Hello directory owners, I wonder ... did some of you tryed to make/follow a certain business plan for a web directory just like for any other online project ? I know that some of you might lough about this thread..and about what I am trying to say here...but for me it worked. Example: Step 1 : spend X$ on a domain. Step 2 : spend Y$ on a good directory script Step 3 : invest Z$ on promotion Step 4 : invest W$ on a decent template Step 5 : link building strategy Step 6 : marketing strategy for example Step 7 : long term expected income Step 8 : other expectations for it etc What were/are(for the n00bs) the first steps in this business for you ? I am sure that 90% got a quick domain (dropped or not), installed phpLD (paid or not), spent no more than 100$ in promotion, spent (more or less) time for it,and after a certain poin just waiting for a paid submission to appear... It will be interesting to see some of the old guys posting in here like : mikey1090, pipes, malcolm1, swedal, an0n, velocity, Aaron Nimocks, Silky, stoner, and others. Did you guys consider your directory a success one ? Are you satisfied ? What happened with it during the time ? Or maybe why you selled it ? What went wrong ? This thread will be interesting to follow with your help. Thanks, hyper
I may wanna correct that with the plan these days. Step 1 : spend X$ on a domain. Step 2 : spend Y$ on a good directory script Step 3 : invest Z$ on promotion Step 4 : invest W$ on a decent template Step 5 : link building on High PR sites Step 6 : marketing strategy using forum signatures Step 7 : Short term income Step 8 : Cash on the high PR it achieves Step 9 : Sell it quickly for Big Bucks! The most important plan/point for the business directory is to live with it, atleast for 2-3years, continue make it a resource and not just limiting it to a web directory. I expect to grow my sites and resource slowly, I don't mind giving it 1-2 years more. One must focus and think out of the box if you want your business directory to survive.
I plan out everything I do in business including the directory. Currently it is where I expected it to be at this time. I blogged a little about the directory set up portion of the planning which you can check in the directory blog if you want. It does not go into the business aspects of it so much as those are very individualized and to cover it here on a forum thread would just not work. You could only scratch the surface. You mention a quick domain - It was a brand new one which took about six weeks to decide on. lol The $100 you mention for promotion - I wish lol. I have spent more than that in the last couple days. The initial costs I honestly blocked out of my head after they were spent. I really have to do that with expenses, if I told you guys what I spend promoting my other business in a month you would probably pass out. As far as waiting for submissions to appear - you can never do that. I still promote the site and add to the site as much as ever. If the submissions come they come. Was it successful - I am having a blast with the directory and frankly it is addicting. I also have got to know a lot of great people here on dp and other places around the world. Like the commercial says, that is priceless so yeah it has been a success. From a business standpoint we will see if it is still on track in 6 months.
Makes me say, 10$ domain, 100$ script, $$$$ maintenance & promotions, the feel and commercial experience & knowledge you earn from your web directory - Priceless. There are somethings money can't buy... for everything else there is .....
I just switch on the computer and tap the keys with a hammer and see what happens Really, with directories, um its not something where i try and predict what will happen over the year with a plan as things keep changing too fast, your plan you make this week could be out of date a couple of months later, rather than attempt a business plan its better to coast along and try and find some opportunities with your directory as they come up. Im not very old in dirs, slightly more than a year. I did notice a number of people who were in a promotional panick then called it a day, id rather take it slowly, lots of panick selling of directories, that looks like those people didn't plan things either but did go a bit too fast.
Can't say as I had a written plan, but I did quite a bit of research first. Buying the domain name was definitely not my first step. I had a spreadsheet with the categories and was working on what features I wanted before I purchased anything. I began by studying keywords and what folks were talking about in my niches. I looked at what my competition had to offer and evaluated what they did well and what they were missing. I looked at the scripts that were available at the time and looked for one that had the features that I needed or was able to modify to meet my vision. I looked for places to advertise my sites as well as places to find clusters of folks who would be potential submitters. Only then did I start looking into domain names, purchase the script I had chosen, and move down the rest of your list.
? nearly 1 1/2 years into planning and implimenting, still many more months to go id say if not another year until i am happy, probably closer to 20K spent now than 10K and i have budgeted another 5K to be spent in the coming months. Spent months planning, months getting the right setup and probably 95% on track with all plans but frustrated some times with the time it takes for small jobs and updates to be done by others, learnt to live with it. Life rolls on and happy to this point to see it slowly coming together but much much more to go.
The first directory I became involved in that was not a collaborative effort of experienced editors was WoW Directory. WoW took a year of hard work to complete. A multitude of scripts were tried and most failed due to WoW’s size and we ended up starting over. We finally found a script that at the time cost $700 and was easily coded to what I wanted. The next step was months of data entry that was done to build the topic structure that had previously been laid out on MS word. I had developed a business plan over the year it took to develop the physical directory and started implementing it when the physical directory was completed. I hired editors and started adding content as well as editing free public submissions. While the editors were working I was working on branding the directory and seeking out good avenues for advertising that fit into our original budget of $30,000 for the first year. The advertising budget was insufficient and the first deviation from the business plan and we ended up spending in the $50,000 range. Was WoW a success, not in the first year but in the second year it was marginally successful showing only a very small profit, primarily because we has to do a lot of script work and we need a much more powerful server systems. In the third year WoW was what I considered successful and it continues to do well in the US and UK. I always consider WoW a development project since it’s under continual development for online and wireless projects.
What I did was start with an idea the threw up a quick directory with a free directory script as a proof of concept. Once I determined that the revenue model, marketing, and amount of work were reasonable I took the next step. I wrote my own code so I could tailor all my "real" directories to the needs of each community I intend to serve. Writing my framework took about a year. The proof of concept model worked well for me because it helped me learn most of what I needed to know before spending a huge amount of time and money.
Ignoring the fundamentals of a good business plan it is vital you know your market and more importantly whether that market is saturated or not. Based on that you can do the easy stuff like calculating profit and loss projections for the first year or so. Its a well known fact (in the UK at least) that 99% of small business's fail in their first year, or at best fail to make any profit.
Hmmm an invitation to post... I dont often get them I have never had a "business" plan for starting any project but I do always have either a written plan or a visualization of what I want in my mind before I begin. It depends on the scale of the project to be honest. If I felt that I was about to embark on something which did require a business plan then I would hire a pro to do it properly. My written plans have obviously evolved over the years that I have been running and building directories, but a rough idea of how I would approach a new project "for myself" would be along these lines: Step One - Lock the cash tin. I never, ever spend anything until I have a functioning web site. Period. You do not need a domain, you do not need web hosting, you do not need anything before you have a fully functioning web site. Before you ask... how do you build a web site without web hosting? It's actually quite easy to build a fully functioning web site right there on your home PC. All it takes is a little research and a little effort. A lot of people forget that the minute they spend money on a domain or hosting or anything like that, thats the same minute that their project begins to loose money and the clock is now ticking. Step Two - Research. Depending on the type, general or niche; I always prepare and plan ahead my category structure, my SEO, other additional functionality (e.g. in the case of Directory Share and the free phpLD mods). Step Three - Build the thing and populate it. I develop 90% of my projects from scratch so a lot of my time is spent on this step and a lot of the research that I have carried out in step two gets used here. I setup the category, test the SEO and add in some default listings to popular web sites. Step Four - Decide on your brand. I tend to go through a few name changes before I decide on the final brand name especially when dealing with directories. I try not to rush this step (and I know it is hard not to) because the brand is just so important for so many different reasons. Step Five - Hire a designer. I have a few different approaches when I get to this step. Sometimes I am in the mood to have a crack at it myself, sometimes I have visualized the project so much so that I know it is beyond my capabilities as a designer and that is when I usually hire someone. In most cases I go to Scriptlance.com to hire because they have a ton of quality designers. Step Six - Grab the domain, get some hosting and upload. Now that I have a fully functioning site with a design I would get the domain and the hosting sorted out and then put the site online but still hidden from the public. I usually put up a user/pass to keep everyone out until I am ready for the search engines. I then spend a day or two testing the site and making sure everything is working as it should, retest the submit forms, check the listing pages are formatted correctly, etc. Step Seven - Open the site, wait for the search engines and traffic. Job Done. @stoner3221... please hit the enter key every once in a while... makes it easier for us to read. @DU... wow 1 1/2 years, what you building a new DMOZ! @Jamie... I recently read somewhere that 9x% are failing in the first year and of those that do survive 9x% then go on to fail within five years. Can't find the damn article now though to get the correct figures, I think it was on bbc.co.uk but it was something recently published and quite interesting. Do I consider my directories a success? For the most part yes, I have had some that exceeded my expectations and a few that were a little disappointing but on the whole they have all been successful. I have not had a directory which failed (yet! fingers crossed) to reach the targets I had set. Am I satisfied? No never, I am always on the lookout for ways in which I can improve my web sites regardless of whether they are a directory or something else. The other questions don't really apply. Oh, before I forget. Some of you may have noted that my "plan" didn't even mention marketing. That is because many of you have gone marketing nutz, following the crowd and throwing money at your directories like it is about to go out of fashion. I rarely spend any money on advertising for at least a month sometimes longer than that; AND sometimes not at all. There are thousands of promotion avenues out there which don't cost a dime and in a lot of cases they produce better results than what some of you are wasting hundreds of dollars a month on.
in the begining i was but then as new mods or new ideas or finding a nice link or obsesed with the directory make me spend more and more and my budget plans exceed it limits every month
No mate just took a long time drawing it up and long time to find a base i could work with, and long delays with the updates needed, balancing costs etc. But nothing special, i am not out to compete with any one or be another xyz, my personal goal is just to become the best i can become and nothing more, its nothing special just a general directory.