I submitted one of my sites to a bunch of directories and got this reply from one of them: It made me laugh my butt off. I'm sure it really takes $150/month to run a directory...lol
He probably forgot to mention there are 100 other sites on the server. Edit: Damn I hate these new smilies.
I don't find it funny at all. Most high traffic directories spend more than $30 per month in hosting because shared hosting can't handle the traffic. Many 'free' websites ask people for donations or ask them to buy something so that they remain free. Wikipedia, DP ;-) and even flickr has pro and free accounts, it's the pro accounts that are also paying to keep the 'free accounts free' in case of flickr.
It can take a whole lot more than that to run a quality directory.... You are probably thinking more along the lines of the spam fests some put up.
If you folks actually looked at the directory in question you wouldn't be defending it. It has about 200'ish sites and no pagerank. Yes some directories are expensive to maintain. But you can't compare a site like this one to dmoz, wikipedia, or flikr.
200ish ... lol. I had one with a PR2 with 9500 and it was free. Too hard to maintain it got hacked twice so I turned it into a affiliate marketing blog. Best thing I did with it. In all fun I would email the admin back and ask them if they would be willing to barter a MFA acai site on blogger.
But not $150 a month for a 0 PR directory and 1.5 million alexa ranking on shared hosting ... very funny indeed
His free service is limited, but if you want more, buy a featured link. This way, you're both happy. I don't see anything bad in this.
Nothing there that is all that funny. My dedicated server costs me $160/mo. And when you add up costs like domain renewals and extra features such as additional IP addresses etc...you can drop some serious cash to run a few popular websites. EDIT: OK, I just looked at the site in question...and I see where the "lols" come from. Running that ancient free copy of PHPLD, on a free template, site full of errors, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't on some super cheap $5/mo hosting plan that came with a free domain registration.
Running a GOOD directory takes much more than $150/mo. But when you run a GOOD directory you don't have to beg for featured links.
I don't see anything funny there. Beside the hosting you should budget for other things such as editor fees, online promotions, marketing, etc.
Lol, that will be the wages for the staff that so many directories pretend to have $2.49. to ensure its free status, lol