6. When your discussion board or chat room becomes popular, you could sell advertising space on them. This will give you an extra income stream for your web site.

7. You can network with other businesses by having a chat room or discussion board. You could exchange business ideas, leads, advertising, etc.

8. You could allow other web sites who don't have a discussion board or chat room to use yours. You will get free advertising by allowing them to link to your online community.

9. When you have a discussion board or chat room you can get free advertising by listing them in online community directories. You can also join web rings with similar discussion topics.

10. You can make money by advertising your own products and services on your discussion board or chat room. You could also join other people's affiliate programs and make commissions advertising them.

Ponder this for a moment…

I did a search other day on MSN for “oklahoma free checking”; a banking client wants to target this keyphrase. There were no sponsored results but front and center from self proclaimed Internet search directory god LookSmart is? You guessed it, Long-Distance Oklahoma Movers - AAA Move. Now that’s relevant! Quick MSN get out while you can as we are doing!

I shudder to think that I am alone in my thinking method. Actually with likes of Brent Winters, President of FirstPlace Software saying, “Unfortunately, I find it difficult to recommend LookSmart as a good value at this time as I have in past.” “Today, there's many other factors to consider, making recouping your costs significantly more risky with LookSmart.” And with tremendous complaints and reports of people being double charged, not receiving clicks that LookSmart claims and getting no response from a customer service standpoint, somehow I don’t think I am.

Simply put and all jokes aside, we’ve done math and evaluated losses in traffic/conversions and when it comes down to it we can use money that LookSmart is wanting us to pay; to pay someone else and receive a much more targeted and highly visible top placement.

With Overture listings almost everywhere on web and being placed more prominently than LookSmart listings (with exception of MSN) and with Google and other PPC programs out there, we will surely recover 6% loss from LookSmart.

Stop whining, do your homework, and you too can survive LookSmart piracy. The question is, will LookSmart survive? Will MSN stick with them with relevant results such as one presented above?

Stay tuned…

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Article by Kevin Gee. Kevin and JUMP Internet Marketing are one of most respected and recognized search engine-positioning specialists on Internet. For more articles and advice on search engine placement, subscribe to JUMP Internet Marketing Newsletter by going to http://www.jumpinternetmarketing.com/Newsletter.asp . For a complimentary competitive analysis of your website, visit http://www.jumpinternetmarketing.com/FreeReport.asp