ABOUT.COM NETWORK RESULTS:

About.com combines results from three major sources. The first source is the About.com Network Results. This content comes from a combination of reviewed Web sites, articles written by About.com "Guides," and articles written or submitted by third parties.

Their goal is to organize their site into topics and to tell you all "about" a certain subject. To an extent, this can be compared to directories like Yahoo. However, About.com focuses more on creating their own content through their 700 "Guides" to give you the Guide's interpretation of a particular topic. The Guide appears to have a great deal of control over the organization of their topic. In most cases, it appears that a single Guide is in charge of an entire topic, although I suspect that Guides for larger topics may have assistants to help them.

About.com is definitely not a site you'd want to submit via an automated or bulk submission tool. That's why you'll not see it in WebPosition's Submitter. The method to be reviewed by About.com varies for each topic. Sometimes you fill out a form and sometimes you simply e-mail them. However, your strategy should be different based on the category you're interested in and what content already exists for that topic. About.com strives for a personalized experience. Therefore, your submission to them should be equally as personalized if you want to have a chance of being included in their Network Results.

To submit to the About.com Network, find the topic that best applies to your site and then click the Contact Guide link. There will often be instructions on how to suggest a site or article to the Guide via a form or by e-mailing them. When there's no formal process stated, simply send an e-mail to the Go Guide, introduce yourself, and make your suggestion.

When you e-mail them, you'll want to look at what content they already offer and how it's organized. That way you can e-mail the Guide and intelligently discuss how your Web site can improve their topic's current content, or benefit their readers. For example, you could outline what benefits your site offers over other sites already listed. You'll not only improve your chances of being included in their directory, but of achieving a better listing. Another example would be that you could suggest that a particular article or page of your site would fit perfectly into a certain area of the About.com topic. Be polite, but be persuasive. Focusing more on facts rather than hype will go a long way to adding credibility to your argument.

As you browse the About.com Network, you'll notice that they prefer to link to articles regarding the topic rather than only listing Web sites selling a particular product or service. Therefore, it would benefit you to create one or more articles regarding a topic associated to your Web site. You can not only submit these articles to About.com, but also to other directory sites when the article offers something unique beyond what the submission of your home page offers.

TIP: Most of the About.com Guides claim to read all their e-mails. However, they're almost certainly flooded by requests to list a site. Therefore, be personal in your e-mail with the attitude of someone trying to help them improve their topic. Read the Guide's Biography. If you have anything in common, share that. Most Guide's have a personal love for their topic. Try to connect with them based on that shared interest, and the common goal of serving the visitors of About.com with high quality content. If they respect your help and what you have to offer, you may find them mentioning your site in future articles they write. This is particularly true if you follow up with the Guide periodically to suggest inclusion of new articles or to let them know of new content at your site. You might even ask them if there's an article you could author that they'd like to see.

ABOUT.COM ON THE WEB RESULTS:

The second portion of the About.com results, called "On the Web" are pulled from two sources: Sprinks.com paid listings and from Inktomi. Sprinks.com operates much like Goto.com where you can bid for placement for keywords that apply to your Web site. For many keyword phrases, you can grab a top ranking for just one cent per click through. Sprinks.com has become an even better value as of March 1st. That's when Goto.com, Sprinks competitor, announced that all new bids must be five cents or more, and all new accounts will be required to spend no less than $20/month.

Another advantage to Sprinks is that it allows you to bid for placement in the Sponsored sites boxes appearing under each category of the About.com Network topics. So, if you can't achieve a free listing in the Network Results by e-mailing the Guide, you can still fall back to a paid listing.

After all Sprinks listings are delivered, About.com will serve up results from the Inktomi database. As you may know, you can submit for free to Inktomi in WebPosition, or from HotBot.com or Canada.com. You'll then have your listing appear in a large number of Inktomi related sites such as Iwon.com and About's On The Web results.

WebPosition will let you track your rankings on both the About.com Network Results as well as the On the Web results. The Page Critic will offer advice on how to rank well on About.com, particularly in regard to the Inktomi listings. Currently, if you optimize pages for one of the other Inktomi engines, you should also do well on About.com. However, each Inktomi affiliate has the ability to tweak how pages are ranked on their site, and they update their databases at different times, so rankings may differ.

What's nice regarding About.com right now is that you can inexpensively jump to the top of many of their On the Web searches. For example, I did a search for "Hawaiian vacation." Only one listing appeared in the Network Results. The subsequent listings were from the On the Web category and were all sites from Inktomi. However, I could place a bid on Sprinks for one cent per click through and grab a number one ranking on that term almost instantly. If I had a travel related site, this would be a sweet deal. Even if you're not a travel site, there's bargains in many other areas. Or you can optimize and achieve good rankings for free via Inktomi, or via inclusion in the About.com Network listings. Since About.com receives more traffic than all but five other sites on the entire Web, it's almost certainly worth your time to make sure you have some good listings here.

For more tips regarding About.com, see the WebPosition Page Critic after About.com support has been implemented this month. We'll also be adding new tips for this and other engines, so continue to monitor what the Page Critic has to say. I try to include a good number of tips in MarketPosition each month, but it pales in comparison to the information offered by the Critic.

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