The plus-side of all these pricing options is that they are onetime fees (except for "LookListings" program). Once you pay your money then you aren't obligated to spend any more. So chances are, you are going to get your money's worth over long haul. Additionally, being listed in a LookSmart category is probably going to help your popularity in eyes of other search engines.

However, there are times where you might not see much value. There are certain categories that have very long lists of alphabetically organized sites. If you are a metals part maker, for example, and name of your company begins with "W" you are going to be buried in 6 pages of alphabetically organized pages. You can see exactly what I mean here: http://www.looksmart.com/eus1/eus317829/eus317864/eus77825/eus266177/e us298950/r?l& Chances are, your site is not going to be found too often amidst all of other sites.

In world of marketing, $299 is not a lot of money - especially for sweeping presence LookSmart provides and fact that once you are in directory you are in for good. Also, in this new Internet economy we are likely to see more price increases as companies scramble to find viable business models. 9 out of 10 times LookSmart is going to be a wise investment. My recommendation is to do a bit of research to see where you are likely going to be listed. If your category defines your company well and you will get a decent positioning in that category based on where your company name will fall alphabetically then LookSmart is probably going to give you a nice traffic boost.

Sage Lewis, founder and president of the web promotion firm SageRock.com. He has been employed as an Internet Strategist and design/promotion consultant for 5 years. To subscribe to SageRock's marketing newsletter, send a blank message to sagerock- subscribe@egroups.com or visit the company's site at www.sagerock.com.

Example:

Instead of using keyword 'printer' for an ad about printers, I use exact model of printer e.g. 'Lexmark Z11' or less focused 'Lexmark printer'. I also put search term in title section. This simple trick produces very high click through rates.

Here are some guidelines:

1. Avoid keywords that are too general. Because ads are paid for on a CPM basis, you are likely to spend money quickly with keywords that are too vague. Avoid general keywords like 'business' or 'free'. Taylor each keyword to your offer and use relevant terms/words in both title and ad body.

2. Give Google users a compelling reason to click on your ad link. The easiest way to do this is to provide something of value for free.

3. Use a different ad for each keyword or search term. This increases relevance and likelihood that Google users will click on it.

4. Test and monitor your ads. Refine and fine-tune your ad to maximise click throughs. With Google you can do this in real time!

Google's Adwords has become quite popular and Google have had to increase number of ad displays per keyword search from 3 to 8. You can open an account and test this service by going to:

http://adwords.google.com