It was one of the lesser general directories. The main general directory and niche directory are annual recurring and doing well. Some listings renew manually others automatically.
Adverising on blog networks was a waste of money. Bloggers didn't click on my ads, they like to comment, guest blog and promote their site on other blogs ... until ... I got listed on sites with 'blog directories to submit to' lists, this has been very rewarding and cost me nothing.
Great advice. Do you think any of the 'blog directories to submit to lists' allow non-blog specific directories that are highly blog-friendly participate?
Probably not. My listings include the last three posts of each blog by submission of the feed url and I found myself on a good list of 'where to submit your blog's rss feed', I see this list or at least the idea has now been copied by others.
Has anyone used the model of making recips for free listings to a different site than the directory itself? If so have you had any measurable negative issues with it, have you changed the recip URL regularly, have you sold the recips to a third party etc. Don't want to drag this off topic as this may have worked rather than not worked but has anyone had any disasters with it?
The only thing I can remember that we tried that failed was selling FOOTER LINKS. The sales were successful and we were making around $400/mo. in some cases PER LINK. Very nice revenue which really kept all our costs way down and the listing fees inexpensive as well. However, when Google had their shit fit with the sale of footer links we got shit on hard by G. We pulled them completely. The only footer links we have now are to our other directory and Vile Silencer (the greatest directory forum on the planet). Google cannot stand to see other's profit from the sale of links.