Directory Owners - Any Money in directories?

so, is there are market for directories and any money in this directory business still?
I know PR is dead long time ago, but do still people use PR to rate directories.

i know there are people who would love to submit tonnes of free submissions to you a directory, but the question is how many are will to pay for express inclusions?

I know there are many established directory owners here, but is it possible to earn a six figure income as a directory owner? Just kidding

Thanks! Any inputs are much appreciated!

 

I've tried directories some time ago, not recommended
It's take pretty much time for moderation but it doesn't give normal income, just few cents from time to time with adsense

 

It's my understanding that some folks with regional directories are doing quite well. Directories are far from a get rich quick scheme. As EuroVPS said, they take time and effort to moderate properly. They are not a leave it and forget it proposition like an autoblog.

If you have to ask if you can make money from one, it probably is a bad investment of your time.

 

Depends on how u monitor.. Need to maintain consistency which will help to get some business.

 

Developed directories that were doing well prior to the link buying frenzy are still doing well.

 

It all depends on you as the owner of the directory to provide better service than any orders from your customers

 

If you start a quality directory, build up each category and sub category to rank well in search engines and get your pricing right, yes, there is money to be made in web directories and like one of the earlier posts said, regional directories are quite lucrative as oppose to general directory that just jumble up listing from every corner of the globe.

 

agreed. It all depends on the people behind the scenes. However, if you want to download the article dashboard script and start a directory, chances are it's not going to do very well. Just like any other business, it takes planning, time, discipline, patience, and a little hard work to make it successful.

 

Yes there's a window of opportunity if you're willing to take your time. Go for quality and hopefully you'll eventually be rewarded.

 

I've seen this too. Directories that have established themselves outside of a trend/fad have lasted.

Whilst those directories built on PR; link buying; making fast money; because owning a directory is cool/popular; are not doing well.

 

Exactly. If you build a directory business with a good plan around a topic that you love you'll make money and have your traffic and income grow slowly but surely. If you're looking to make a lot of money fast you'll be disappointed.

 

Was just talking to one phpld user the other day that had their first 5 figure month after having done almost 6 figures for the year in 2010, and on their way to pass 6 figures this year. And there are at least a dozen more that I know that make 4 figures per month.

That said, there are MANY people that make very little, and the people that do make a lot spent a lot of time getting there or purchased sites that were already profitable. I've known of a couple of others that have had 5 figure months.

 

If your directory home page has good PR, let's say PR 3 or PR 4, then people may get interested in going for paid submission.

Since, High PR links are still in huge demand.

They may advertise their site in home page or go for featured link to get high PR link. This is reality.

However, there is another aspect of making huge money through directories and that is launching niche directory.

Let's say you have travel directory (having all travel related sites), most travel sites would be interested in buying links from your directory since it is related to your theme and provide one way link which is sure guarantee to high ranking in search engine.You can make lot of money if your niche directory become popular.

I suggest you to go for this.

 

I don't know that there was ever any real "money" in directories. Anyone who had that idea, or still feels that way is not going to have a very successful directory IMO.

I don't know that PR is "dead". I just do not think that people put as much emphasis on it, and in the SE world, it has less impact than it once did in terms of ranking/SERPS.

The main reason people PAY to submit to a directory is because the "pay" model directories tend to be cleaner, less spammy and better organized than the free directories. Think about it. How much of an impact or weight do you think your link will have in a directory that is littered with thousands of dead links, old sites, irrelevant or incorrectly categorized sites, vs. say a small niche' or general directory that has a small number of very relevant and content heavy sites?

The freebie directories out there are not well indexed, if at all for that very reason. They tend to contain crap.

When you pay, you're not paying for an expedited listing. You're not paying for the link. You're paying for two things primarily. The time and energy required by the directory owner to offset his/her expenses to run the directory. And the privilege of being listed among quality sites.

As to what we earn? If you want to give me 6 figures for mine, I will let you know.

I'm not losing money if that is what you want to know. But it's also not my day job.

 

If you not started web directory yet, don't go there. This business simply dead. The content mostly duplicate, from the nature of how websites are submitted. If you want to keep your directory "quality" and "unique", it requires big effort, and no guarantee your content will be unique at the end anyways. The only source of income will be AdSense, but even that one is low, because most of your visitors are scripts or folks from India submitting for money. Nobody will really visit you directory to find websites, you have SE for that.
You may create particular niche directory and revise every website submitted, and put your comments/feedbacks to make content unique, but for the time invested, you can make more money by delivering pizza.

Directories are past, social media is a future - this is hint for you where to start your operations.

 

On the irish version of dragons den (not sure if you're familiar with the program) two ladies were/are charging 5000 euros per listing but they had to seek out those willing to pay that.

Unless you can create a better directory than the rest i wouldn't bother and would recommend that you look for another idea.

 

I would not start one now, but my established directories still do rather well.

 

I agree with Badlands07

 

Only the real established web directories can still generates a stable profit monthly i believe...
it takes time and it's a long-term investment absolutely.