FREE never works. NetZero, was free - now its not... Still called NetZero Numerous FREE HOSTING out there, now charging - why? Investors got sick of giving the money. No one can survive on a FREE model. NO ONE. Hell, XM was supposed to be commercial free, and now every channel has commercials and it costs 4 times what it did when I got it. Everything FREE fails. Period. (eventually)... The unfortunate part is while the "FREE" is there, it hurts those actually trying to provide VALUE.
I don't agree. Free is alive and well on the internet. Most companies would not think of forcing people to pay for a new product or service. Here are just a couple of examples: - Google doesn't charge to use it's search engine - they make billions - Spyware and virus companies have given millions of free copies away - Software - SEO & Webmaster tools - Encyclopedias. Would you believe that they used to sell encyclopedias door to door. - Online newspapers, magazines - Music sharing...
The real business here is...I scratch your back, you scratch mine". I will provide a service at no cost to you, but you will need to find away to thank me or repay me in some way equal or greater than the service I gave you or at least find away to repay me for what I have done. Unfortunately, some people look at FREE as an FREE and never even look in on how the service was generated, they took and left. Think for a moment: You have a neighbor and he greets you and ask how are you and listen to your pathetic self on an everyday situation. He/she will even take your kids to school, parks, parties, shopping a long with their own kids. They watch your home while your away, check your mail for you, accepts packages while your away and as he/she did this for you over time, it never cross your mind that this neighbor might just want something in return, maybe not as much as what you have taken from him/her but the thought that you appreciated the generosity makes him/her feel good. That example works pretty much the same way with an online services such as a "free" web directories, they do that in hoping to either generate a small cash or fame. Cash from the advertisement that you should have click later on, fame that you should have mention to your online friends about the service you got for "free". A "free" nation(s) is not really free either, you pay a great deal on taxes and services to keep it "free". So what make you think that just because you see the word "free" is really actually "free". Yuo take this too literally, the word "free" i meant. So next time you get a "free" services like a "free" web directory, email, hosting etc,.. find away to repay this bastards/bitches in some ways to keep it going, otherwise it will FAIL.
They are still free whether they make money from advetising or not. Many in the list offer free versions but allow you to upgrade to paid versions. Many directories make money from advertising.
Really I can think of one or two and it is DirectoryCritic/Pegasus? But I think "many" is over stating it don't you think? You probably have a better list than I do, care to point this directories that do make money based on advertisement a lone?
Although I do agree with some of your examples, this point is somewhat unclear; Google doesn't charge for its service true and they do make billions. However, they have a millions of dollars of investment behind their product(s). How many free directory owners actually care to invest such an amount of money on their directory...? I also think that most free directory owners end up abandoning their directory at some point - unless it's run by a group of individuals - when they realize 1) a few AdSense clicks aint worth it 2) They cannot invest the Time that it requires to run a good AND free directory, Most successful free directories are owned by those that own and run other businesses too. Free directories, as sole business entity, dont worth nothing unless all you're looking for is kill your boredom cuz you've nothing else to do and you got enough money to live and enjoy!
Running a web directory is pointless, my friend runs one and he is always complaining he gets 500 spammy submissions from Russian domains, most people don't bother linking back and those who do give back non- indexed link backs. Hardly anyone wants to pay for submissions so you end up waste hours everyday for nothing!
If he is getting that many spammy submissions he's doing something very wrong. I'd be lucky if I saw more than 1 a month! That's what captcha's are for.
I don't think EstateGuy is telling us anything that isn't true about the way directory owners think. I just submitted (manually) a ton of links to sites, and the amount of free options were staggering. I often thought "why would they do this" and his posting confirmed it: to inflate stats and collect emails. That much was obvious, but the chance of capturing traffic from a few sites made it worthwhile to me.
I typed in 'owning a free directory sucks' to google search and it found me a pretty funny article Basically it lists the experience of a directory owner that started off free but got frustrated with it.
Most free directories are just spammy link farms and not worth investing 3 min of your life or a dine into. There are some good ones around usually you can find them searching the fist few pages in google. But to fill another database with random links to every category on the net? And think it is valuable for people to have their link in there? Pick a business model that has value and people will pay for it. But another link farm? Why do people want to pay for that?
hello what can i say hehe is it a Confession or you are out of ways to make ya business going Better.. "Patience is a Vertu" And talking about Free or paid directory, if Your Web Directory Worth To be paid, you will Get paid.. the MAin Goal is Link Building.. and when you ask for a Reciprocal Link.. what you think are you doing too.. Whatever, it's a Anger and not a Confession, so be patient dude
If you gave us the price & link to your paid directory we may be interested depending on link position & page PR. Lots of people are prepared to pay for juicy links.
I thinks their are so many Free directory are run now a days and Free Directory is not created for earning money it's made for Serve the people their are so many big brand created Free directory for not only to make money but for helping the people when your free directory get famous then automatically you will earn some good amount of $$ via this directory i have my own directory since 2007 but i am not focused on to make money with my directory i just wants to make focused on that to became famous like big brand and it's aim is always to help the Free site submitter and if you earn publicity then automatically revenues has to be came. so just concentrate on publicity or has to be famous first then you will automatically earn some good $$.
I think he's got a point... but he was probably pissed on somebody/something when starting this thread and, yes...a web-directory would be nothing without the sites listed in there... so you should build the authority directory first, then... yes - you've got the control... but it's up to you how you use it.