How to increase sales (Paid listings)

This question is for experienced and power directory owners. Would you please share your perspective on how to improve sales on a general directory. That is how to add value and enable people to submit in paid listings.

A generic answer will not help - A more precise answer like submitting to directory critic, vmo list etc., would be really helpful.

 

You have to make the name known. IMO submitting to directory lists will improve traffic, but not sales.

Brand awareness usually involves getting well placed ads in high profile places where your potential market is looking. So obviously you have to identify who you are looking to sell to first, then work out how to get your "brand" in front of their eyes.

 

One of the first things you should do that you've thus far refused to do is remove the misleading metric off of the front page of your directory as it hasn't been live since 1997. If you're willing to lie about that why should anyone trust you? I for one wouldn't submit anything to a directory whose owner felt it necessary to deceive the public, much less pay a submission fee.

 

As an owner of 70 general link directories that receive in excess of 300 paid submissions daily I know exactly what link buyers require.

I have been in the internet marketing game for 14 years and I pride myself as being an SEO practitioner which simply means I practice what I preach and that is where I have received all of my success, not from asking questions on a forum where more than likely 99% of people are not making over $50 per week on the net. You can listen to mine or other people’s words but ultimately you need to test, test and test more to see what works and what doesn’t.

Brand is only minimal, if you want to submit to a directory you don’t say to yourself ohh yea I have heard of that directory let me go and pay the $300 to them, while some people do think like that the percentage of people doing it are minimal.

People do not pay money to be part of a “quality” directory list, people pay money because they want to improve their search engine ranking, nothing else. There are exceptions to this but not on general link directories. Yellow pages, hotfrog.com are the exceptions but they are local business directories.

I agree with Creed that you should not be advertising that your site has been live since 1997 if you have simply brought an expiring domain recently.

Here are what people look for:

Unique C-Class domain – This is a must if you want repeat customers.
Toolbar PR – people love this for some strange reason.
Alexa Rank – People also love this.
Indexed Pages – this can big a big indication of how Google views a directory especially those with huge submissions.
Cache date of category page
Linking root domains
Moz Rank
Server Location
TLD
Price of paid links – Cheapest is not the best for optimal conversion.

 

Creed, yes, I know. You have indicated this couple of times I guess. Little hesitant as we have put some energy in bringing up that counter. But yeah as you said people might wonder why the site is so old, but still doesn't have inner page PR. Will get that down eventually.

Timur, makes sense. Thanks for sharing deep info from your experience. Just wanted to know which strategy is better - Paid only or Free + Paid. What is the strategy that you follow on your 70 websites?

 

I accept free listings to increase relevancy to my categories. My free listings are no-followed as I can't always monitor the quality as much as I would like to.
I also except featured and sponsored links.

 

Time, advertising and something I like to call WOM.

 

for me you need to spend lot time for your directory.. i mean it for advertising, and make people know that your directory alive...

 

Although your counter is blatantly misleading it's like having the w3c badge on your site, not something the average user understands or appreciates but is only really for the ego of the site owner. At least you're learning by your mistakes and have the humility to accept objective criticism unlike many. In answer to your question you'll get known by your ethics.

 

Only advertising and quality of your product can help you improve the sale. Invest some money to advertise on Adsense or others trusted ones. SEO your website to get high rank in search result.

 

Optimize your site for high SERPs or go for paid advertisement. This may help in boosting traffic to your site. Normally people like to pay for a link on high traffic sites only.

 

You have to offer something of value. And by value I do not mean that little green bar on Google's toolbar. If people are going to spend money with you, most want you to earn it. Be an editor and edit submissions. Be a manager and clean up your directory, which is a never ending process. Work hard to please your submitters, while firmly adhering to your listing guidelines, so that visitors are happy too. List good websites that you feel would benefit your visitors. Clean your house before spending any money advertising. Once you feel your quality standards are high, advertise to those most likely to submit to your directory. Sooner or later people will see how hard you are working on your directory and they will be compelled to list their websites with you.

As little fish in a big pond, we must realize that very few directory owners find financial freedom operating their directories. Because of this, you may want to look at the other rewards that operating a directory offers. First, you may meet some interesting people and develop strong professional relationships with them. Second, you can expand your knowledge by editing submissions regarding topics you are unfamiliar with. Regardless, be satisfied with being able to cover your hosting fees but never be satisfied allowing your goals to become idle. Always continue your efforts to improve, even when you see no submissions at all.

 

Disagree largely with your post.

I believe your market is totally different. You are offering low-value, low-quality directories in high volume. If you are running 70 of them you either have a massive number of staff on the books to take care of all that or you just take whoever pays.

Not discounting your credentials, so I hope you aren't downplaying my advice by puffing up your chest...

For samdar, brand is everything. He runs a sole directory. If he wants to get into your game, he needs to forget quality, and go for quantity. He can drop editing, and simply rebadge his directory 20, 50, 100 times via the criteria you supplied, and make money that way.

If we are talking about simply making money, then I defer to your experience. If we are talking about running a quality directory, then samdar needs to defer to my experience.

Your market doesn't but I know plenty of people that DO pay to be part of a quality directory. Yes, the volume is much lower, but in general the website's being put forward are of a much higher standard. What you are talking about is pricepoint. Accepting one great website for that $20, $50, $100 or $300 entry price, or accepting hundreds of varied quality websites at that $1, $2, $5 entry price. People do pay for those high price listings, or else those big end directories would never survive.

What you are talking about is a choice, to either travel the high-volume, low-value road or to travel the low-volume, high-value road. Both roads exist, and both offer different outcomes and experiences.

Yes, good catch on the trust factor CreeD

 

This guy cracks me up. I can assure you that nobody searches your directory because you apparently have a quality resource, you think your general directory is a quality resource? Secondly Google does not rank your category pages well, so what exactly are you offering apart from selling Pagerank? Do you think your links boost serp positioning? Wake up buddy this is not the 1990's Google has evolved immensely since then.

 

Sorry I did not read everything that you wrote.

I will just say that Google treats your directory the same as everyone elses, nothing makes your directories special you are still selling pagerank. Just because you have invested hours and hours into making nice title and descriptions it does not mean that you are selling better links, ultimately that is all you are doing no matter what you say. Even if you provide free links you are still exchanging content for a link.

You think I'm wrong? show me a site that you think is benefiting from one of your general link directories and I will show you how they are not.

Yahoo, Dmoz, BOTW these are the only general directories that people should be submitting to.

What is a quality resource? nih.gov << best resource in the health industry and I bet your so called quality resource does not compare to them.

 

Wow you need to take a chill pill.

Google doesn't treat directories the same as each other. If you truly believe that then you contradict yourself when you say they have an intelligent algorithm.

Google works on content. It is able to decipher good content from spam. Having an "add everything" directory despite using nofollows, isn't good content. The actual written content on the site is still garbage.

I don't own any directories so you are barking up the wrong tree there.

General and Niche directories are evaluated on their content basis. 99% of them, I agree with you are junk, and would be treated the same, because their content is the same. Hell, you admitted to having 70 of them.

Can you show me a site that is benefiting from being listed in your 70 directories? Or is it a scam?

 

I am selling Pagerank just like every other general link directory.

If you want to get your directory recognized you have to truly prove that you have a quality resource, it's not just about being an editor.

Show me a listing on a directory from a general link directory that ranks for even a moderately competitive keyword.
Show me a listing on a directory from a general link directory that can even rank for its category name.

Google does not want people to rank high because people have purchased loads of directory links.

I know you have a directory list but it is flawed, do you know how Google trust is calculated? you are just kidding yourself and making everyone else dumb around you.

You think i'm talking BS? Go to a real SEO forum but be warned you will be laughed out of there.

SEOmoz Q&A is a good place to ask as is seochat

 

I don't need to answer any of your questions, you've qualified exactly what you're experience is. Much appreciated. Thanks for that. I trust that anyone that reads this thread now will take any and all of your advice with a grain of salt and then move on. Cheers

Here's hoping Google kills your pagerank selling, because it is against their TOS.

 

You're welcome and please study your business.

I am extremely passionate with what I do, Only today I have spent in excess of $4000 on quality domains with great links. It's people like you that think you know what you're talking about that give the business a bad name. You have absolutely no idea.

Anyone else think I am wrong? Show me one of these so called general link directories that is high quality and what benefits it offers to anyone.

 

You're selling pagerank. YOU give all business a bad name.

Show me one of your directories that offers any benefit to anyone.