Sponsored Listings

[david.cowen]

For the sake of God, will someone tell me about these sponsored listings? What are these things? Are they some kind of links which can be bought? Are they some kind of written content which can be bought to inflate a site’s rankings? I am trying really hard to understand this concept. My friend told me that this is a good way of getting business for the site. But the question is that how is this thing going to get me business if I am supposed pay for it? If there is anyone out here who can guide me on this... I would be really grateful!!

[oneseer]

See, the name itself says the whole story. Sponsored means that you need to buy this tuff first and in turn it will help you in getting your site a good rank in the search engines. One can term it as an advertising gimmick that has been newly introduced to the market to attract as many people as one can to put an increase to the advertising revenues. It is a marketing strategy which if implemented properly can get you tremendous business. But do not consider this to be something which will make you a millionaire overnight by placing you at the top of every popular search engine. There are millions of people out there like you who are making good use of this technique. Just think of innovative ways to outsmart those people by using this in a different way. Sponsored listings are keyword based links which you will see at the top of a page from a search engine result. For this a budding entrepreneur pays a firm which upsurges certain keywords and builds up links to target potential customers.

[maxbot1]

Yeah… Its right! These sponsored links have become one of the main sources of revenue for search engines. But as it goes, not everyone earns big with this. Lots of experienced advertisers are investing money in heaps but still are not getting the kind of returns that they should. So its risky business. If you market your product in a good way, then you do not have to make use of these sponsored listings. Even if you use them, you do not have to worry about your site’s listings. That is the only benefit you get of making use of sponsored links. Nobody guarantees you any business or money, just a good rank. Through these links, if luck is on your side and your business clicks then you might make thousands of dollars overnight, something that you would have never even imagined of before. There might also be a situation where your link is almost close to being lost in the midst of so many other links. Be prepared for that also. I do not mean to scare you but it is necessary for you to know it. Even if you have made up your mind to go ahead and avail of such links, never get it done by an unskilled developer. The person might ruin everything that you have done till date. It is better to pay extra money to an experienced developer and get the work done. If it is something new, trust experience over novelty. What I would really advise you is that just consult some highly experienced people who can give a sound judgment on this issue as the whole thing might cost you a fortune. There is a huge possibility that the whole thing might not fetch you any result. No use regretting later, think about it before you make a move!!!

[cameron.fisher]

Okay now, I am an expert in this….( I’m not trying to be arrogant here…LOL). I will give you a highly satisfactory answer so that you are clear about the exact requirements of your website and even if you wish to go ahead with these sponsored links, you make the right choice. Sponsored Listings are basically something which is provided by professionals who need to be paid in turn. The person who pays these professionals gets his website enhanced in the ranking department so that h can make more business. The website is purposefully promoted in certain categories in the directories of a particular search engine. Most professionals who are into optimizing websites usually guarantee that the placement would be done within a week of submission. This service is specially meant for all those who have their own commercial business sites and have been listed under topics like money, economy, commercial, business etc. in popular search engine directories. It is not for someone who is promoting an energy drink or a pair of sneakers on his website. What this does for your online business is that it gives a superior placement on one of the most demanding directories. Your website is projected as a sponsored site, which again is a big marketing attention-grabber to pull potential users. I am not very sure about the prices that these guys charge who sell these links. The prices might vary depending on the site and also on the kind of business that the site is doing. If it is a big enterprise, then they might charge you more but if it a small enterprise, which it seems to be (forgive for saying this if it sounds offensive) then the money that you would be paying would be pretty less. So just watch out and play safe…if you need any help, I am always there!!!!!!

[david.cowen]

Those were certainly some comments…Phew!! It becomes hard to read and understand all of them!!! Anyways, the moral of the story is that I have to shell out money to buy this service and get these links custom made so that I can get some business. I hope this idea does not backfire!!! I have been looking out for such kind of professionals on the net. If anyone of you find knows someone who does this and who is good at his job, just give me his contact number. I’ll try to negotiate. Don’t know how much they will charge me…By the way, thanx for the inputs.

[david.cowen]

I do not know whether you people know about these sponsored listings that LookSmart has launched! I mean not launched…but re-launched! These guys at Ask have done it again… so that a new placement model can win some distribution partners. I guess these guys are trying their best and working their skins out to overthrow Google and Overture…. Is that possible??? Well let us not discuss that! I guess they are doing this to increase advertising revenues. They must be good, especially after all those hot claims that the officials have made about ‘unseating’ Google and Overture from any distributions where they can place a bid for placement. These guys in the marketing department…I’ll tell you…they are too much.

The reason why I say that they have re-launched this is because they were offering these sponsored listings services to advertisers for more than a year. And when their business was not working, they gave it a sabbatical. Now since it is a paid placement system, advertisers are always given a guarantee by Ask about specific search terms which they feel like targeting. Their initial offering had only a few advertisers on board and these advertisers used to pay them flat rates, for each click. This one is more modified and more aggressive.

And it is quite impressive. They are making it public and almost anyone including you and me can buy them. Competitive bidding will be done to get them sold. They are inviting advertisers in heaps who will come and do the bidding thing against each other. LookSmart is thinking of cashing in on the opportunity that the advertisers have shown them, that I of paying them the kind of money they want. So if any of you guys want to purchase these listing, just visit the official website of LookSmart and the whole story will be in front of you…

[cameron.fisher]

Okay so we have had enough of LookSmart. Now I am going to tell you all about the Sponsor Listings offered by yahoo… I am a big yahoo loyalist and I know how effective they are. I have never ever heard of this LookSmart thing before. Look at the Yahoo listings. They are a fee based highly effective service which allows websites with commercial purposes and which are already listed in the Yahoo directory to obtain improved placements in some of the categories which are thoroughly commercial in the directory. Now let me tell you that this is not some LookSmart stuff where things are put up for bidding as if cows are being auctioned for slaughter!

With yahoo sponsored listings, a lot of services are available which you will not get with any competitor offering this stuff. You get enhanced website listings in all the major commercial categories. The website gets a good placement within 5 days of submission, again something which no other competitor can succeed in. The payments can be made through a credit card and the billing is monthly without any hassles. All the websites who participate get featured in the sponsor module within a category of yahoo.

These websites also get highlighted in the quintessential alphabetic list of the websites. One thing that needs to be taken care of is that this service offered by Yahoo is only available to commercial businesses which get their websites listed in the business, services and economy categories. These listings offered by Yahoo will give a consumer the kind of enhanced placement on one of the busiest and highest rated directories.

The cost of these listings has also been kept very affordable so that every business enterprise can make good use of them and increase their business.

So the point is instead of using stuff from places like LookSmart, use yahoo. You would not like to purchase the wrong thing and sit and regret later. Why regret when the right company is offering the right kind of service to you and that too at highly affordable prices? Tell me, is there any other company like Yahoo whom you can trust more? Yahoo has already proved itself as a premier website and a good search engine.

It has got a lot of credibility in the market. Make the right choice.