Those of you who have high page ranking web directories, did you create them to make money off the link submissions or were you doing advertising as well. Do people submit links to your directory in hopes of getting clicks or just so they have a link on a PR6 site. I'm just curious how the bulk of those who are making $$ from them are doing it. Also, does anyone really click on links that you find in a web directory? I've always stumbled on them accident, and never really clicked the links. So what's the deal with directories..I'm just curious.
I think well indexed and/or well promoted directories can send you some traffic. If you upgrade to featured links I think your chances are much better. Put it this way, if you pay $20 or $30 for a permanent featured link on a good directory then how much traffic do you really need to get to make your investment pay-off? Even if you only got 10-20 uniques a month you are probably getting your money's worth. Besides the traffic you get a relevant backlink and most directories even have a nice details page so you get another link, add deep links to the equation and you are getting loads of value for your money, even if you only get 5 visitors a month. Typically folks submit to directories for a variety of reasons and it is the sum of those reasons that make it a good business value decision.
PR usually comes as a natural by-product of promotion and advertising. I would take a listing in a PR0 directory that could send me 5 uniques a day instead of a PR4 directory that sent me 0 uniques a day. Traffic > PR Quality Traffic +> PR A backlink from a PR2 directory probably helps just as much in getting indexed and ranking for your keywords as a PR4 link does (and if the PR4 does more it is very little, IMO). I think the days of chasing page rank are over for most serious online businesses, there is just no real pay-off. High PR does not get my ads nor the ads of my advertisers clicked. Page rank has been used as a lazy measure of the success of many websites but really it does not mean a lot. Many are coming to understand this.
Good info guys, thanks. The reason I ask is because I want to start a golf directory site, not only as a directory to other golf related site links, but also generate revenue by having commission based product links on the site, plus the normal adsense stuff. I have a pretty good domain name to use, and have researched some keywords I think will be able to rank with the competition. Any suggestions for a beginner? I wasn't going to charge for link submissions...or should I?
For a niche directory I would charge for submissions. You will have to deal with less spam and you will also build up a resource of serious sites and also have some more money for promotion and upkeep. What I do/did on some of my niche directory sites is start off with a relatively high regular submission price but offer a discount of 35-50% at the begining till you get indexed and start getting visitors. Take a look at my legal directory and my new finance portal to get an idea of the discounts I am offering. It might take you quite a while to build up the backlinks necassary to rank for competitive terms, don't get discouraged. good luck
Thanks JG123...I think I'll charge as you have suggested, but will people pay to be listed on a directory that is relatively new and probably won't have a high PR for a while? As for the competition, I've found a few good keywords that have average search traffic, but minimal competition, like in the 500 sites range, so I'm hoping to steal some of the market share with a little creativity.
Some will, it can be very hard to find relevant links for many niches. I think that is one thing that gooogle will be cracking down on more and more, so they should be in demand, even on newer sites.