Hi, I don't know whether to keep my directories as free or to put them as paid. 1. Dir4You - http://www.dir4you.net - Gets an average of 150 - 175 unique visitors daily, and is PR2. 3833 Link Submissions. 2. GeneralDir - http://www.generaldir.net - Gets an average of 90 - 100 unique visitors daily, but still is PR0 since its quite new. 1204 Link Submissions. What would you recommend for these two?
If you convert to paid your traffic will probably fall by about 90% but if you are not making money then I am not sure why you would keep them free. Of course the next decision if you go paid is whether you will keep the existing free links or just delete them all. good luck
Well I think I'll keep GeneralDir free, but with Dir4You, make regular links costs something small, eg. $1.99. I don't know whether the links that are free would still be kept in or deleted. What about if I e-mailed all the link owners saying that they can keep their link in as regular for $0.99, and if they don't, it will be deleted?
probably need to also consider your affiliate links , are they producing what you want, will the drop in visitors play a part in this etc etc.
Ah, I think you mean the Google Adsense ads. We have been getting a few clicks on them, but not many.
Someone yesterday also asked the same question, i think converting to paid is sensible if your getting next to no income from a free directory, even with plenty of visits, you can at least cover your hosting costs and have more time to develop it even with just a small charge for your listings.
Well its entirely up to you, remember that while free it helped with traffic to your directory, and every listing free or not is also providing you with content. If you delete them all its wasted time i think, i dont agree that it is bad for making money if you keep them, if you feel you have some junk in there then go through and do some cleaning of unwanted sites, if any were paid and you think they should go then refund out of decency.
I think if you change to a small fee, it will help you cover your expenses. As far as the free links, if you delete them, you will have an empty directory and no one will want to add paid links. I believe this is the purpose of people offering free links on directories when they first start out. Of course with the up and down of paid links with Google, people are weary of paying for links. If there are other ways to monetize the directory, you may be better in the long run.
Look at the directory category, I don't think many folks will pay to be on page 17. This whole situation is one of the major problems that faces free directories. But of course you don't have to delete them all. I don't think that information is correct as it pertains to directories, Matt and Gooogle have been quite clear from the begining that they don't have a problem with directories charging a review fee.
The way they look now with adsense and partner links all over them - keep them free. If you're thinking of re designing - after doing that you might take them paid.
Thanks for all your comments guys. All (or most) of the Partner Links are actually my other sites I think I will redesign shortly, I just put them in awkward positions, looking for clicks, as you can see in my new proxy, http://www.roundthefilter.com
Okay, I've decided to keep it free, until the next PR update. We should go up in PR then, so the links will be worth more.
I'm writing a Directory Link Value Calculator for a site I'm currently working on. It values a Featured Link on dir4you at about $3. However, if you convert to a completely paid directory then your traffic will fall and as a result the value of the link will go down. So if you convert you'll probably only be worth about $2. The value of a link on your other site is $0.