Annual Fees Rock; One-Off Fees are for the Quick Buck Crew

Recently, John Scott made an aggressive attack on directories that charge annual fees. He stated that doing this was "beyond stupid" and done in a "spirit of greed" and that people who do this are "clowns."

Unfortunately, John is completely wrong. While you can never be unpopular arguing that gas prices and directory prices should be lower, John is failing to mention something that I'm sure he well knows: directories don't scale. The larger a directory becomes, the more expensive it gets to run it. As the size of a directory doubles, the cost of running it doubles.

Any directory owner who is in this for the long term has to think ahead to the future and prepare for the growth of their directory. The way to do this is by charging annual fees.

The quick buck crew on the other hand, don't worry about planning for the future, so they don't need to charge annual fees. As the costs of running their directories increase, they can either abandon their directories or cut editorial standards.

So, annual fees are the business model adopted by directories that plan on sticking around for many years; the quick buck crew can get away with one-off fees.

A more detailed discussion about this can be found here:
http://www.avivadirectory.com/downloadblog/?p=294

 

I see what you mean nice post

 

Umm,I'm lost now.

Off-Topic:Happy 1K Posts Jeff!

 

in response to this http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=335933

 

SIZE DOES MATTER!!!

 

its not just the cost of maintainence, even promotional expence counts, as the rate of submissions increase the verification process also takes more time and additional funds has to be allocated, so well yearly charges are ok.

dont forget newspapers charge for 1 day of advertisment so here you get 365 days

 

so does the motion of the ocean

 

That's what they tell you when they don't want to hurt your feelings/ego.

besides, the ocean gets DEEP hahaha

 

girls like action, yeah size matters, but so do other things. OK back to directories. Where were we

 

In a way, the impression of cheap link can be negative. If it's so low, it's a great buy, but it may make people think quality is also "cheap".

 

Directory Reviews are a marketable commodity, and like in any market you get what you pay for

You pay peanuts you get monkeys, it's not 'rocket science'

Keep up the good work Jeff

 

perhaps because i've not reached that stage yet with my directories, but I do not see how costs will increase as directories become larger.

Besides the regular check on dead-links, are you saying that directories are supposed to review every single submitted link on a monthly basis? seems rather impractical to me. Your directories are huge with several hundred links, do u actually review every link on a periodic basis? I'm really curious to learn.

So apart from the proclaimed additional editorial costs, what other costs are there to necessitate an annual fee?

Also, your other argument abt directories that do not charge annual fees are not planning for the future. I strongly disagree with that too. If you want to extrapolate your argument, i cld potentially start charging a MONTHLY fee and say that those who charge only an ANNUAL fee is not planning enough for the future. You see where I am heading. Whether u charge ANNUALLY, permanently, monthly, SHOULD NOT be the basis of determining whether the directory has a long-term view.

 

I support it 100%..

I also made a comment on John's thread http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=335933&page=3

But Didn't got much response because that was his support thread.
Now Here i will get my support.

Thanks Jeff, you rocks - Great article

 

Well I must confess when I first spotted that directories like Alive and Aviva offered permanent fees even for featured links I was very amazed, glad to see that things have changed .

Now we have the same problem with bid directories and I was the first to introduce a year/fee model on bid directories .

 

You could always move those listing or expand your category structures.

So If I have a category Paid Directory, I would plan now by making an Alphabetically letters or something similar inside the Paid Directory category so that they too will get some exposure and gain PR in the future, and I can move them as the directory gets more populated.

Not every directories are getting hundreds submitters per month Jeff, and you calling us a Quick Buck Crew is uncalled for, just because you're up the ladder it does not mean you could start acting like a little girl.

A $49.95 a year on a PR6 directory, that ridiculous. With that price your charging it should come with a free dunce cap for every listing

 

Well If you get submissions is not ridiculous

 

Let the market decide if it's worth the money or not. - the bottom line -

I simply respect the owners' decision on the price whether it's yearly or whatever. I don't get offended at all by the price. If it's too high, I just don't pay for it

 

And it doesn't come with a free dunce cap either That's amazing Jeff, on how you pull it through.

 

Right, I believe in free markets and that people are free to offer anything at any price..

 

yes, the market decides. But sometimes, the market can be misled by wrong information or be influenced by the draw of the crowd, in which case, we shld speak up to present all sides of the case