Product Review: Yahoo Search Marketing

About the company: Yahoo Search Marketing lists your site in search results across the web, so you connect with customers who are searching for what you sell. Reach over 80% of active Internet users¹. Advertise to people who are already searching for what you sell. And pay only when a customer clicks on your listing. Sponsored Search prominently displays your business in search results on leading sites like Yahoo!, MSN and AltaVista.

The big pitch: Target prospects searching for businesses in your neighborhood. Reach millions of motivated buyers through Yahoo! Shopping.

When people first launch their website, as new entrants into the global online ecommerce industry, most generally assume that thousands od people will beat a path to their door. Sure, Amazon.com might be the biggest bookseller in the world, but if you set up an alternative book website with better prices or better service, surely you'll be able to take some of Amazon's market share, right?

Wrong. In fact, just as the real world is dominated by those with deep pockets, so too is the online world. The sort of traffic numbers that would take you three years to build on your site can happen tomorrow if Yahoo decides to point their millions of customers your way, and the upside of that is that Yahoo WILL point customers your way, and be happy to do so...

If you're prepared to pay them to, that is.

If that sounds like extortion, it isn't. In reality, there are many options for you to take in generating traffic for your new corporate shop-front website, but the reality is that only Google and Yahoo can instantly send mass traffic to your website, and the mass sales that should follow.

On Yahoo's side, they do have good service options. First, they offer a localized search option, so that when people from your area search for your industry, your entry is the first one they see. That's handy if you're a small business not too concerned with stretching your marketing dollar into areas that you can't supply. For example, a roofing contractor has no need to spend money on traffic coming from the next state, so Yahoo allows him to only advertise to those in his area.

The next great tool is the Yahoo Sponsored Search, where your site is listed at the very top of certain keyword searches. For example, if someone searches for Canadian online DVD rental, and those keywords are the ones you've purchased, then for a few cents a time, your website will be #1 in that search - for potentially millions of people.

Yahoo also offers a 'product submit' service, where you can offer your product for sale in thousands of Yahoo Stores, and Travel Submit, which does much the same thing for the travel industry, and finally, Directory Submit, where your site is listed the old-fashioned way, in Yahoo's search engine database.

So how much does it cost? Not as much as you'd think, actually. Sure, if you want it all taken care of without any sweat on your end, Yahoo Search Marketing can do that for $199. They'll handle everything for you, from account set-up to expert assistance with search term selection and titles and descriptions, and they'll also give you expert advice in budgeting and marketing strategy. While $199 isn't chump change, for what is offered, it's not a bad price, and let's face it, there's nobody who knows more about what it takes to best exploit the Yahoo search engine than Yahoo themselves.

Handily, if you choose this option through us, Yahoo will knock $50 off the price.

On the other hand, if you prefer to do all the heavy lifting yourself, you can choose the 'self serve' option, where you choose the keywords, the listing description, the budgeting, the strategy, and simply pay for the clicks themselves.

The way that works if, you decide how much you want to spend each month ($20 minimum), you decide how much you want to spend per click within that total (10c per click minimum), and then you deposit the money into your Yahoo Search Marketing account. A $30 minimum deposit is required, but if you go through us, Yahoo will top that up with another $25 free of charge, which gives you ample time to try the service out.

And what happens if you do? Well, worst case scenario, you get more traffic and it crashes your server. Best case scenario, you get more traffic and you've planned ahead to make sure your web hosting can handle the influx of new customers.

If the keywords you want to sponsor are in-demand, you're going to pay more per click than the minimum - you should know that ahead of time. But rather than competing for 'car parts' and paying $24 per click, we suggest paying $2 for 'automobile parts' or 12c for 'car seat covers'. Be clever with your search words, and go for inexpensive niches rather than all-encompassing mega keywords.

The Product Trends rating: This is one of those instances where you definitely get what you pay for, and if you're smart, you can utilize the Yahoo Search Marketing system to spend not a lot, and get a whole lot back.

To try Yahoo Search Marketing for yourself, click the image below:

posted by Oz @ 10:14 AM