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LookSmart Goes 100% Pay-Per-Click
There was a time when you could submit a Website to LookSmart
for editorial review, and expect to have your site listed
in the LookSmart directory within a few weeks.
There was a time when you could pay LookSmart $299.00 for
editorial review, and expect to have your site listed in the
LookSmart directory within a few days.
On April 12, 2002, LookSmart began sending emails to all
of the site owners who paid the $299.00 fee informing them
that now all they have is $299.00 credit towards LookSmart's
new pay-per-click account. LookSmart is charging a flat rate
of $0.15/visitor and offering a $60.00 credit (400 visitors)
for the first month to customers who signed up before the
announcement. They also offer $15.00/month credit for 20 months.
The offer does not enhance your chances of winning on LookSmart.
You will still need an SEO expert to do that.
For new customers, LookSmart offers the "service"
for a listing set-up fee of $49.00. Until April 30, they are
offering a $20.00 discount.
There is a $15.00/month minimum expenditure on LookSmart
(100 visitors). That means you need to be able to make more
than 15 cents per visitor to your site for the investment
to pay off, AND you need to get all 100 visitors each month.
LookSmart has no clear policy on what happens if your site
does not receive the minimum 100 visitors per month. Read
the LookSmart Terms of Service here.
LookSmart also has a project like the Open Directory Project
where volunteers assist in building the directory, but only
for non-profit sites. The project is called Zeal. You can
read our analysis of Zeal here.
LookSmart Search Engine Analysis
URL:
http://www.looksmart.com/
FREE ADD URL:
http://www.zeal.com/users/become_a_zealot.jhtml
Non-profit Websites only.
THE KEY:
If your commercial site offers terrific content, then pages
of your site can be added to the LookSmart index through submission
to Zeal. If you pay LookSmart, then that is not possible.
Paying LookSmart prevents Zeal editors from adding the useful
content areas of your site to the index. If your site is largely
informational, and you hope to attract visitors by offering
that content, then paying LookSmart may not be a very good
idea. Stay tuned for updates on LookSmart.
DIRECTORY:
We'll let you know when they figure it out.
Entries to LookSmart have the following editorial constraints:
Title must be less than 65 characters.
Description must be less than 170 characters.
You must use complete sentences to describe the Website,
not the product the site is selling or the business the site
is promoting!
ABSOLUTELY use no promotional or subjective language.
SEARCH RESULTS:
The LookSmart search results come from the LookSmart directory
listings. The results are derived from the titles, descriptions,
Website quality ratings, category names, and category descriptions
in the LookSmart directory. LookSmart's new program offers
Website owners the choice to choose up to eight 3-word keyword
phrases to associate with their listings. We have yet to determine
how this will affect the site rankings.
RELATIONSHIPS:
LookSmart provides the directories for:
MSN, AltaVista, Excite/Webcrawler, iWon, CNN.com, Juno, Time
Warner, prodigy, and directories of hundreds of ISP's.
336-408-9075
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