Building a quality directory that ranks well and can eventully earn money

I know, the net is already too saturated and you can't do it, but I was told the same thing about forums and that worked out well for me.

Anyway, I am in the process of building a niche directory, once I release it I imagine it will have 300 or more categories and it can grow from there. I want this directory to do two things, well, actually 3

1. Provide a portal of quality websites so visitors will find the site to be a valuable resource. I think it would be best to weed out the 1 paragraph of generic text and 12 ads websites.
2. Make a worthwhile income from this directory in due time.
3. Rank well and use as a cross-promotional tool for my current website. I am actually using the .net version of my current site for this directory and the front page will be sort of a portal that will have information from that site, with directory links on the left, including a link to the main directory page.

For those of you who have done is successfully, do you have any tips? Should I be leniant on what I allow in at first so I can build numbers? Charge from the beginning to keep fly by night sites out? Anything you can provide to help out would be appreciated.

 

Step 1 will be the hardest part..... Keeping a payment will definetly keep the site clean as possible, then it is up to you to measure money worth quality....

Free directories will get submissions that the paid ones will never see in a million years... It's not worth submitting a garbage site and taking the risk that it will be denied.... Having a paid directory actually makes so much sence....

Alot of directories claim "is a paid submission directory which enhances the quality of selections" and it is nothing short of the truth.....

 

I am sure if I went pay from the start I would have to start it off very cheap with lifetime listings to get people to take the plunge. I figure even charging $2.00 will keep alot of the riff-raff from trying to get in and other sites may take advantage of it.

 

You definitely need to spend some time adding quality listings on your own. Don't only depend on people to submit.

 

Yes, that will be step 3.

1. setup homepage and install directory - almost done
2. add categories - 1/3 done
3. add a bunch of sites manually, and add descriptions to categories.

and somewhere in there, I gotta get someone to skin it for me, although I may go with the default look for a while, maybe stay with the default.

 

I agree this is an important step

 

I have a niche directory, and right now allowing free submits if relevant.
Limiting it to first 50 (might go to 100) links added.
I have yet to really subcategorize it...another tiny project to do (may bypass the super bowl to do this...yeah right!).

Am in the process of finding quality sites in each category so that I can add them myself.

Figure at some point, monetizing it will become more important than now.
Oh, for a new directory, got my first paid listing today! $3.00!!!!
That was for a link at the bottom of each page on the site.

http://www.newsmegasite.com

As usual, I accept any and all ideas, comments, etc about my site.

 

I think I started min as a paid directory right away, but offered people half price for the first month or so. It worked pretty well. People love a sale.

 

Two followup questions.

1. What happens if a link is rejected in a paid directory? Do you refund or just keep the money <g>?

2. Do you research and add links of your own -- particularly if we're talking a niche directory that you want to build into a good resource ?

 

I don't charge until after the site is accepted. It's more work for me, but when I am submitting my sites to paid directories that's what I want. Some other directories do refund the money, some don't. I would if I were you.

Yes, I do add links that I like. I also don't have as many categories as other directories. I add them as I need them.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Very nice tips and details guys. Thank you !

 

I hope that helps.

 

Are directories facing more filtering from search engines now?

 

Directories like Bluefind and Sevenseek were well established ones that Google seemed to punish. Webatlas never got started but it was supposed to be big because Aaron Wall was working on the link building. That one seemed to get punished too. I don't know what's going with it now.

I would say that you should avoid empty categories, keep it organized, and get natural deep links in order to make sure search engines like your directory.

 

I wonder what a good niche directory would be.

 

Probably a niche that you're an expert in and a competitive keyword (assuming you want to make money). For example I teach second language acquisition - not much money there. At least it's not worth the trouble. If I were a real estate broker or something, things would be different...

 

Looking through some of the sites in the Wiki on phpLD site, it looks like lots of 4s, 5s, and a few 6s were awarded. That's pretty awesome considering phpLD itself is about a year old, meaning most a the sites are younger than that.
http://www.phplinkdirectory.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sites_that_use_phpLD

 

David, how do we add our directories to that list?

My site is PR4 now and predicted PR6, not sure how reliable predictions are though.

 

yad3.com
thank you very much