I have a website directory! The Abaculus Directory Great! And what now..?!? I have invested time and efforts to make it a good and unique place. As new directory I needed some good and quality content fast. OK. I made it free. But I want to advertise it to make it popular. I submitted it to other free directories - in 2 months I got a PR2 It seems I have to advertise more... But...Oh, I need money... I want to submit it to aviva, v7n.com and the other great (but paid) directories... I have added a option on my directory for biding for top position. In 1 month I got 3 bids - 2 for 10$ and 1 for 3$... (and I get daily about 100 submissions - more than I have time to review..) I have earned 23$ till now - this is not enough to submit my link to any paid directory. I believe, if a directory have a free and paid option, almost everyone will take the free option. But if you make it paid only - you will have more success. The question is - when is the right moment to turn it to paid only. I suppose, some of you have already made this step. How was it? What would you recommend: stay free, make it paid, keep both ?? If the directory is popular - it will earn some money. But you need money to make it popular...
I would recommend it to keep it paid - if you are really going to spend on it on advertisement and promotion.. Wait till PR update - Do lot of promotions before that.. Best of luck
Your directory looks really great --and I envy the amount of work and the way it looks. Ooops maan --you did really put huge work on it. But one thing is bothering me --why do you have to use ASPX --I am not sure --but I believe its not SEO friendly and also PR does not passes easily. Can you DO URL re-write? Also make it paid immediately and keep the prices at reasonable rate ( at a rate which would suit your PR --on the other hand won't look CHEAP). Invest few hundred bucks and with luck you might hit PR4/5 --and then you can see some returns. Best of luck.
There's no problem with ASPX and URL re-write is quite easy. It only become slightly complicated when you use master pages because all your pages then end up having the same title. But there are ways around this. Just search google for
you have to spend to earn. Go spend $500 - $1500. You will gain traffic and PR. Then people will notice your directory and start to spend. You will slowly begin to earn back what you paid.
As someone mentioned on another thread, the right moment to turn to paid, is at the beginning. You can avoid a lot of spammy submissions this way, and have better quality links. You may have less links, but this can be an advantage, as most people prefer their listing to be on the first page of a category than being buried some pages below.
I would delete all the free listings right now except for one in each category (the best site in the category). Then set up your prices but make it half price till the end of the month or something.