How do u guys earn from ur directories? It takes a lot of effort to manage a good directory,,,,,the only source i use is selling featured links..... even with more than a thousand page impressions,i never got clicks on my directories,so no adsense Any suggestions?
Adsense and affiliates won't do well at all on a general directory. Perhaps you should have thought more about monetisation of your site when you initially had the idea to create it.
Like I said, this should have been in your research section of your business plan. General directories are hard to monetise as they get such random traffic that isn't targeted. General directories, mostly have no content as well. This means little search traffic.
Mike I wont buy into the what type of directory is right or wrong, but make some general comments as to why it may be a niche directory has the perception of performing better over a general one. Before that people say supply relevant information, well G are very good at that supplying accurate related ads to a page, so both directory types do just that. If i look at most general directories these days they are loaded with ads, left, right, hidden in the categories, and big blocks right down to the fold on every page. This is the biggest fault i see with most general directories ( and i may be wrong on this part so please correct me if so ) With each ad zone ( widget / code block ) it attains a average CPC based upon its CTR and other factors and this would start very low, what this means is even in a general directory under health if that zone is hardly clicked and say the keyword max for that section is ? .75 cents, what must be remembered is that this figure is the maximum bid, but because of the very low average CPC of that zone, say its .03 cents then regardless all they will earn is .04 cents This combined with so many zones with people not understanding the value of a ad zone and that it must be built and maintained, every click they get is virtually worthless, hence the i make jack from ad sense. where a niche works better is that it is compact, with few ad zones that attract more hits, raising the av CPC value of that zone and why people see better returns per say in a niche. How ever if a general directory was to clear 90% of the ad zones, replace that with content and have one small targeted location for ads their ad zones would increase in value and so would the returns. But what i see happening is regardless just fill it with ads, wow it makes a few bucks, so i will make more crappy directories to make some more crappy $ There are several general directories i know of who run very targeted ad zones and if you were to ask them i would hazard a guess their returns are very good. then again might be of on the wrong track with this one.
DownUnder, I said it wouldn't do well because of quality of traffic. That's a whole other discussion.
As long as your visitors are from the general public you should be able to earn money from advertisement. Since most directories users are webmasters and almost never click the ads is the reason why many directory owners hardly make any money from advertisement. I get a good amount of targeted traffic from search engines and the ads are specific to what they are looking for. If your visitors are not clicking your adsense might tell you some important information that you can use on you directory. Your goal is to know who is visiting your directory and modified your directory accordingly. My guess is that most of your visitors are webmasters and you should try to sell ad space to other directory owners instead of putting adsense.
thanks for the suggestion man....repped u.... looking for this kinda things.... where cn i sell links,other than DP?
Selling links to manipulate Google's alogorthm is frowned upon and will likely result in you receiving some sort of penalty.
General directories, even my PR 0 one can make money though ads and quite easily... IF YOU INVEST THE TIME. Making a general directory work simply comes back to the basics: 1, Build it for the visitor 2, Offer unique content (ie invest time in categories, editing, reviewing) 3, Promote your unique content on relevant / related pages (not just other directories) 4, When the traffic starts moneterize it effectively 5, Don´t hard sell / bombard the visitor instead use one or max two targeted offers (be it adsense, cj, clickbank... whatever) 6, Keep adding new content and categories 7, Don´t try and moneterize everyone. Those visitors that find what they want will talk about your product (the directory) in other places so causing links and traffic. That normally has a greater value! Will you get rich quick? Probably not. Will you have a long term viable business? Certainly. IF you want to cater to the website owners only then build a bid directory