it seems like it would be very simple to create a directory, what with all the open source options available. should I bother? is there any value in it?
If you can: 1. Make a directory not with an entire movite to earn. 2. Maintain it. 3. Give it a good look. 4. Keep it error free. 5. Give it a good PR and maintain that PR. 6. Not just sell it off and remove paid links. 7. Promote it properly. 8. Keep it clean and approve right submissions, ie., be a good editor. 9. Be different and a bit unique. .. Plz go ahead.
There's a ton of value in it..in fact, mine's been making me money since the first week I put it up. My advice would be to pick a niche and stick to it.
He pretty much summed it all up. You should find a niche you enjoy and build from that. Post the directory in the solicitation forum here and you will probably get 20-30 links in the first day. They can make you money assuming you have a lot of submitted links, and some pagerank
It may sound easy but it is not. Finally finished up integrating a blog into my directory. I am going to document as much as possible about the things involved in operating a directory. First two articles only dealt with wordpress, because of the amount of time spent integrating it. So you pretty much get the idea that operating a directory is no joy.
you should make it if you make it paid and you have money to promote it. free directories usually die out becuase webmaster get tired of going threw hundreds of links a day and they don't make any money for it. If you make a paid directory, properly promote it, people will buy links (if you get a high pr)
most people only look at PR when buying a directory listing. I mean is your directory needs at bear minimum a PR 4, but you still need higher than that. A PR 6 would be great. I'd promote it at directory lists info.vilesilencer.com , directorycritic, directory of directories, etc. this should give you traffic, more importantly traffic of people who are looking to buy links. In terms of getting a high PR this could be simple or hand. You could spend hundreds a month to get a PR 8 link on some sites which should make you site a PR 6. Or you could take that money and spend it on 100's of directories and get permenant links As states above you have to spend a lot of money, if you want a good 1
I guess the ultimate question is: what's the potential Return on Investment? (including time & money)
According to v7n, sevenseek.com makes a lot of money. Then again, lots of initial investment. http://www.v7n.com/forums/webmaster...166-need-good-internet-business-get-into.html
As with all things you'd like to start, whether to make money or as a hobby, a bit of little bit of paper is needed. If you didn't understand that, by paper i meant money. But then I guess in the digital world now, we don't really use paper anymore. Damn.
Its better to invest on creating directory than buying real estate. A well maintained niche directory will be worth 2-4 times its worth than the year before.
Its just 25$, I have build up some many directories with the free version. Lastly I just upgraded to the paid version for my new directory. It isnt a waste of money, 25$ investment is very very less as compared to what a directory can return you.
You can ban from your cpanel though...... in phplinkdirectory 3.06beta2 version you'll get loads of features besides the banning facility. separate details page for each link, mass approve/delete/pending facility to tackle the spammers, registration facility, category selection with ajax(new) [which i am using in http://www.theglasspalace.org/directory/ ], third site linking, and many more. Now to avail such useful facilities, you have to spend a few bucks, this encourages the developers for further improvements. And they are constantly upgrading and making it more better, more useful and user-friendly.