Hi I want to get advise from fellow DP members. My directory www.weblinkatlas.com is a free directory. I get around 150+ hits a day but i am not making any money out of Adsense or anything else. Because its not generating any revenue, I can't afford to keep on spending money on it for backlinks and stulf. I want to find out if it will be a good idea to convert the directory into paid directory ? What do you think ? What will you do? Regards Irfan
Yes i think it would be a good idea to change to paid, after all, you cant be expected to do something for free forever, the price choice is completely your own, but as an example, you could make regular submissions very cheap and at least your getting a little something, and do whatever else with featured etc. It gives you more time as well, as your not dealing with floods of free submissions, so you can work on other things to do with your directory. I wasn't able to view it at the moment, white page. Another suggestion would be to not drop the whole database of free submissions already in place, i used to read about that in the past. But going through and weeding out anything you dont want in i think would be acceptable.
@pipes Try the website now. I was just doing some changes to it. Thats why you were seeing a white page. Yes i agree with you in terms of weeding out junk sites & not dropping database. But i am still unsure about the price. Any suggestions?
Ok first, i think you need to decide on where you want the directory to end up, ie is it something you want to earn you $ if so how much etc ( dont answer here just ask yourself ) in any business this is one of the first questions, if you do not know where your going you wont get there. no good saying i will see where it takes me, you have done that and you have the results. next how long are people staying on the site when they log in ? that i bet is real low as i see many people skipping straight past that site and one reason why your adsense is low, also many improvements can be made but perhaps not for me to say but happy to suugest if you open to straight shooting.
OK, not concrete just ideas, take them or leave them. Your site colours are the first thing that detracts from the site and would cause people to move on rather than stay. ask yourself why they do not print newspapers on black paper. the text (small) with that background makes it near impossible to read, it would also make any graphics on that site not hold true colours ie they would not be as effective. Yes charge a fee and get rid of the recripricol stuff, personal only but its just following sheep and outdated. You then need to make better use of the space with some high hitting affiliate links as well, you have free links shooting of helping every other site but yourself. as above if you cant hold them you cant sell them. these are the time stats for my site under development. you need to keep people in the site, just like selling for real the longer someone lets me talk the closer i am to selling them. theres a few starters
What downunder is saying is true - if you want to take it paid I think it is a good idea. You need to have some revenue if you want to develop quality. Be prepared to spend some money improving your site up front as there is a higher expectation for paid directories and rightly so. There is some additional articles and tips you may find useful in my blog and within my directory itself.
Thanks. Points noted. But in regards to affiliate. I have now clue as to how should i go about it. Any pointers there?
your adsense in theory is affiliate / ie a partner in selling but most people keep very quiet about what works for them for good reason. there are a few directories offering affiliate links so perhaps start with them ( look in sigs ) just do not try and do everything at once, just make one small change to your directory but make it positive then change another little bit always improving and learning start with that plan of where you want to be though to know where your going and that can also change as you learn more.
Hi sdevil, i see you have already added your prices so thats cool, downunder and swedal have been throwing some good info your way too. I agree with figuring out where you would like to go with your directory, and introducing one thing at a time, maybe break down 2008 into quarters with goals for each 3 month period, say to yourself right id like to achieve this with it by march etc. For various reasons including competition, theres is a trend of people trying to find more features and be a bit more unique and make theirs extra special. Going back to your actual question, your clearly paid now, at first you will notice a massive drop in submissions but the cash earned and time available to work on it will make you feel better in the long run. Edit: If you can find a way of getting massive traffic to your directory, and then somehow sending that back out to your listed sites then you will be loved by many, its something that no directory owner can do yet, even for niches i believe, if they say they are then they are lying to you. Sending out some from a general directory, yes, sending out a bit better from a niche directory, yes, but impressive traffic sent out to most of their listed sites, no one is doing that yet. Its either bots or something else, nothing is impossible though, but the current standard image of a directory cannot pull it off.
Hi Pipes Yes i have taken the advise and decided to make it a paid directory. Like you said, It will give me time to work on other things and if done correctly will generate some revenue. What do you think of the current price structure ? I will keep your suggestion in mind .
I think your price structure is fine, its affordable, all the best with your directory, whatever choices you make. Stick with it long term if you can, can be frustrating at times but its all worth it when your hard work pays off.
looks like you already made your decision. My question is will all the free links stay in the directory ? As far as running a good paid directory make strong guidelines for your users to know what to expect when they submit. Adhere to those guidelines and don't get greedy. (Meaning do not accept every link who pays you) Review first and then make your decision based on your policy. Maybe get a better design or keep this one organized. As of right now it looks ridiculous because that news feed doesn't fit in the design. Neither does the adsense. You want something that looks put together. Once you have that then it would be a good time to make the change with a complete revamp launch. There is no point of adding payment to a directory if you don't have all those things in your site because as of this moment i wouldn't submit to your site because it doesn't offer anything Your traffic is low Your design doesn't look so put together Pr is low No Deeplinks Make your site worthy so people would want to come again. Another thing, when you switch to paid expect your traffic to go down because your traffic will suffer if you don't promote heavily. The 150 users you are getting right now will not be coming to a pr 2 paid directory. Another thing - get rid of that An SEO Friendly ... and if you want to keep it .. it is A SEO Friendly as "s" is not a vowel. If you are thinking o well how i am going to get the best design, and all the promotion money. Think of this as a business. (Professional level business) Not just some kiddy show which anyone can run. In real business, you have to invest some to get some back. When i started i was the same, i launched multiple free directories and paid directories, but i learned the hard way. I launched my last directory and invested alot in it and it was a great success. i hope i helped you a bit.
Hi Smub Thanks for your advise and points taken . Like you said, I am now going to put some money in and get a proper theme done and mods installed Thanks Sdevil
umm the best way i found was attract users toward your site. Offer resources that no other offers. (I'll leave you to come up with unique ideas) Promote as in sitewide links .... try PPC