http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/busexpress.html

OKAY! Click on the above link! Then please post your personal opinion here the benefits and/or disadvantages regarding this particular service from Yahoo!

If you are already well-informed or an expert in these matters, please post any suggestions here too.

I hope this becomes a helpful enlightening thread which helps surfers in this forum on the issue of successful internet advertising.

I understand that if my site is added, every year thereafter my credit card will be charged the recurring annual fee.

So basicly its one free year and they still charge you. Hmmm:eek:

If you have the funds to do so, then i suppose its worth it.
Paying that $299 will only get you listed into their directory.

However most focus today is on the big #1 Google.

Google provides Yahoo's secondary search results, therefore if your listed in google, you will be listed in yahoo afterwards.

Personaly i would only pay it as a last resort.

What i mean is,

Get listed in the proper section of DMOZ.ORG (Open Project Directory). which is free.

Exchange links with a few people (having links to your site will benefit your rank in google)

Then submit your URL to google, and they will spider & index your page. They re-index every 30 days (Est).

If done correctly, you will be listed in a great deal of sites.

As DMOZ.org provides directory search results for major search engines such as alltheweb.com, altavista.com, google.com etc...

Google provides secondary search results for various other search engines.

Stress your time on Google & Dmoz, and you will be very statisfyed with the results.

I think that this place has a good idea ... especially considering the dubious nature of most hosting directories.

http://www.findmyhosting.com/tour1.htm

Originally posted by phpjames
So basicly its one free year and they still charge you. Hmmm:eek: Uh... no, there is no free year. You're charged $299 upon submission. Whether they do accept your site or not, you pay that fee. If your site is accepted, you then are changed another $299 each year.

Is it "one of the secrets to successful internet advertising?" Well, no. For one thing, Yahoo's hardly a secret! :) But more seriously, the value of a Yahoo listing depends a lot on what category you'll be in and what search terms you are targeting. I work with sites that get a lot of traffic from Yahoo searchers even though they're not in the Yahoo directory -- because they're well-positioned in Google, which provides Yahoo's secondary results. But that works best for search queries where the Yahoo directory itself doesn't produce a match, otherwise even the best of the Google-supplied results are on the second page returned.

That certainly doesn't mean that Yahoo is never worth paying for. Like any other form of advertising, consider the return on your investment. How many visitors do you need to get back the value of that $299 fee? How likely are you to get them? Again, much of that depends on how crowded a category you'll get into, and how effectively your site is positioned. And how likely it is that your potential customers will be searching at Yahoo.

There are an unlimited number of advertising/marketing/promotion vendors. Some are more appropriate for you than others, and only by evaluating your product, your customers, and the audience of that marketing venue can you decide which ones are worthwhile for you.

Hey, maybe that's the secret to successful internet advertising! ;)

Has anyone done the yahoo listing? Curious how it worked for someone.

Thanks
Zach

FWIW, I never use Yahoo. I find their listings hard to follow, and the search results so-so. Google is the only one to use nowdays, and maybe altavista.

Pay to get listed? I don't know... it appears that some high-profile companies pay to be listed at the top of search engines... but I think most of the places that charge to list you are a waste of money. You can list yourself; but I believe no matter how you do your meta tags, alt tags, etc., there *is* an inside track. That *track* must be money-related.

Originally posted by chrisb
FWIW, I never use Yahoo. I find their listings hard to follow, and the search results so-so. Google is the only one to use nowdays, and maybe altavista.That's the thing: you might not use Yahoo; I never do. But they have the best name recognition among less "technical" users, and do the most marketing. Many people do search at Yahoo... but they tend to be different people than those that search at Google, and so form a different market. Whether it's worth paying to reach that market is dependant upon your business and your marketing goals.

I'm surprised you say even "maybe" for AltaVista. The update their database only very rarely, their results are full of spam and irrelevant sites, and they have begun moving to a paid placement model. And, almost nobody searches there.
Pay to get listed? I don't know... it appears that some high-profile companies pay to be listed at the top of search engines... but I think most of the places that charge to list you are a waste of money. Depends on the search engine. But absolutely the trend is that commercial sites will have to pay for placement/positioning. Google is really the only major search resource today where a commercial site can expect equal footing without paying, and all of the evidence is that it won't always be that way. You can list yourself; but I believe no matter how you do your meta tags, alt tags, etc., there *is* an inside track. That *track* must be money-related. Almost everywhere, it is. Google positioning, other than within the paid AdWords programs, is still based entirely on two major things: on-page content, and links. But a strong argument can be made that even that is money-related: the largest sites backed by the most money tend to be the ones that bring in the most authoritative links... because it takes money to do that. They're also the ones that can afford to pay for optimization and positioning expertise, and can afford all of the tricks of the trade that border on (or simply are) search engine spam. And you have wonder, while Google might penalize or remove from its index a small web host, for example, that uses dodgy techniques; would they hesitate to remove a Land's End or CNN?

Point well made.

I wonder what webhostingtalk.com has done for exposure besides their word of mouth which seems to be pretty successful.

I've never paid Yahoo, Because all our sites are regionally specific and can get into their database for free. The amount of traffic that one of these sites get's from the yahoo listing it has is astonishing, So if they weren't regionally specific then i would probably consider paying them. Basically you have to know what your doing to get a good listing in Yahoo as search terms such as web hosting etc are very competitive, So you will have to target other search terms which will deliver ROI, Unless you know what your doing when submitting a site to Yahoo. Also your site has to be compatible across a range of browser's to even be considered for a listing in Yahoo, In particulary Netscape 4.x.

I've heard only bad things about people paying altavista and looksmart so stay away from them, IMO.

Consider paying Inktomi, As there is a possibility Inktomi's partner MSN can deliver you enough traffic to get back your ROI.

I have paid for a yahoo Express submit and was not 100% satisfied, but thats the risks of advertising. I don't regret listing but i wont do it again...

My site was listed and I received about 10 hits a day for the first 3 weeks. This was good because the hits were extremely targeted, the type of people that were being sent to my site were people that were very new to the net or were very inexperienced. This is the perfect client for web hosting industry.

In my experience Yahoo is great if you have a unique company selling a unique product but for web hosting companies don't expect much.