Last year, the FTC notified Web operators--including Yahoo-owned AltaVista and America Online--that they must clearly mark advertisements that appear within their search results. Though some reform trickled through the industry, questions still linger about how well companies label the commercial listings that appear when Web surfers delve into their indices. ...

Paid inclusion is a class of search marketing in which companies, such as Yahoo-owned Inktomi, accept fees to "crawl" Web sites more often so that fresh product data is included in the index. In Inktomi's case, some marketers pay when Web surfers click on their listings. Typically, those paid-for links are not marked. ...

Two programs expected to fuel that growth are sponsored placement and--to a lesser extent--paid inclusion. ... Sponsored placement allows an advertiser to pay for higher ranking or prominence on a results page, relative to a keyword search. Marketers bid for that placement, paying a set price for each time a surfer clicks on it.

Paid inclusion is less well known than paid placement among search engine users, but it's no less popular among marketers. The programs largely pertain to "editorial" search engines such as Inktomi, AltaVista and AlltheWeb, which provide technology that scours the Web and uses mathematical algorithms to compile results relevant to users' queries.

In contrast, Google delivers unbiased search results from a vast index of Web sites; the company does not accept fees for cataloging sites.

Read the entire article HERE!

Rule #1: CEO’s are Honest, Even when it hurts: ...
Rule #2: CEO’s Touch People in a Special Way: ...
Rule #3: Know What You Want & Keep It Simple & Straight forward: ...
Rule #4: Show your Feelings: ...
Rule #5: Say You’re Sorry When You Mess Up: ...
Rule # 6: Look at People When You Talk to Them: ...
Rule #7: Get Commitment Early On: ...
Rule #8: Ask and You Shall Receive: ...
Rule #9: Redefine the word No: ...
Rule #10: CEO’s Always Issue a Call to Action, You Should Too: ...
Read the entire article HERE!

Relevancy Over Revenue - Why drop LookSmart? MSN said testing it did at its MSN Search UK site earlier this year found that dropping the listings increased relevancy.

AOL Renews With Google

AOL has renewed its agreement with Google for search results in a new multiyear deal. Terms of the deal and its exact length haven't been disclosed. Google's last deal with AOL was signed in May 2002 and called multiyear then, lasting apparently for 17 months. AOL suggested that this latest deal goes for much longer than that.

Software manufacturer Roxio (Easy CD Creator) paid $5 million to buy the Napster name in bankruptcy court, and an additional $40 million for the struggling Pressplay fee-based music subscription service last year. Pressplay shuts down Tuesday — its estimated 100,000 subscribers and purchasers of a new Samsung "Napster" MP3 player will be among the first to test Napster 2.0 when it launches Thursday — and the rest of the public will be invited later in the year.

Read the entire article here!

Overture - recently added some tracking tools that you should know about if you're using this pay-per-click engine. Briefly, the tools are called Conversion Counter and Tracking URL and they are the subject of one of this month's feature articles.

Inktomi - No recent changes at Inktomi
AltaVista - FAST Add URL now emulates AltaVista's
Fast - FAST Add URL now emulates AltaVista's
MSN - More details are starting to surface regarding the new MSN search engine. Recent interviews with Microsoft execs make it clear they're to integrate search functions into the operating system in some way – an arena they clearly own. In addition, perhaps even more important to web marketers, MSN is reviewing personalized search results that are based on an individual's search history.

ODP - As of the end of September, DMOZ is still having problems – this time with their submit feature which is reporting an error when used. Oh well, that's one way of keeping the backlog of submissions from growing any larger. Our guess is that DMOZ lacks the resources and commitment from AOL to maintain the directory. Will 2003 be the last year for the Open Directory Project?

LookSmart - New LookSmart Pricing Policy - In the "We aren't getting enough of your money" category, LookSmart has again raised their prices. Now, after your first 5000 clicks at 15 cents each, your price will be increased (yes, increased!) and calculated based on your business category ranging from 23¢ to 75¢ per click.

Yahoo - Yahoo new "Products" tab - Not much going on publicly at Yahoo during September but they did a add a new Products tab at the top of the page that leads right into the new Yahoo shopping search. The beta shopping search expires October 15th – after that time merchants will have to pay and send in a data feed. For more details on submitting a data feed and pricing structures see https://productsubmit.adcentral.yahoo.com/

1. Search Engines and Directories ... 2. Pay-per-Click Directories ... 3. Your Own E-zine ... 4. Your Articles in Other E-zines and at Other Web Sites ... 5. Ads in Other E-zines ... 6. Ads on Other Web Sites... 7. Online Forums and Discussion Groups ... 8. Recommendations by E-zine Publishers ...

9. Recommendations by Other Site Owners... 10. Affiliate Programs ... 11. Your E-mail Sig File ... 12. Exposure in Print, Radio, and TV ... 13. Speaking to Groups ... 14. Postcard Mailings ... 15. Sheer Shamelessness ... Read the full article HERE!

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