Do directories make money?

Hello,

I have been thinking about starting a one niche directory and I'm wondering if they make money?

I submit my blog to free directories and I've never paid for a listing.

 

There are a few ways that directories make money, and one of them is by offering paid listings. Directories can also make money through ads.

 

Thank you Karen9999,

I was wondering because I saw one directory that makes $xxx per listing. I would like to get into that niche and start my own directory.

 

The question you should ask is: would I make money?



fastreplies

 

Yes
But takes time and effort.

Agreed with fastreplies post

 

you want to fruit mango, so you have to plant and care for years to get lots of fruits. same like having directories.

 

Having set up and owned 2 directories, it can be mixed bag of results. The directory sector is riddled with many failures and a few successes, I'd say the old style (just listings results pages) is over, the old
style is dead as far as all-purpose b2b are concerned, and to start a new directory, you must be totally niche to have that selling point - But, that was 15 years ago, when it was great, easy to bring in traffic to them, get links etc - now, even with a niche, you will struggle to balance filling it, to get content to be searched, so your product (the searcher) wont be established for many years, and you need that to sell to the advertisers - so its highly doubtful any new old style directory will get off the ground to be A) content rich/useful and B) enough visitors for advertisers, and C) make profit.

The following challenges wait you:

1. To get it filled
2. Attract sufficient traffic
3. Make money

you wont get enough traffic for this to be viable for at least 4-5 years, you will need to be unpaid, so you can fill it with companies. The only reason it looks easy is many owners cannot let go and keep their stes online hopefully they think someone will buy them - they won't!

So cos they all sit on the web, it looks viable at least - but their all failed directories, their owners stuck with them, constantly paying out on them to maintain them, etc - its a waste of money and time and not to mention the stress involved. They are too work heavy period, and don't have anything unique about them, and that's the problem when you copy another idea, without doing the research properly.

Mine were somewhat successful, but I started them a decade ago, with a niche unique idea and got into the media with it, I made some cash, but only about £2000 total in 11 years, but thankfully I had other biz ideas, so that saved me and hopefully secures my website building future.

You will be taken advantage of by Seo agencies, spammers and people who just don't want to pay you. Only reason I still stay in the game - my site is established and unique enough to do the job of getting results for advertisers - but its still tough....

i'd suggest you find another idea and go with that as its too late in time to start another directory, just so you can 'sell ad space to companies' -- theres other ways to do this, so consider this a warning to forget building a directory and to go with a different website idea.

 

Thanks Everyone!

I think that the hardest is going to be for me is to get it filled unless I keep it free for the first 6 months or so to build DA and PA.

Is that about right?

 

Like I said - anyone attempting this will always be 15 years too late in the game for it to work. It shocks me that the old general b2b directory model still exists - it clearly doesn't work.

Everything is niche now, the fact this is so easy to check by running a search, you'd think people would do this before entering the publishing space, but that just proves
how gullible the desperate are.

Desperate copycats
Desperate wannabees
Desperate spammers

its a sad world

 

I agree with Maxpro

 

Only real established and maintained web directories can survive while this market is almost dead.

 

Agreed 100% - its all gone niche now, so the last remaining B2bs are worthless as Google slapped them hard and took away their presence in the SERPS.

The remaining 300 decent ones are all paid, and you'll never get in for free anymore. Its a case of either you pay up or see your latest naff idea never get off the ground at best or die is more likely today.

Its a waste of life trying to copy those who got there first! and even sadder to watch the 1.5 million businesses try to survive by spam, and we all know that fails.

 

Two ways I know is via using sale of register email Ids and other using subscription way.

 

At least make sense as I didn't understand a word you said.

Btw - Following certain threads and plugging your bad advice isn't helpful - you need to stop this.

 

They make money in a number of ways.

Some give you free listings, but require a fee for premium stuff like highlights, additional photos, sticky etc.

Others use ads like Adsense or their own 'in-house' banners

Most use a combination of these methods to optimize revenue.

 

There is not too many sites around to make directory for.. but with the flow of new domain extensions it might kick for directory owners.

 

There are still directory owners that make money, but they generally have a business plan and worked over the years to build a customer base. Often it is in a niche. But overall people use the larger sites like Google now. A good question to ask yourself, "when you browse the web, how often do you use a human edited directory to find things?". 15 years ago the answer was usually, "every day".

 

This is so true, Many just google, Personally i think for the directory owners that persevere will see more profit in the end as more directories close there doors.

All the best