Yahoo/Overture Site Match? Success or Failure?

[VegasMack]

Well, back to the original question and point I was trying to make. I can not afford (neither can my clients)$49.00 per URL and 30cents per click.

I will wait this one out on the sidelines and see what develops in a few months as the game will most certainly change again.

I doubt there is a lot of Realtors that can afford a PPC campaign that could possibly run $9,000 per month, so if Site Match does not get a lot of participation, Yahoo! Will most likely rethink their strategy.

They will have to if they genuinely want to bump Google out of the #1 Position.

Just my 2 cents worth.

-Mack

Ranked in top five is good indeed. However, you need to decide what your goals are. If you get enough clicks - don't pay Overture; if you think you'd be better spending some cash and getting more hits (leads, sales...) go for it.

I run one site that has #1 position for two major search phrases on Yahoo! in a multi billion dollar industry segment. None the less we do pay a few bucks a month to leave no room for competition above our placement. The fact is, even #1 position is two (and sometime more) positions below a sponsored spot. By the way, we never paid Yahoo! or anyone else for our link inclusion. My guess, the relevance and a good ration of key words in a header/URL/META tags/body, still work.

On the other hand another site I manage paid for inclusion of three links to iNeedHits.com to appear on AskJeeves and their network. They just sent a message letting us know of "renewal specials". I checked our stats and apparently we did not get one click from that deal... I just finished writing to them letting them know about that waste of money.

[incrediblehelp]

Hasn't LookSmart proven this business model to be a failure already?

[Alchemist]

Personally, I don't see this Yahoo program lasting through the end of this year :-)

[apply75]

Site Match is just a change name by Yahoo to separate it out from Inktomi (which was charging alot less per click) There attempt to try and have i sound differnet has just confused people. SiteMatch is Inktomi Paid Inclusion..And Inktomi is now the secondary search of Yahoo...Im not sure if Site match also feeds altavista, alltheweb etc...they may just be using inktomi for the backend search for all the engine companies they bought..

If you dont know how the search engine relationship works you really shouldnt be charging clients to list them in the engines...

In my experience site match and overture just dont pull in enough traffic compared to google...bottom line not worth it...paid inclusion should really be used for large dynamic sites that have a problem getting their content in yahoo organically.. Ive noticed that despite so much of the serps page being sponsorded listing from overture or site match I still dont get the traffic or conversions I used to..

[Gary Golden]

Optimize! Optimize! Optimize!

That is all I can say!


Good Luck

[zookeeper]

I doubt there is a lot of Realtors that can afford a PPC campaign that could possibly run $9,000 per month.

That might depend. A single sale could bring the realitor a 9K commission and some branding along the way. If no one else is willing to pay, it may become cheaper for you. I feel it's not about how much you spend; it's about what is your ROI. I would gladly spend 9K if I can convert 30K/month in sales.

so if Site Match does not get a lot of participation, Yahoo! Will most likely rethink their strategy.

As incrediblehelp stated "Hasn't LookSmart proven this business model to be a failure already?". I was thinking the same, remembering the early days after L$ and MSN signed a big agreement to make you pay for inclusion then pay per click. We had over 100 sites submitted in MSN (thru L$) before this agreement and had to start paying .15/click on all of them. I think they gave us $10 in "free" clicks per domain or something like that as a grandfather clause for sites submitted before the agreement. Our advertising cost went thru the roof, while we were still in the same positions, getting the same number of sales, but just spending an a$$load more.

I cursed L$ from that day forward as did many other webmasters. We simply removed our sites and quit giving them any money. Although that happened a few years back, I still loved that day when MSN dropped L$ :-)

[VegasMack]

Zookeeper,

• Quote:
  That might depend. A single sale could bring the realitor a 9K commission and some branding along the way. If no one else is willing to pay, it may become cheaper for you.

That $9,000 per month would take a $300,000. sale at 3% providing you were not a split with the Broker (which most of us are). From the time someone visits the site and actually buys and closes the transaction is approximately 90 days(that is when you actually get paid). This is providing you made the sale.

So far as “Branding” that would be a good deal for a National Company with franchise operators.

• Quote:
  I feel it's not about how much you spend; it's about what is your ROI.

As I stated earlier the ROI isn’t there in Real Estate.

Lets assume you do make that sale and it closes in 90 days. Now you have $27,000. out for advertising, you have grossed $9,000. You split that with your Broker 75/25. And you have your other operating cost, fees and dues. You are only in the hole about $17K.

• Quote:
  I would gladly spend 9K if I can convert 30K/month in sales.

As would I. If in fact you know of a way for me to gross 30k/month I will pay YOU the $9,000 as a consultant. You can probably use it more than Yahoo! ;-)

Thanks for all the GREAT Posts guys!

-Mack

[richmar]

I too was using Positiontech for Inktomi inclusion. At present, our home page is still showing well in Yahoo, but no other pages. My recommendation is that if you have several deep pages you want to appear in Yahoo, register those pages only. That is my plan of action.

BTW, does anyone know if Inktomi listings are still being utilized by any search engine or portal?

Richmar

[damarzee]

I have two sites that use Overture through Position Tech and I have yet to understand or see why I spent nearly $200 to have these sites listed?

Actually, I only signed on because I thought there might be some level of control or some level of choosing click price, but there appears to be no level of control at all.


I paid the setup fees and then placed $50 in each account. There was no option for rate, so it's 30cents a click. There is no place anywhere to select search terms, so I can only assume they are taken from your Meta tags. The sites have been listed since April and have only generated 11 hits through Overture, yet they get plenty of traffic from other search engines.

Previously, using Inktomi, the $39.00 per year inclusion fee provided hundreds of monthly visitors. I don't see the value of Overture.

Bottom line, I am wondering just what the $97.00 balnce just sitting there is doing for me. Either I am missing something that is poorly explained by Position Tec or I just don't understand Overtures real function.

Any Thoughts?

The two sites I have listed with them are:
Dreams Alive Magazine -http://www.dreamsalivemagazine.com and
Photo Web Ads - http://www.photowebads.com

Thanks!

David