Going through my list of free directories (partial list in sig), it seems that since the last pr update 13% turned to paid directories. I do a fair amount of directory submissions on the side. I noticed that the review time has substantially increased for many directories as well. Any thoughts on this?
Maybe this reflects that 13% consider a level of maturity to change to paid Review times on paid directories in my experience are usually within a few days usually
have to say that my main directory has took a turn for the better..more submissions,better PR..looks good so far..
"Maybe this reflects that 13% consider a level of maturity to change to paid" Very true. This was the largest move to paid directories I have seen in a long time. There were even a good number of pr 1's and pr 0's that went paid! I submitted a Website using the same free directory list, and the review rate for the first day after submission was down by about half. That is huge. And still the review rate is down days later. It was however interesting to see the many directories operated by one person receive a pr 0 in this update. Apparently they were spread too thin...
I think that this is because most of free directories got nice PR this update, so many turned to paid & want to cash in on the PR, there can be any other reason s also.
I'm afraid I don't get it ... not when it comes from you anyway Are you saying this web directory is not mature just because it's free? Surprising Pete, very surprising...
Not at all that is arguably one of the best examples of a quality free directory so for sure I was making a general statement not a finite comment That in no way infers that any/and or all free directories are mature or immature, it was a general term only my apologies if you thought it was across the board statement in no way was that my intentions
No need to apologise Pete...I probably misunderstood what you said... There are a lot of crappy free directories (probably 80%) and also 40% - 50% of the paid directories are crappy too... Just buying the paid version of phpld and purchasing a custom theme does not justify the silly fees most of them charge. Obviously there are super quality directories both free and paid. My respects to their owners... P.S. Many thanks for the kind PM
Generally speaking the 'free' business model does not work. I think a good part of this is the increase in spam submission from semi-auto and auto-submission software. It is very expensive time-wise to run a free directory and most of that time is spent weeding out spam and correcting mistakes. Plus I think many free directory owners are realizing it is not good to fill up your site with free listings then try and charge a review fee down-the-road when there are already 3 or 4 pages of free listings, the value is not there. As for the wait times for approval that is again due to high spam rate. I remember having a free directory 2 years ago and I got frustrated with it and did not look at the pending for around 10 days, when I got back there was 600 pending. I ended up deleting 95% of them and turning paid.
i believe that the charge of a low fee is helping our directories dont been attack by spamers and mfa sites submissions.