Hi guys. It seems to me that more and more keeping a list of free directories become difficult because they rapidly shift to paid with the speed far higher than before - lets say 2/3 years ago. - Am I right?
In a perfect world all the web directories would be paid so the freebies chasers would stop getting everything just for free - free blog with free subdomain, free hosting, free templates, free content, free backlinks, adsense and here you go - everyone is a money making guru!
Yes, spam is ever increasing and running a directory is also not much fun if you are in the negative all the time. I disagree with loredan, the 'free' market sort of takes care of itself because if a free directory gets popular they can't keep up with submissions so they either turn paid, stop accepting submissions or approval takes months. So it really self-regulates.
I ever run free directory and you can't imagine how much submission coming into everyday there are some software that can do semi-auto submission.
Yes xc06 auto and semi-auto submission software is really what makes running a free directories NOT worthwhile. Because human visitor never really visits or is focused only on a submission then what value can they bring to your directory, they won't buy a paid listing nor will they ever click an ad or even see one.
Keeping a list of free directories up to date can be rather difficult, i prefer not to try, but the assurance of a constant supply of free directories sort of balances it out for me. I started off free, couldn't keep up, because i went through submissions slowly, and the submissions just piled up, shockingly i would even get challenged by a submitter or two asking why ive not seen to their submission yet, even had someone ask if i was just collecting emails, i found that quite arrogant and cheeky. Offer a free service and people will still try and make you feel like you owe them something. Its no wonder they turn to paid directories quickly.
A curious question then guys, is the traffic reported by free directories worth anything seeing as its mostly composed of paid submission agents using semi auto software ? Does semi auto software trigger javascript ? I imagine a lot of webmasters starting out visit, but what percentage ?
waao! i never thought running a free directory would be that challenging. that justifies the reason to converting to paid. however, with the amount of directories out there, can an average paid directory attract enough websites to survive?
2 snack bars, one serves up crap covered in chocolate, the other provides a great feed for a good price, where do you think people will eat ?
I think an average paid directory can, its not a walk in the park but like most things its possible. A tasty way of putting it.
Good point there to explain it. I am really sick of the amount of spam that I get on one of my free directories.
I converted one of my free directories into paid as I was getting lot of spam When you have paid directories you can maintain better control over them and also you can be sure about the quality of listings in it.
And nobody can deny YOU that as you've put your time in When i first started Biz-King Directory and soon after Sleek Directory both those directories where FREE for a period of 6-8 months and both received 100-150 Free links submitted daily in each that i had to sift threw making adjustments in submitters....Titles, Descriptions as well as building those directory category structures, and deleting Spam which consumed 12-16 hours daily of my time. The problem i see is when you get a "newbie" with his first script and very little experience going immediately "paid review" with NO editorial standards or backlinks to his directory built or for that matter a nice custom template with atleast 1000-2000 quality sites listed. thx malcolm
Developing a directory into a good internet resource takes an enormous amount of time and a lot of submissions. In order to fully develop a directory free submission is essential. You just need experience in dealing with free submissions and good script mods you can’t buy to keep up with free submissions. With paid and free submissions open I find database growth still very slow. Every week websites are removed by our bad link spider wowzer, sometimes nearly as many as we submit.
I converted my free into a paid one only after a 6 months experience with my another free directory The problem is now you see too many people converting a free into paid one after getting about 500 Free links, This gives a impression to newbie that this is established directory and also a new directory owner think that they can earn a lot by converting a free one into paid one that's why we so many new paid directories
It's hard to keap track but i'm trying Anyway i hate people who say free and in 1 day is not .... make up your mind free or not I run a free wwbdirectory 1.5 years and it will be forever free as long as i keap it