Some questions on starting my own niche directory

First let me clear that I have already read the two excellent stickies above. These are some additional questions and some I think may again require an answer , because of the fact they are 1-3 years old now (in the stickies).

I am planning to buy the paid version of PHPLd to start my own niche directory in a couple of month's time.

Here are my questions-

1. Just want to know from your experience will people be willing to pay for a niche directory that is new with a PR 0?
   
2. A question on PHPld 3.0. Can it be customized in a such a way that it should accept free submission for a year and after that only paid submissions. I am asking this because I read somewhere that while making a shift from free to paid, you may lose your free submission listings.
   
3. How much time (in number of hours) per week would you spend on building such a niche directory?
   
4. Is it advisable to open a niche directory on a subdomain OR we should always go for a new domain?
   
5. How come so many directories are paid and still retain their PR? Given that Google has a strict policies for paid links.
   
6. Your own dos and don'ts of niche directory. Any additional tips you will like to mention (not covered in stickies above)

Thanks!

 

Your questions show you are rather ignorant of the directory business. Why would you want to start a business you know nothing about?

Do you have the financing to market and brand a new directory?

Do you have any idea how much money is required?

Do you know it takes about 3 years to develop a quality directory?

You should read the You Should Not start A Directory List first.

 

Thanks for your reply stoner3221.

Your questions show you are rather ignorant of the directory business.
Your reply show that you are rather v knowledgeable about directory business. Would be glad If I can learn from you.

Why would you want to start a business you know nothing about?
To know more about about it

Do you have the financing to market and brand a new directory?
What acc to you is the required "financing" to market and brand a new directory?

Do you have any idea how much money is required?
Will be so nice of you if you can tell.

Do you know it takes about 3 years to develop a quality directory?
No issues. I don't plan to profit from it in the short term. Any money, that would come would go back in directories promotion. My short term definition is 2 years.

You should read the You Should Not start A Directory List first.
You should read my question properly first. I have already read that thread. The opening sentence says so.

I have answered all your questions, it's your turn now

 

1. People pay for listings in PR0 directories in general. By that i mean overall.
2. You will only lose your free submissions if you delete them, some people in the past have deleted everything themselves to start from scratch.
3. Thats purely up to you, you may outsource 90% of your work, it depends on the plans you have.
4. Depends what else you have in mind really, if planning on a directory mostly then id suggest its own domain, id also suggest a .com or country specific id also suggest against a brand type word incase you believe it will become super big, because you might think of a fancy name but outside of the forums no one will know anything of it. Let people know its a directory.
5. I think eventually the ones still with PR will lose it too, all bar a few, some are outside our world, inside connections, they have nothing to worry about, back scratchers who will poo on you to keep it sweet for about 10 elite
6. Do make sure you will either have submitters in the niche or are willing to add virtually all listings yourself, dont come complaining if you cant figure out how to monitise it 6 months later, dont start threads in the summer of 2009 telling us all how crap it was because you couldn't make it work then build a hatred towards all directory owners, because it does happen.

Stay away from, and dont feed the medium sized wild cat. you will figure that one out for yourself soon enough.

 

wow! Thanks for your suggestions, Pipes and mikey1090.
4. Depends what else you have in mind really, if planning on a directory mostly then id suggest its own domain, id also suggest a .com or country specific id also suggest against a brand type word incase you believe it will become super big, because you might think of a fancy name but outside of the forums no one will know anything of it. Let people know its a directory.
One thought I have is to open it on my already established niche blog as a subdomain. It will have the structure dir.blogname.com May I know your specific reasons against subdomain?


6. Do make sure you will either have submitters in the niche or are willing to add virtually all listings yourself, dont come complaining if you cant figure out how to monitise it 6 months later, dont start threads in the summer of 2009 telling us all how crap it was because you couldn't make it work then build a hatred towards all directory owners, because it does happen.
If I am not able to monetize, I will ask you to make some paid site submissions. I am sure you will not refuse.
just kidding...
I know the time it takes to kick-start any business whether online or offline... I am giving it a comfortable 2 years.

Stay away from, and dont feed the medium sized wild cat. you will figure that one out for yourself soon enough.
I wish that soon should really come very soon.

+repped both of you. Though my single point would not do much for your greens. Thanks again!

Any more suggestions from veterans here- most welcome.

 

I run two niche directories and the main trick to being successful is to know and understand the people and websites within that niche. Some will involve people with more money and others less. It will be harder in some to find good quality sites to use - meaning ones that are actually useful and not just made for Adsense. Think about the categories you will have and see how hard it is to find sites on your own that you would deem worthy of inclusion.

IMHO, for a niche directory to be successful it either has to become "the place to advertise" or "the place of hidden gems". What I mean by the place of hidden gems is to share those sites that are truly wonderful but may be owned by someone who is not chasing PR and the SERPs and is quietly running a hidden gem. When I am searching for sites to add on my own, I often start with the 6th, 7th or 8th page of the search results - that's where unfortunately many of the sites with the best information are dumped by Google. My goal was to offer the gems that have great information while your's might be to create the #1 _____________ directory on the Internet.

As far as subdomains go, there was a time when people seemed to think that if they hung a directory off of another site it would drive buckets of traffic to their original site. The directories were usually poorly run and not well promoted. After seeing enough of those, many people just don't visit or submit to directories on subdomains anymore - they are seen as something of an afterthought rather than a real site.

Why not keep the blog as is, get a new domain for the directory and mention it from time to time on your blog? Use the blog to report news and changes on the directory. Don't turn the blog into a place that is only used to push the directory but when something interesting happens feel free to mention it. Use the two sites to help each other as well as preventing putting all of your eggs in one basket.

Since you are making a niche site, I would also recommend that your domain name (if you opt to get a new one) has more to do with your topic than being a directory (the one exception would be professional webmaster related niches). Having a topical name with at least one of your keywords in it should help you more in the long run. Keeping with the frog example, something like The Frog Pond would be more brandable and memorable than Frog Directory.

Create a resource rather than a "directory".

Good luck.

 

I believe the 2 dir's you are talking about are mentioned in your sig? Just saw them... you have done some great work there..wondering what script you have used? or is it hand coded?
btw which script would you recommend for a niche directory focused on technology?

My aim is to go for gems and consequently after advertising. But when going for advertising, I would never include any crap site even if that means losing $$$$/mo.

I would equally devote my time and marketing efforts to whether I run on subdomain or primary domain.

A possible benefit I can think of running on sub dir is that people will take it as a more trustworthy directory since it is coming from a established/trusted blogger. In the eyes of Google/any other SE it would be a trusted source of sites.

I have some niche specific domains lying idle from quite some time, though getting a new domain shouldn't be a problem.

Great point there. You know one of the posts in stickies above present an exact opposite point of view...saying that always have some reference to "directory" in your URL keywords otherwise people would never get to know it's a directory. Adds on to say that the attention span of directory seekers is v small and such a directory might get ignored.
But agreed you have a nice thought there.

As always great discussion going on here...would request more directory owners to join and contribute their thoughts.

Thanks!

 

Yes, the directories in my signature are mine - thank you for the kind words. I'm using two different releases of the paid version of eSyndicat - the templates have been modified from the originals to the point the original designer didn't recognize at least one of them. lol

I wouldn't make the script choice based on topic but on what you hope to offer. Most offer similar functionalities but each does have a different way of approaching things. Based on my initial inquiries it seemed like it was easier to add new fields to eSyndicat than phpLD (based on emails to their support rather than actually trying it myself). Since that was a key requirement for my first directory, that's the direction I took. You will find the majority here on DP are using phpLD but that doesn't mean it will be a better match for what you intend to do; it only means that the fans of that script are more vocal.

The problem with the subdomain in my eyes is one of perception. If I see a directory being run from a subdomain, I rarely look deep enough to see if it is well run or not. It's up to you, others here will have different opinions.

Same goes for the domain name choice. I would study the keyword searches within your niche. What types of things do people search for when looking for good sites on your topic is a good place to start. Check how other directory owners are naming themselves and whether or not their URL and titles match. Explore what they offer beyond the typical title, description and link. See if you can come up with something a little different or better.