" I keep 50% ad review fee if rejected " - my experiment for 1 month

Some of you might remember the discussion initiated by one of the most respected members of our community CReed few weeks back - about "Review Fees and Refund issue"

Well I have implemented it on one my directory which has been PR3 since last update. The directory is one year old - and has a quite good domain -- The directory also has decent SERPs --ranking within top 70 for the term web directory, and also inside top 25 for other directory related terms though I never optimized it for SERPs

It was receiving 3/4 submissions per month previously as my review rates are little bit steep. Without lowering the rates - I added in the guidelines that, we will keep 50% of the submission fee if sites are rejected and they will be treated as review fee- PERIOD. -

Since the new condition/policy was implemented - there has not been a single submission

As always I view directories more for SEO purpose ( providing quality links to webmasters) and hardly for information purpose. So it has around 200 sites only in 700+ categories. I plan to keep it that way --and only accept sites which are of quality in my personal view ( I don't care what other thinks of a site).

This is for sharing my experience only regarding an issue that is in many people's minds and are contemplating to implement it..

Bottom line : If you have No-Refund/Partial Refund policy submitters/webmasters get scared away if you don't have an exceptionally established directory. If you want some income- this is not the way.

But one can also hope only those sites which are of high quality will be submitted and the directory will be able to maintain quality almost by default

 

Interesting experiment, and good to share and in discussion on the topic, I'm not sure if the effect of no submissions id related to webmasters being scared away but maybe they are unsure / unclear perhaps of the qualifications needed and in that choose not to submit.

Most people dont have a problem with paying, proven by submissions before, but people will avaid it if it looks like they may loose $, anyway a good viewpoint.

 

Nice experiment you are doing there.

Since when have you started this?

 

Seen from the Webmasters' POV, what prevents you from rejecting all submissions and just keeping half the money for each?

 

Well DownUnder

Thanks for your views. I think I have laid the Guidelines properly so that there is no misunderstanding. But still -- I am not sure -- so I am putting them here..

Also out of total 2592 visitors I have received so far this month on the site - there are 1727 who visited the submit page --but no submission

1. Please submit only Quality Sites.

2. We do not accept sites UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

3. We have strict editorial policy against sites dealing in Racism.

4. We are against sites that deal with illegal contents.

5. We do not approve mirror sites or URLs that redirect to other sites.

6. Sub-domains with quality contents and resources are allowed for submissions.

7. Please do not use excessive keywords on the title.

8. Use a proper Title for the submission.

9. Sites found with keyword stuffed anchor texts on title will be outrightly rejected.

10. We reserve the right to change the title of your submission as we deem fit.

11. Please do not waste your & our time by submitting MFA/Warez sites. They will be rejected.

12. All regular listings are permanent.

13. All Permanent Listings are yearly after which they become normal listings. Featured listings feature on top of every category for prominance and better exposure.

We reserve the right to keep 50% review fee if sites are rejected


We also encourage visitors to suggest for FREE of Non-Profit sites in proper categories that would add quality to this directory. These suggested sites would be extensively verified by editors and if they really hold quality, we would be glad enough to list them. But please NO SPAM- your IP might be banned for SPAMMING 

Code (markup):

@ Chetan - I am sorry I have not noted down the exact date that I started - but it was soon after CReed sarted the discussion few weeks back.

 

Thanks for posting results aboout this jhnrang, im not suprised as its too much of a gamble with their money.

I will never ever be able to justify not giving all money back to anyone where i didn't provide them a full service, i will never ever be an online thief.

 

I suppose ( my fault ) i could have explained better, most directories have similar if not the same guidlines as a general rule, but where it may stop some people submitting is the interpretation of those rules, lets say my rules were the exact same as yours, what comes into play then is the human factor where you may pass a application where as i may see somrthing a little diferent.

and its this section that may stop some applying.

 

Sometime back when i was getting pills and spams, i once thought about keeping the review fees, but finally i refunded it all.
anyways, nice experiment! keep us updated,
cheers!

 

If 1,727 visits (probably around 900 uniqes visit the submit page already) so 1,800 uniques a month to submit page and you get an average of only 3 or 4 submissions, that is a really bad ratio. What directory is this? Did the directory used to be free? Maybe it is getting bots or folks looking for free submissions? Are you ranking for a keyword that involves 'free'?

I think you might have much bigger problems then a 50% or 100% refund of review fees. Let me know if my estimations or understanding is incorrect.

IMO you would have to use a directory that gets 15+ submissions a month to test out if a change in policy would have any effect. Your sampling section is too small to make a relevant conclusion.

 

I think keeping half of the submission fee would be a massive turn off. Not surprised noone submitted. Maybe acceptable would be keeping a small percentage of the fee for your time spent but not 50%. This would send alarm bells ringing to the submitter. Like someone else said how are we to know you won't reject every listing.

 

As ItBytheSea said, if your directory isn't very famous, many people might think that you intend to rip them off.

Trying making it 10 or at worst 20 %. Anything more than that, and people will take the first click out of your site.

Good experiment though The result was a bit obvious, but you did take the effort and lost a fair bit of revenue too. Not many people would have even wanted to attempt it and risk losing money.

 

The thing with keeping a percentage of the fee is its a bit like a call out charge, i know people are saying its for the review time, but like a service company call out charge it means your paying a hefty chunk up front before even seeing if the rest of the job will get done.

 

Its simple really, if your directory is in the same rank as ,,,,,,

Dmoz, joeant, goguides, business.com, botw

it might work,

But, with new, forum promoted directory, maybe not

Even the really big directories work hard to resolve issues that cause rejections

 

Will this increase your approval rate ?

Considering a recent drop down of directory submissions, i think thats not a nice move.. Anyway, best of luck

 

I would imagine this may be an example of the results a directory that is not quite established might receive by implementing this policy.

There are a number of factors to be considered; recent changes in how directories are viewed and your own admission the the fee is a little steep.

It may just be at the price point that will not support a no refund policy.

Do you provide your visitors with a clear terms of service? Or do you rely on just your submission guidelines?

Where is the directory promoted? Do you advertise primarily through forums?

Submission page views are deceiving. How many of those requests were automated requests? How many were actual human visitors that navigated to the submission form?

I have thousands of direct requests monthly for our submission form - they're automated requests. I think you'll see similar results if you look at more than just the number of page views.

 

I've gone one step further and implemented a true 'pay for review' policy on LinkLister, stating no acceptance = no refund. At the time submissions had dropped to almost zero due mainly to the Google penalty, also I was getting sick of non-UK sites submitting and started with a £5 charge for non-UK sites which weren't accepted. Submissions are still down, but the good news is no more spammy submissions, one new repeat quality customer, so far only one site 'held in pending' as it is under construction. Early days yet, but I feel this is the way to go.

 

Bonne chance,

Now , what I need is a PR adjustment for everyone, to level the playing field

We might say it doesn't matter, sadly, I must suggest that my experience insists that it does matter

 

syted there is a big difference between

and what you say in your terms

The one from your terms is of a much wider range.

Also curious why don't you make a top category for World or Rest of the World so you can accept quality non UK sites?

 

A couple of observations related to the snippets of TOSs mentioned here...

Proper Title - what is the definition of a proper title? Don't tell me here, it's your submitters who need to know. Vague language like this invites suspicion when not all "review fees" are returned.

Relevant to a UK Audience - all of my sites would fit that classification under how I define it, but all are US-based. Again a bit vague and perhaps part of why you are not getting the submissions you want?

If that is your only sales pitch, I'm not sure I would risk the investment and possibility of losing half of it either. It still focuses on PR and your ranking well for directory related terms which would make it unlikely to bring any site other than another directory much, if any traffic.

How do your categories and sub-categories rank? How much traffic do you get? How many click-throughs do you get? In other words, what's in it for me, the submitter?