Positiontech "DirectSubmit" Price Change?

[aallc]

HI,

I'm new to this board so please forgive me if this post is in the wrong forum.

I have been using positiontech to auto submit my domains for a long while now. I see they have a new price structure which includes a charge per clicks. It use to be you pay one flat fee for a entire year and none to clicks.

This is much more expensive now then before. What gives? Looks like Lycos is still charging a small flat fee per year per domain. Are there alternatives that have a small flat fee like $25 - $35 per year to auto submit?

Lycos is charging $38 to submit to both FAST and Inktomi, unlike positiontech.

Thank for help!

[hal]

I see (positiontech) have a new price structure which includes a charge per clicks.

Lycos is charging $38 to submit to both FAST and Inktomi, unlike positiontech.

Hi aallc,

Your concern stikes a resonant chord here, for sure. I am spending today asking, "And then what?" I just looked at the Lycos inclusion page, and I at least do not see a blatant ppc implication there. I do see "annual setup fee" as well as "flat fee guarantees inclusion for one full year." But to what extent is it really operable?

The dominoes started to fall when my eyes riveted on the "Inktomi" in your message. Yesterday I received a newsletter from AlltheWeb, written by Pandia.com and entitled "The death of AltaVista and AlltheWeb." Translation: Their purchaser, Yahoo, will end development but keep the sites. Now, as I understand it, the new Yahoo search will not use Inktomi per se, but rather Inktomi technology. OK so far. And I notice announcements on their sites that Inktomi, AltaVista and AlltheWeb have shut down their sign-ups and now point everyone to Overture. Well, OK... Momma Bear is now orchestrating them all.

The question of interest becomes how that one operates. Overture's Search Submit (tm) costs USD $49 per year for the first URL. Then $0.30 ppc (unless you qualify for $0.15). Assume you deposit $50. At $0.30 ppc you're allowed 166 site visitors. Let's assume yours is a very small site, with only a dozen visitors per day coming through them. $50 gives about two weeks' coverage. $25/week. That means $25x52 = $1,300 + $49 = $1,349 cost per year.

Now, assume one sales inquiry for every 10 visitors -- that's $3 per inquiry. And if you convert one sale for every 10 inquiries, then that comes to $30 cost per sale.

...Not a problem if you're selling boats, but a very real problem if you're selling afternoon boat rides.

So now I also want to know... what does Lycos' $38 fee really buy? Is this the whole story? Is there no ppc for an Inktomi listing if you go through Lycos instead of Overture?

It maketh not much sense.

Hal

[Mel]

Originally Posted by aallc

HI,

I'm new to this board so please forgive me if this post is in the wrong forum.

I have been using positiontech to auto submit my domains for a long while now. I see they have a new price structure which includes a charge per clicks. It use to be you pay one flat fee for a entire year and none to clicks.

This is much more expensive now then before. What gives? Looks like Lycos is still charging a small flat fee per year per domain. Are there alternatives that have a small flat fee like $25 - $35 per year to auto submit?

Lycos is charging $38 to submit to both FAST and Inktomi, unlike positiontech.

Thank for help!

Hi and welcome.
First of all there is no need to pay to have your site included in the vast majority of search engines. Just build a decent site and make sure it has links from a few other sites and your pages will be added for free.

Even Yahoo concede that their PFI/PPC scheme is not for everyone in this thread where Yahoo said:

If your primary goal is to get your site indexed and if your web site has not already been crawled by Yahoo! Search, it is possible it will be crawled in the future. As of March 1, 2004, 99% of all content in our index has been discovered via our free crawl, and our primary objective is to discover all content on the internet for free. Furthermore, we now offer a free Add URL service (http://submit.search.yahoo.com). We will continue to evaluate different product mixes and pricing models and will evolve our programs based on market demand.

This is the alternive you are looking for, free submission.[/url]

[aallc]

Anymore thoughts on this?

[cbp]

Anymore thoughts on this?

Mel said it best:

First of all there is no need to pay to have your site included in the vast majority of search engines

We have done this new SiteMatch thing to death here:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=15072

CBP

[EcomCity]

Originally Posted by cbp

Mel said it best:

We have done this new SiteMatch thing to death here:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=15072

CBP

One of my Clients, Holdup Suspender Company, has enjoyed top Yahoo and SE listings since 1997 regardless of shifts in the marketplace. www.suspenders.com They have never paid for inclusion and ocassionally use both AdWords and Overture for PPCSE. Never any 2nd Tier PPCSE campaigns. Try Yahoo for their main keyword "suspenders" and you'll see them #1. Relivent content and domain name regardless of SEO/SEM seems to survive the SE changes.

I Track their ROI and conversions with a simple house account affiliate link code and can testify Adwords converts clicks to sales at 1/17 and Overture on the same keywords at 1/38. Google traffic is a better buy for them. I rotate suspend/resume between the 2 PPCSE campaigns except during peak shopping periods. Normal traffic to the site from affiliates and SE's has averaged 1/23 for over 5 years making them the highest converting product merchant etailer on the Internet. Don't ask me why as many experts say the site sucks ...but slaughters all challengers.