When directory owners open their directories for free links, what is the business model? Is the presumption that there will be those who give reciprocals or that filling an empty directory better places it for charging for links later? I'm curious when I see hundreds of offers for free submissions what these directory owners know that I don't. I find it a curious tactic.
I would have to reject your post eric_wahlberg, directories dont make money through adsense, they do make money from sponsor links
Yeah you can get but make sure its a quality directory. And if its a quality paid directory then you dont have to offer sponsor links as you can earn alot from the link sales
I don't think that's universally true. http://www.freeindex.co.uk/ (which is down right now for an upgrade) solely uses adsense and maybe some affiliate links. I'll be testing the adsense 'only' route on a free niche directory, we'll see how it works. I don't think it'll be easy, but I don't think running any good directory is. And to address the OP's question, many free directories hope to gain enough traction to eventually go paid.
I'll try. The niche I picked pays well, but I know it's not going to be an easy living straight on. I'm also going to attack this from a couple different angles using a couple different directories and business models. FYI, freeindex.co.uk claims 500,000 monthly visitors...I bet the adsense revenue is pretty decent with that amount of traffic, even with low click throughs.
This is also an option, but I think usual scenario is like this: Free directories get traffic much much faster than paid and get links from various directories list compiled by submission companies. Forget about recio links it's not going to happen. a) Ones your categories are full(for example 5 pages of arcade sites) someone who wants to be on page one in category purchase featured link. b) You change it from free to paid in few months after you have some links in all categories so it is not empty and some people will pay for link inclusion. Adsense might also work on high traffic(especially niche) directories, but it wouldn't be my first choice of revenue since most of visitors are webmasters or SEO's who know what adsense is very well. Still, might be great for popular niche dir.
I have a niche directory where I review sites for free. Its free content for me and each site submitted is one less than I'd have to pay an editor to add. In a free directory such as dMoz the submission queue will build up pretty fast. If your free directory was very strong like dmoz is, more people would pay for review as they don't want to be sat at the bottom of the queue for very long. Free directories that make it higher up the PR ladder can often charge for sitewide links and banner sales too if they have good traffic.
most free directories don't have a workable business model and for many they are just trying to build up some traffic and content so they can flip it for a couple hundred bucks. I would say 95/100 free directories fail in the first year. The amount of work vs. the profit you can make are miles apart. and to the second part of your question, the reason so many start up each day is because you can do it for free - free script, free hosting, free template, free advertising = zero barrier for spam directories.
jg123 link to your blog post where you described your experience with free directory. I would like to read it again and I am sure others will enjoy it too
thanks balkanboy that post still makes me smile, here is a bit of an updated version 15 Stages of Free Directory Ownership (feel free to add your own).