 Watch out for a shift in the
pay-per-click (PPC) industry, happening right now! This
shift is finally going to give smaller search engines and
directories the ability to tap into the PPC market,
currently monopolized by the big guns online (Google,
Yahoo & MSN). They will attain this lofty goal by
banding together and delivering paid ad placements on a
mass community scale for a fraction of the cost.
More and more advertisers are going to want to advertise
through the ISEDN because of the sheer amount of exposure
that they will be able to receive through all the search
engines and directories partnered together through this
network.
I was able to be the first to interview Mel Strocen, CEO
of Jayde Online, Inc., the parent company of ExactSeek.com.
The Independent Search Engine & Directory Network (ISEDN)
was an outgrowth of ExactSeek's commitment to bring
affordable and effective search advertising to the web
community. Although ExactSeek was successful in partnering
with a number of search engines and directories, it became
apparent that popularization of a new pay-for-inclusion
program would be better served by an active and
independent association of search engines and directories
than by a single engine.
Here are some excerpts from that
interview:
Martin: "When was the ISEDN formed? ( http://www.isedn.org
)"
Mel: "The organization was officially founded in June
of this year, although the idea for a network of this kind
was being discussed for several months previous to that.
The ISEDN website, however, is only a few days old."
Martin: "How many members does the ISEDN network have
right now?"
Mel: "47 members at the moment, but the network has
been acquiring new members at a rate of 3 - 5 per
week."
Martin: "What kind of market reach can the network
deliver?"
Mel: "It really depends on how big the network
becomes. Some search engine and directory members have
reported 10,000,000+ searches/month but, given the rapid
growth of the ISEDN and the fact that it's only a few
weeks old, we really haven't had the opportunity to
determine the total number of search impressions the
network can deliver. We expect to receive specific numbers
from the members in the coming weeks which will enable us
to provide a more accurate picture of the network's search
reach. My best guesstimate right now is that
pay-for-inclusion listings are displayed approximately 120
million times per month. Of course, that figure will grow
as the ISEDN grows."
Martin: "Why should advertisers choose the ISEDN
network over Google or Yahoo?"
Mel: "The most obvious reason is cost. An advertiser
buying a 3 or 12 month listing is looking at a cost of $3
- $4 a month. I'm not aware of any other engine that can
match what the ISEDN offers in terms of value or exposure.
Where else can you buy targeted keyword terms for less
than $5 a month and get top 10 exposure for your site
listings across 45+ search engines and directories?"
Martin: "You're right, that is amazing!"
Martin: "Because of the sheer distribution size this
could potentially have, what preventive measures are being
implemented for click fraud?"
Mel: "In the ISEDN advertising model there is no
incentive for click fraud to occur. You pay a one time fee
for your selected keyword term and that's it. Competitors
or bots could click on your ad repeatedly and it wouldn't
cost you a penny more. With the monetary motive for click
fraud removed, it's unlikely to be a problem."
Martin: "What does the future hold for the ISEDN?"
Mel: "It's a little early for me to speculate on how
the ISEDN might evolve. ExactSeek is just one member.
Future plans will depend on member participation and input
in the coming months. What I would like to see is for the
ISEDN to become a counter weight to the gradual
monopolization of search on the Web by engines such as
Google, Yahoo! and MSN. I would also like to see the ISEDN
contribute in other areas related to search such as search
relevance and possibly the support of open source search
software. In the long term, I believe the Web and
searchers in general will be better served by diversity
than by monopoly."
Martin: "Are members going to decide the future of
the network?
Mel: "The short answer is yes, they will. To function
effectively, the ISEDN will in time need to implement some
kind of governing structure that determines the
organization's future course. What that structure is and
how the ISEDN evolves will depend on input from the
members. Initially, direction and objectives will most
likely be determined by majority consensus.
We've just added a private member discussion forum to the
ISEDN website which will allow members to voice their
views on issues such as the network's direction,
objectives, online advertising, governing structure,
network promotion and other topics of relevance to the
membership.
Martin: "So will any of the discussions from the
network forum be opened up to the public?"
Mel: "Eventually, yes. Assuming public interest,
we'll setup discussion forums that allow webmasters and/or
site owners to ask questions and provide feedback to
individual ISEDN members or to the membership as a whole.
If we go this route and, I expect we will, it should help
to improve communication between searchers and search
providers. It should also help raise general public
awareness of the many excellent directories and search
engines on the Web that currently are under the
radar."
Martin: "So how does the advertising portion
work?"
Mel: "Every ISEDN member is provided with an XML feed
to implement within their search results or directory
listings. The feed can be modified by the individual
members so that pay-for-inclusion listings are displayed
in a way that matches their site look and feel, but
regardless of how the listings are displayed, advertisers
are guaranteed top 10 exposure across the entire ISEDN
network. Premium placement of this kind is made possible
by the fact that we limit the number of times any one
keyword term can be purchased and because all paid
listings are rotated in the SERP's (search engine result
pages) on each individual engine and directory.
Surveys have consistently shown that few searchers look at
more than 30 search results for any given search query.
The ISEDN advertising model takes this into account and
limits the sale of any keyword term to 30. If a keyword
term has been sold less than 10 times, the paid listing
almost always appears on the first page of search results
(depends on how many listings an ISEDN member displays per
page) although not always in the same position. If a
keyword term has been sold more than 10 times then paid
listings begin to rotate between the SERPs. On sold out
keyword terms, the worst case scenario for an advertiser
would be that his listing would appear on the first page
of results roughly once of every 3 searches on his keyword
term. This is somewhat offset, however, by the fact that
the system supports broad keyword matching as well as
exact keyword matching.
Martin: "With this first come, first serve program -
Are you worried that bigger companies will buy out all the
keywords available?"
Mel: "Not really. There are literally millions of
keyword term combinations available. As the more obvious
terms are bought out, it might require more creative
thinking on the part of advertisers to come up with good
searchable terms, but other than that, I don't anticipate
a problem. Based on current trends, many buyers either
forget to renew their keywords or simply let their
listings expire. The end result is that thousands of
keyword terms will be rolling over on a continual basis.
In the event that the program becomes so wildly popular
that keyword availability does become a problem, we may
have to look at changing the parameters of the system to accommodate
demand, but that's unlikely in the foreseeable future."
THIS IS AN ADVERTISER'S DREAM!
Anytime a PPC or paid inclusion ad can get distributed
through an entire network of competitors, it has the
potential to be very powerful and deliver a lot of quality
results. Personally, I would much prefer to advertise
within 100 websites rather than just one. The power of
advertising is in the numbers!
This couldn't have come at a better time. The SEO industry
is crying for quality PPC alternatives. Google's recent
battle with click fraud has left many advertisers world
wide wondering if they should really keep their entire
internet advertising budget within one basket.
Increase Your ROI Through Smaller Programs Online:
More and more, Smartads is recommending paid advertising
in smaller, more tightly knit search engines and
directories to our clients. ROI (Return on investment) is
very important to the advertising industry, and we have
found that advertising in smaller ventures rather than the
bigger gorillas online, brings better results.
The reason for this is simple:
* - Less competition
* - Greater targeted audience
* - More local opportunities
* - More exposure for your money
In the old days, creating smaller, more targeted PPC
campaigns used to be a lot of work for the marketing
professional to research and maintain. The ISEDN has made
that job a lot easier for us to maintain on a larger
scale. Why would spend hours trying to find smaller
directories and other programs, when you can find them
under one umbrella?
To check out this internet advertising shift for yourself,
go here: http://www.isedn.org
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