Building a Profitable Web Directory!

How profitable are newly born directories these days? I have heard that there are so many directories out there and building a good directory will take years of hardwork. Is this true?

I am currently thinking of starting a good web directory (dmoz like). Initially i am thinking of making this directory free atleast for few months, but later my long term goals are good profitable one. Although i have been quite successful in promoting content rich sites, still i feel this area is relatively new to me. Can you share your experiences?

I am looking for best tips on marketing and promotion methods need to be worked out so as to build a reasonably profitable directory.

 

There are probably two main items you will need:
1) Indexed well by search engines (and pagerank too)
2) Quality content (good links, not just a bunch of submissions by others)

Plan on it taking a few months to get #1 right. You don't have to work super hard, but you need to spend a little time each week on #2.

 

Don't try to start a universal directory but focus on one subject. This can be a special interest or a location. First add a lot (several hunderd to a thousand depending on subject) of listings yourself [many people won't submit sites to empty directories and promoting an empty directory will be difficult]. Than start promoting your site (just as you would do any other site).

 

Thank you very much you all coming forward to help me out. As dvduval pointed out in (1) i absolutely can make pages very search friendly to bots.

what exactly is "passing pagerank"? Does this had to do with designing very good bot friendly pages?

I also want to know, when is the first cent you guys made, ever since you started your directory.

 

Once you get bigger you will start making money from submissions, I think when your starting out its easier to make revenue from advertising/adsense.

Passing pagerank is normally just to ensure your links are direct to the site and not using a redirect script, phpld does this.
www.phplinkdirectory.com

I use phpld and its great, does everything I need

 

Best advise ever when building a directory... FOCUS ON A NICHE