Independent Search Engine &
Directory Network (ISEDN) - Breaking News!
By: Martin Lemieux - July 14th, 2005
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 concensus.
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 siteowners 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 SERPs
(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 accomodate demand, but that's unlikely in the forseeable
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
adverising 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
About The Author:
Martin Lemieux is the president of the Smartads Advertising
Network. Smartads helps all sorts of companies world wide to grow
their business offline and online. Visit Today!
International:
http://www.smartads.info
Canada:
http://www.smartads.ca
Copyright © 2005 Smartads Advertising Network - Reprints Accepted.
Author resource must be included!
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