Mistakes you made and 'Lesson' you learned?

No doubt whenever you started your 'first' directory you must have made some mistakes and must have learned 'lesson' from your mistakes with the passage of time.

So what lesson(s) so far you have learned from your directory business?

It would be an interesting thread

 

there are similar thread couple of months ago by jl255 but I don't mind to share my mistakes again

My mistakes is selling sitewide permanent links when I just started a directory. Lesson learned, permanent links sucks lol, it will haunt you forever

 

Having only one website and being too dependent on Adsense and Google for traffic. Diversify!

 

Buying a keyword domain for my directory was a big mistake.

I should have bought a brandable dot com.

 

the biggest mistake that i made, is using the "permanent inclusion" business model instead of a Recurring Annual Submission Fee. directories are a long term business and a Recurring Annual fee is very important if you want to stay in the business and make some real profit.

cheers.
Mario

 

tks alang.

Mong, you might want to take alook at the results that I've compiled previously:
http://blog.linksfactory.net/directory-owners-share-their-painful-mistakes.html

But of course, there are many more lessons to be learnt than these stated here, so keep the sharing going. Cheers

 

You can promote a Brand but its very difficult to promote an unpronounceable word or meaningless URL

 

It was related to directory?

 

Not from directory but it applies anyway:

I have learned that before you start something new, you must have a good idea how that business works. Otherwise you will make unnecessary mistakes

 

lesson learnt: u need either "big" money or "brain" or "effort and skill"

 

what you didn't had ?

 

hehehe, most likely is $$$$

 

Second that any day! a good market/ competitor lookup is essential!
M.

 

Always research and make your own categories and sub-categories structure. Don't rely on directory category dumps, as it will make all the pages and sections similar as on other directories.

 

hahha, I had "money" but not "big" money. I've spent in the mid range $$$$ but still need to have more than $$$$$ (5 figure) to have my site fully ubiquitous.

in other words, to success you may need to have your site everywhere. Every corner, you could see you site *You know who i'm talking about here*

 

my biggest mistake was ripping off the template when i did my first template of phpLD using another person's (Jamey) or SiteExpress here at dp's css codes and changing images and calling the template mine.


but good thing i learned ... and after that jamey thought me how to code phpld templates

tht was the most important lesson i learned in this business.




Edit: hmm... is it that bad to share your mistakes so others won't make it ... yeah i made it its true .... and for sharing the mistake i made to help others ... i get a red rep ... thanks alot ...

 

No mistakes yet! thanks to all you directory owners who have helped me directly or indirectly i have not yet made any mistakes.
also before taking a step in the directory field, i always ask the pros here, so the mistakes are easily avoided!

 

Agreed! And this is not just directories, ... any business,

the best example i can give here is F1 Racing,
no one drives a off-the-shelf racing car, coz everyone has that!

if you want to WIN, you have to tweak the engine to increse its power and/ or acceleration, to have that edge in the end.

not just categories, if you can tweak your site to make it a diffrent feel,
PR, ... well everyone can get that in the end, its whats the edge you have?

M.

 

My biggest mystake was choosing the wrong script...

Had to delete the complete directory as it was hacked and with practically no support the pain was lasting

 

Using a public category dump.

Unique makes directory better.