We run a skills workshop and have set a goal of earning between $250 and $300 a month on each of our directories. This is what a directory masters needs to earn to keep them off the streets and gainfully employed. If it can be done do you see this as a threat to other directory masters who charge considerably more than the $5 review fee we have opted for? Because there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who are capable of doing a better job at a better price than you and I. Frightening isn't it or is it? @The Pheonix sorry about that. You were far too quick for me.
On what basis did you determine this? How many directories? How many "directory masters"? I don't see why anyone would feel threatened, but am curious how you came to the figures.
Looked at starting salaries in this area. Spoken to a lot of school leavers. What we have in mind is one directory and one one fulltime directory master earning $250 a month to start with.
Ok, well I'm not really sure what the point of the thread is, I mean do you want other directory owners to feel threatened? And if so, why, because your under cutting the people "who charge considerably more"? Your to vague with your information to get any real response, are we talking a brand new directory starting out with 0PR and 0 back links? Or an established directory which already has one or both of those factors? Do you plan on reinvesting your target funds of $250 - $300 per month or will that purely be used to pay the salary to the directory master? And if that is the case do you plan on investing any money into promotion, banners, links, etc?
No promotions. The directory masters will be encouraged to join different forums and to actively participate in the communities serving this industry. They will also be encouraged to link build and to assist in gathering resources that we will list and endorse. The $250 is not a salary. Its an income. People should learn to stand on their own two feet and fend for themselves. They should be taught from an early age that they come together with others to add value to the community rather than to make demands and exercise their rights. Precisely. How many times have you heard the lament that globalisation is taking jobs away from the working classes?
Ok, well good luck with it, IMO you won't make $250 in your first couple of months with the plans you have stated above but again, I still don't think you are painting the full picture here. Also if you think that simply under cutting the prices of more established directories is some kind of threat to the industry you would be wrong. This has come and gone several times and will continue to do so. In most cases they are also labelled as QBC's. Let's also not forget that the fee is for a service, if you think you can provide such a service at the price you are stating then hats off to you. But then again, if you could have charged $15 per submission and trippled your income, then really you have cut off your nose to spite your face and it is those same working class people who are loosing out in your attempt to prove a point in the industry. But either way, good luck with it, as I say I feel no reason to be threatened, there is lots of room in this industry for those willing to work at it.
Sorry there should be a third option but you are right is not a threat and you may eventually come round to seeing it as being an opportunity to drag this industry out of the mess the QBC has got us into? Is there no way to edit these polls?
Possibly, will have to wait and see how your project develops. I am working on a few projects of my own to help clear out the QBC's and push this industry to a new level, so I always welcome other people's efforts to do the same. Not sure about the polls, I think once people have voted you can't change.
I am not undercutting anyone or anything. I am just trying to read this market, cut through all the hype and bullsh*t and make sure I dont taken for a complete client. What is a link worth? How many paid submissions does a webmaster need to supplement the organic links a web site is going to get? How long is a piece of string?
I'd need an awful lot more than $300 a month to keep me off the streets, if thats all I was earning I might have to go sing on street corners. Do you mean that's what it would be in your particular Country or something like that?
You and me both. I guess some people don't know how much money you can actually earn with a directory that gets submissions constantly.
I have got a fair idea but I want to know what the barriers to entry are and what it takes to get a school leaver up and running from scratch. This Is bare bones stuff and like I said $250 is what we need to change someones life. I started this as part of a proactive community based security programme. Its a challenge and despite the odd hic-cough its exciting. Yup. The lucky ones find work but a hell of lot people never get the opportunity and this all makes perfect sense to me. However it does raise questions. This is not an industry renowned for long term planning skills and its all too easy to write the emerging market off as the QBC. How real is that?
So how do you define what or who a member of this QBC is? What's the difference between someone who has 50 plus directories and charges the same entry for each one of them when they could just as easily have one decent directory or is it someone who comes in with just one and charges a cheaper price than most? Which one is the worst out of the two for destroying the industry, (if there is one?). Or is it the ones who set up a directory, promote the hell out of it creating a false myth that its an authority and then charges the earth for entry based on this falsety? They are the one's who probably feel threatened as they know the bubble of myth surrounding the so called authority status given to their small link farms is in jeapordy by people with just as much work ethic but less greed.
Common sense should tell us whats right and whats wrong and the problem we have here is that the role models we currently have, are all wrong. This is why its necessary to get right back to basics and what that spells, is editorial integrity. I dont think its particularly important. I would rather focus on those directories who are not on the take and this is where I believe that the emerging market is critical to what we need to do. We need to start building from the bottom up. Get the basics right, everything else will follow naturally and this industry will continue to grow from strength to strength.
Do you I feel threatened? Not all. I would prefer to use the phrase "survival of fittest". It is what makes the directory business more powerful by creating a competition among us to be on the top or as I like to say "Who's Who's among Directories". As a result new ideas are created that benefits all of us. So go ahead create as many directories as you like : "One directory at a time".
Sorry you lost me on this thread when someone said $250 a month is gainful employment. $250 is dinner out with the tip. Where do you live?
I work in both South Africa and Thailand and believe it or not school leavers come ten a penny at this rate whilst university graduates dont demand that much more. Do you see the potential problem? Is it a problem? I tend to think not. But if so why all the labels? I keep hearing about crap directories and quality directories that all get bundled up together so that it gets difficult to tell them apart. Who is who and what are the real threats to this industry?