid the $199 to get listed. I have not paid a cent since.

Im still ranked position #3 to #5 in the listing, but I don't know how long this will last.

I don't know if you know the history behind, looksmart, but in brief, they changed there model from pay for inclusion to PPC, and did not honor existing legal contracts, with their pay for inclusion customers..

Most existing customers refused to switch, and their are lawsuits against looksmart for breach of contract. Senior Management has left, and Looksmart is just a shadow of its former self.

Most of us have boycotted looksmart. They don't bring much traffic anyways.

[Dino_M]

I use bidsmart (uk looksmart PPC)

Get some very cheap competitive keywords 5p instead of 50p with overture.

Traffic is not all that bad, but conversion rates are low and I have some concerns about click fraud, which I will be looking into with the help of redsheriff next month.

[TWhalen]

Thanks for the responses.
I had paid $199 each for six sites' directory inclusion to Looksmart about 3 months before they switched over to PPC.

They all ranked well up until then, showing high in keyword searches in MSN. Since the switch to PPC, they seem to have fallen back in their keyword rank. My question was just to see if it was worth spending any extra money at this time to help boost rankings a little.

Your responses lead me to believe that is isnt worth it, just as I had suspected.

[thunderpaste]

I use the looksmart PPC and it works for me. I know a lot of people are upset but my thinking is that if I am willing to pay .15 on overture or google then why not looksmart. Thet bring in a little traffic and show up well in MSN.

[lgn]

People have a right to be upset. They broke
existing legal agreements.

Anybody know when the class action lawsuit against
Looksmart is going to trial?.

[mundonet]

In a May 2002 [webmasterworld.com] tread on this board it's mentioned that the LS description was used by Inktomi: L$ corrupts the Ink results.

Now we would like to try LS but we have a #1 spot with Ink in our top KWs and are quite happy with our description. Problem is that in M$N search, we have 8 "WEB DIRECTORY SITES" above our #1 "WEB PAGES" ink results.

Does the L$ listing still corrupts the Ink? I froze on the "Enter your credit card" panel of L$ when the question popped up in my mind.