Are free listings fact or fable?

[JuniorHarris]

I have read that it is still possible to have a free submission accepted by Yahoo!, usually this would be a regional category or one which is not very competitive. However, I'm curious if anyone has had success with getting a free listing lately?

[ihelpyou]

Was wondering when this forum would be started. ;)

No experience with this yet. I believe it might be hit and miss. Would be strickly up to the editor doing the reviewing. I have heard also of this in the regional categories.

Maybe someone could chime in with their experience with this?

[Mel]

Hi all:

According to the word on the street it is possible to get into the Regional directory listings in Yahoo for free.
This is mostly true if you can show that your site is indeed applicable to that region, and the Editor msut be able to find a complete name and address to verify this.
I know this works for sites outside the US who submit to the regional directories, but am not sure if a US based company could qualify.

In sniffing around the local Yahoo directories I do see some US listings but have no way if they paid to get in there, (unlikely unless they can get an ROI from such markets)

[Advisor]

It is NOT easy and it takes LOTS of time and effort, but if your site is good enough, you can still get in for free!

A few months ago (May), I was finally able to get my Rank Write site in for free. It took something like 6 months of trying and pestering them, but they did finally add it. However, Rank Write is truly a great content site with tons of free information (if I do say so myself). I'm sure it would be even harder to get a site that was only marginally good in. And if it even hints of being a business site, then fuggetabout it.

You can read the details of what I did to get us listed in Yahoo! in a past issue of Rank Write at:

http://www.rankwrite.com/archives/issue046.htm

You'll have to scroll down to the middle for my commentary on Yahoo! Hopefully it will be helpful to some of you. If you have a great content site and don't sell anything on it, don't give up!

[ihelpyou]

Real good article!

You waited and submitted about once per month. You were patient and persistant. This will help the viewers here lots.

Interesting about the text at the bottom of the page thingy. They mentioned commas in between.

I have been doing this text thing for about one year now and find it is successful. Seems to tie in the site for the theme thing nicely. One difference is that I separate the keyords or phrases with a hyphen.

Example:

"widgets - blue widgets - gray - widget stores"

Enclose it with quotation marks. Check out the bottom of my front page. Been like that for along time.

[Advisor]

I don't like to do that though. I don't think you should just stick keyphrases some place without there being a good reason to do so. It's pretty obvious (to me at least) that the only reason why those words are at the bottom of your page is for the search engines. If a real person from a search engine saw that, they would also know it.

What I would do instead that would be more "legitimate" would be to make those keyphrases you have at the bottom of the page and make them hyperlinks to other pages of your site. This puts them at the bottom, gives them good reason to be there, and has the added benefit of also utilizing your keyphrases as a hyperlink, thus possibly giving them an even better boost!

I personally like words to be used in real sentences where ever possible, as opposed to just "out there." I think the engines are leaning more towards this too.

Can you tell I don't feel like working today???

Jill

[SubmissoR]

I managed to get one site in for free once, the site in my profile. It is mostly free content, so that's probaly why, I was stoked!!!

[Mel]

Hi SubmisoR and welcome to the forum.

Could you explain more about how you got your site a free listing in Yahoo - what category yousubmitted to, how long it took for a listing and such? There are several people hre who are interested in how others managed to get a free listing in th emighty Yahoo.

[highman]

Welcome SubmissoR, :hi:

>And if it even hints of being a business site, then fuggetabout it.

Jill, I am not convinced this is the case, 9 months ago I got a commercial site in for free, It was the best in its field and Yahoo! were lacking by not having it in their directory.

Using the above theory I am trying again with a commercial site, due to the physical business location (town of 20 houses in the middle of nowhere) Yahoo! does not even have a regional cat for this town.... so I have suggested that Yahoo! creates this regional cat and places my site in it...... to help them expand their index of course.

So in short if your site is very niche or in a strange location or poss best in class then I believe you may indeed have a chance

[Advisor]

Hey Highman,

That is very interesting and good to know! I didn't even think of local categories when I wrote my above post.

I think the *trick* would be to make sure you don't submit those sites to the "business" category, however, because those seem to have to pay the fee. I'm afraid that if you suggest a "business" category, they may reject you outright if you don't pay. At least that was my theory for why it took Rank Write so long to get added for free. At one point I had suggested a business category as one that may be a good additional one, and I think that was my crucial mistake at the time.

In reality, most of this stuff that we talk about as far as Yahoo and others are concerned is what *seems* to be what is going. Hard to really know for sure what's in their heads!

Jill

[SubmissoR]

The cat I got it into was :
http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Costa_Rica/Recreation_and_Sports/Sports/Surfing/

Not a business category, that's probaly why it got in. I actually even got a email letting me know it was in.

It's so much easier if it's important to just spend the $200, and end the waiting games!

If you want a guaranteed in, get a Yahoo stores, they ALWAYS let those in, even if they ****!!
(I know, Ive gotten some in already)..

[highman]

The yahoo! stores is something I have been meaning to look into, SubmissoR what sort of costs are involved?

[ihelpyou]

yea, that is something to chew on in order to get more exposure in Yahoo. Let us know the details of the store. Could always put one up that eventually leads to your main site, I suppose. Sort of like an "information site". :)

[Advisor]

I believe having a Yahoo Store is at minimum, $100 a month depending on your needs. I've had a number of clients over the years that had Yahoo Stores. They're a real pain in the butt to optimize because you can't use FTP to upload to the server and have to go through Yahoo's proprietary tools. You do have some control over things, but it's quite a learning curve to figure out how to use it, in my estimation, at least where optimization is concerned. I now charge more if I have to optimize a Yahoo store due to the pain in the butt factor!

Jill

[ihelpyou]

ugh. Not to good then. $100 a month??? sheesh. They better have lots of perks envolved for that.

[highman]

yep, thats me out

[Advisor]

Well, it's a fairly "easy" way to have a catalog type store without having to learn any Web design. They host it, and allow you to easily add new products, etc.. There's definitely value in it as it's probably a lot cheaper than hiring a designer.

These days, I don't think it's a given that a yahoo store will be automatically included in the Yahoo directory, but I could be wrong about that. You still may have to pay the $199 biz express.

Jill

[SubmissoR]

Pay for the Yahoo store (get a minimumal cost one), with a domain name (keywords in there somehow), get it into yahoo($199), cancel the Yahoo store, then switch the domain name to your own hosting.
Suuu-eeet!! Easiest Yahoo listing ever!
Pretty far from the the fabled free listing this tread started as...

[Advisor]

Seems like a lot of work just to get into Yahoo using their Biz Express. It's not like it's hard to get into Yahoo when you pay the $199. Why go to the trouble of setting up the whole Yahoo store too? I don't see what you're saving by doing that.

Jill

[highman]

SubmissoR, i think i know where you are coming from, you are avoiding the $199, yes?

[Advisor]

get it into yahoo($199)

He mentioned the $199, which is why I don't get the point.

J

[SubmissoR]

No, you do have to pay the $199:(

Actually, it was for a client who already had 2 Yahoo stores. I just realized how easy it is to get them in. The stores were VERY plain.
It seems they hold them to not as high a standard as a regular website.

Then I reccomended we cancel the Yahoo stores and began optimizing. and created the sites from scratch, very optimized, AND that already had a Yahoo listing.


It is a lot of extra work, but if you want to start with a Yahoo listing, it is the easiest way to go, because you dont have to worry about design, or creating the site.

It is kind of spammy to do what I mentioned above I suppose....

[ihelpyou]

Well, it may be a little spammy, but it is some spammy that costs some whammy to do. :D

[sanity]

Hi All,

I'm new here and thought I'd share one of my experiences with Yahoo.

I got a free bus listing in late last year - it was for a Regional directory - Australia. It took a while - I basically resubmitted every 4-6 weeks and I think it was on the 4th that it was finally accepted.

I have heard that you can still subbmit for free in the regional dirs. What I've noticed is that when you submit you will get one of 2 pages - One page just gives the option of paid submission (usually in the main dir) The second gives you a choice of paid submission or free submission. Seems to be more likely you'll have a choice in the regionals.

Hope this helps
Sose

[ihelpyou]

Thanks for the sharing your experience Sose! Do you get many hits from Yahoo? I know some do and some do not. I am one who gets very little from the directory.

[sanity]

Hi Doug,

Funnily enough not long after the listing the business closed -victim of the dot com crash as we call it - so I can't tell you much about traffic.

I am currently trying to get another listing in for free . Again it'll be in the regional directory and it is not a major issue if it never gets in - that's why I'm trying the free route. FYI US $299 is about $600 over here right now. :(

I'll let you know how I go.

Cheers,
Sose

[ihelpyou]

600! wowsie!

Keep us informed about the listing!