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Please feel free to use the Article -
"SEIZING THE POWER OF YAHOO!"
in your publication. The article must
be used in its entirety with the
resource box included at the bottom.
Article was written in March, 2000.
Copyright © 2000 by Bill Platt
WORD COUNT: 1281
This article may be obtained already formatted
for email, via autoresponder at:
The-Power-Of-Yahoo@WindstormComputing.com
Though it is not a requirement for publication,
I do ask that as a courtesy, you send a copy of
your publication with the article inside to:
EDITOR @
WINDSTORM COMPUTING.COM.
By matching the publication of an article with
the jump in traffic, it gives me a better idea
of where I might like to do ad swaps or
advertising, in the future. Thank you.
================ BEGIN ARTICLE =================
Seizing the
Power of Yahoo!
A recent study of Internet traffic patterns revealed that 43.5% of all
search engine referrals are coming from Yahoo.com. That means that Yahoo!
can still be a powerful force in your promotion strategy. What if I could
show you three ways to harness the power of Yahoo! without spending a dime?
Yahoo! is notoriously slow in adding new submissions to their directory,
it can take as much as six months to a year to see your site listed in the
Yahoo! search directory. And just because you submit your link to Yahoo!,
there is no guarantee that your site will even appear in their directory.
As a result, dozens of companies have sprung up promising that for a fee,
they will get you listed on Yahoo! What kind of access do they have, that
you and I don't have... likely, they don't have any more the ability than
you or I. What they can do however, is use their experience submitting sites
to Yahoo! to enhance your likelihood of getting listed on Yahoo!
At one time, Yahoo! itself was offering premium services to those with the
cash. For a fee, they were willing to consider your submission within three
days guaranteed, rather than the average 6 months. But, even after putting
down your hard earned cash, they were only promising to consider your site
for inclusion. They were not promising to include your site at all. It
appears at this time, Yahoo! has discontinued this premium service.
To make it even tougher for the little guy, the rumor was circulating just
last year that Yahoo! was only going to include top level domains in their
directory from this point onward. If you were to pick the complete listing
of What's New for any one day, you would discover that this isn't exactly
accurate. Yahoo! seems to be giving preference to top level domains, but
they are not restricting submissions to the top level domain. For example,
take a look at Sunday, March 5, 2000:
http://dir.yahoo.com/new_additions/20000305/all.html
Run your mouse over each link in the list and look at the bottom of your
browser to see the link address. On this date, the vast majority of new
additions are top level sites, but a half dozen of the new listings can
be found on Geocities and Angelfire, just to name a couple.
To get a grasp of what the editors of Yahoo! are looking for, find the
sites served by the Free Webhosting services such as Geocities and
Angelfire, and check them out for yourself. What you will discover is
that these webmasters understood the motto: "Content is King!"
The following two tips will guide you towards harnessing the true power
of Yahoo!, and they both take a lot less work. While your site's content
will still play a roll in your marketing effectiveness when using these
techniques, you will discover that the requirements of placement are not
as stringent.
The first step you need to take is to visit Yahoo.com and search for the
keywords that most accurately describe your site. This will give you a
listing of categories and sites within the Yahoo! database. What you are
doing is looking for the sites that most closely resemble your own site.
The best place to start is a category that lists a number of results for
your query, and analyze the category itself. If the category seems to
match your own site, then this is where you will begin your work. Use
a generic text editor to come up with a description of your site and
its content, and a sincere thank you at the end; then save your
description, but keep it open and minimized.
Now visit each site listed in the Yahoo! category that you are in. Take
a few minutes to look around the site. You are looking for specific
information, so be thorough. You need to discover the name of the site,
if they have a links page on the site, the name of the webmaster if
possible, and an email address for the webmaster. Once you have completed
these tasks, then open up an email addressed to the webmaster.
In that email, you want the Subject to say: "From the [name of website]
website." Then if at all possible, you want to open the message with
"Dear [name of webmaster]." Then write an introductory paragraph the
mentions the links page [if there is one], and a brief comment about
their website. The purpose here is not to flatter them, but to let them
know that you have taken the time to view their site. Also, try very
hard to address the email towards the webmasters site and site visitors
as opposed to yourself. For each website you visit, and each email you
create, the first paragraph of that email needs to be written on the
spot... no canned presentation can serve you well at this point.
The general concept of the first paragraph is:
"Hi. I was looking for sites with good information on them when I
came across your site. It seems that my site may serve your site
visitors as well. Would you kind enough to take a few minutes and
browse my site to see if it meets your approval for addition to
your links page?"
Remember also, that you are asking someone to do something that they may
consider a hassle, so make darn sure you are courteous about it. If you
try to tell them to do it, chances are, your email will go to the Trash
Can without a second thought.
After the first paragraph is written, then copy and paste your site
description from your text editor to the email being constructed. Be
sure that you sign off the email with a considerate finish.
The key to this being effective is that the sites you have chosen to
approach are those similar to your own. The webmaster of that site
is already interested in your subject matter, therefore, he will be
more likely to consider your link.
One of my online friends used this technique to propel his traffic from
30 hits a day to 500 hits a day, literally overnight. As a result, his
newsletter doubled it's circulation in less than one month.
I spent an afternoon using this technique myself. All in all, I contacted
40 webmasters, and received 12 links. One of those links was a fellow who
did not want to spend time maintaining his site any longer, so he just
posted a direct link to my site on his main page. I have doubled my own
traffic in less than two weeks.
Finally, have you ever noticed that when you search for something on
Yahoo!, that if Yahoo! does not find a relevant link, or at the end of
the links it did find, that Yahoo! will open up a window showing you Web
Matches? Have you ever wondered where you can submit your link to be
included in the rollover of a Yahoo! search? What if I told you that the
Yahoo! Web Search is powered by the Inktomi Search Engine? And, what if
I told you that getting listed on the Inktomi Search Engine is super easy,
and you can see your link in as little as three days?!? That would be a
powerful tip in itself, wouldn't it?
Well, here is the third and final tip I will offer you for "Seizing
the Power of Yahoo!." Google.com is now the back-side engine for Yahoo.
At the very end of Yahoo's search results, they place the search
results for http://www.Google.com. It is possible to get listed inside
of Google in as little as seven days!
RESOURCE BOX:
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Bill Platt owns The Phantom Writers, a company committed to
helping people to establish an Internet presence & promote their
businesses through the use of Free-Reprint Articles, just like
the one you have just finished reading. His article distribution
service can help you deliver your reprint articles to a much larger
audience: http://www.thePhantomWriters.com
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