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A new chapter in LookSmart's weird historyOctober 30, 2003 From secondary directory to secondary pay-per-click engine, LookSmart has now solidified its position as the stepchild of search. MSN has decided not to renew its agreement with LookSmart, dropping the LookSmart listings from MSN’s search results on Jan. 15, 2004. LookSmart says they are “very disappointed” with MSN’s decision to cut off 65% of their search revenue after January. "We are very disappointed with the outcome of efforts to renew our agreement with Microsoft," said Jason Kellerman, chief executive officer of LookSmart. "Despite losing a key partner, LookSmart will maintain its focus on the search business, leveraging the first integrated paid inclusion and pay-for-placement solution for advertisers, a next generation search technology, a broad network of distribution partners, more than 30,000 advertisers and a strong financial foundation with approximately $60 million in cash. We will continue to provide search results for MSN until the conclusion of our agreement while aggressively pursuing the opportunities before us." Stockholders didn’t care about Kellerman’s comments on future stability, as the announcement plunged stock down where it now hovers between $1 and $2. According to an article by Danny Sullivan at http://www.searchenginewatch.com, “Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to build its own crawler-based search engine to power results at MSN. The announcement made LookSmart's future seem uncertain, and a late move by LookSmart to release a new paid listings product didn't help in the renewal negotiations.” There has been debate about Overture and Inktomi’s future on MSN as well, but so far those partnerships remain intact. LookSmart has been on a wild ride since signing the original deal with MSN in 1999. Those of us in search marketing have had to always keep an eye on LookSmart. There for a while, “What’s LookSmart doing this month,” was not a crazy question. Here’s a timeline of chaos. The engine was born in Oct. 1996 and didn’t really make big news until its partnership deals with AltaVista and HotBot in 1998. Once LookSmart partnered with MSN, however, news making became a regular event. At the beginning of 2000, LookSmart launched its Express Submission Service for $199. A few months later, free listings were replaced with a $49 fee for submission and that $49 was quickly changed to $79 and then eventually to $99. Eventually, Express Directory submission also saw an increase from $199 to $299 and soon, that Directory everyone paid $299 to be a part of changed entirely into a pay-per-click engine. Initially, as compensation, Directory members got $15 of free clicks in the LookListings program, each month for 18 months. But now that deal is finally up in December this year. And $15 of clicks used to be 100 clicks when a click was always .15 cents. But as of July this year clicks in LookListings are not all .15 cents anymore but instead the click rate depends on industry -- .30 cents for most, but up to .75 for those who will pay it, like gambling and internet hosting sites. Now LookSmart has launched Sponsored Listings in addition to LookListings to compete with the Overture and Google paid models. And brace yourself for more changes from LookSmart as free clicks run dry in December followed shortly after by the termination of MSN listings. So the question is – What to do now with LookSmart in a search campaign? Here’s what we’re recommending to clients: If you have an account and you’re paying per click. Keep it up and see how traffic patterns and conversions change after January before making any decisions. If you have an account and your free clicks are running out in December. Cancel the account in December and wait to see what kind of changes LookSmart will implement in its paid search program. If you don’t have an account, LookSmart is a lot lower on the list of tactics to implement for a good internet presence. In fact, some have compared the new non-MSN-partnered engine to Kanoodle when it comes to paid search potential. So, if you’ve found Kanoodle valuable, there’s some promise in LookSmart’s new Sponsored Listings paid search program. But before you sign up for LookListings, you might want to look at Kanoodle, since clicks will probably cost less than the LookSmart average click cost of .30 cents each. If you liked this article, consider signing up for our information newsletter. All of our articles come directly from our newsletter we send out every other week on Tuesday. Consider signing up. It's free and easy. Subscribe to SageRock.com Killer Web Marketing Newsletter by entering your email address in this form and click "Join" | ||||||
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