Remember your Yahoo password?

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Remember your Yahoo password?

By Sage Lewis
http://www.sagerock.com/website-promotion-articles/yahoo-express....

Well, it's time to look back to one year and one month ago when Yahoo declared that the one-time fee of $299 was blossoming into an annual fee for all new subscribers. For those of you unlucky enough to have missed the grandfathered boat, that means it's time to remember your Yahoo password if you don't want that originally-used card charged for automatic renewal. You can access your account here: <a href="https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/manage/orders" target="_blank">https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/manage/orders</a>

While Yahoo referenced a warning email for auto-renewal in the Terms and Conditions of submission, they also mentioned that they were not obligated to send such an email and, in our case, such an email was conspicuously absent from our inbox.

That means there is probably no advanced notice and be warned that the engine is actually charging your card 1 week before the anniversary date of your original acceptance.

If you web designers and SEO people out there put clients in Yahoo on your corporation's credit card later than Jan. 2002, obviously you'll need to get organized and decide who still needs a listing, who needs pulled, who needs billed, etc. And you'll also want to change you or your client's card information if the old card has expired and you want the auto renewal.

So this all begs another popular question, do you want to keep your site's Yahoo listing?

Before October of this year, most felt the Yahoo directory listing was worth the money. In September and before, when someone did a key phrase search in Yahoo, the top listings that appeared were those from Yahoo's own paid directory followed by some Google listings. But, in October of this year, Yahoo started mixing the Google and Yahoo-directory listings instead of prioritizing its paid results. Why they did this is still a mystery, but there are a lot of unhappy website owners because of it. What the new policy means for most of us is that good positioning in Google is more essential than ever and good Google listings may eclipse a site's need to be listed in the Yahoo directory.

Some claim it Yahoo's paid listings still has value for link popularity, but others say it doesn't mean what it used too because most spidering engines have changed their algorythums so that a link from Yahoo is no more valuable than any other link.

Our recommendation is to just pay the $299 a year and keep your bases covered. First, you never know when Yahoo will change its mind again and switch back to placing their listings first. Secondly, the link popularity might still play more of a role in some spidering engines then is realized. Thirdly, while you can just stay on Yahoo with Overture listings, most industries are getting so pricey in Overture that it's worth paying $299/yr. for the potential of hitting the top 10 when someone searches one of your targeted key phrases.

On one final note, some suggest canceling your listing and reapplying (same $299 cost) if you are not in a category you like [i.e.: local or inappropriate] or you dislike your description. This logic might explain why Yahoo is not very vigilant about informing people about the renewal or being clear about when the credit card charge actually occurs. But beware! If you cancel and resubmit, you could always be rejected or put in a category you think is even worse. Would Yahoo do that to you on purpose for "abusing" the system? That remains to be seen and taking the risk may or may not be worth it.

But whatever you decide to do, just be sure to make your decision before the charge is made to your credit card because, of course, there are no refunds.

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