First time directory owner.. starting my first directory. Pros please help

I was thinking about starting a directory. I have as much as $400-500 to invest, and lots of time to invest as well.

I was wondering if anyone wanted to point me in the direction of where I should start. I figure after I get a domain, I will outsource someone from India to submit it to 1000 directories (I know a guy), and build some one way links of my own, and then buy some cheap PR links in the BST section of DP, but other than that, does anyone have any good suggestions for where to begin/how to begin starting a directory?

Another question is.. shall I have "free yearly links" for the first few months until I acheive a decent pagerank.. or should I charge from the start.

Also, what is the going 'price' for directories (PR0, PR1, PR2, PR3, PR4, PR5, etc).

Thanks!

 

Hey Raithe,

Well assuming you have covered the cost of script, setup, hosting, etc and the 400 is purely for marketing, here is how I would personally break down the investment.

- 50 to get the site submitted to the freebies, if your contact doesn't do it that cheap there are plenty in the BST area that do.

- 100 on submitting to the high PR but still well priced directories.... dreamdirectory.com is a good example.

- 80 becoming a sponsor on a free template, phpLD or WordPress, there are usually a lot on offer in the BST area.

- 100 invested into a few sitewide deals, bring up your link popularity.

- 70 invested into some decent PR links.

As to your time, I would spend that trying to make your directory unique. Adding unique content is always a good start especially in getting the directory indexed and cached.

I would also suggest adding your link into your sig and try to be as active as possible in this section of DP, join in the general conversations, etc. As it does tend to produce traffic. I always notice a spike whenever I am active.

As to offering free yearly links to start off, personally I wouldn't, but there are other experienced owners who do.

HTH and good luck with your project.

 

hang around here and look for good offers and promotions in the 'announcement forums' and the 'link sales' forums. $500 is not alot so you need to be wise in what you choose to buy.

You can either try to get good bargains first or you can use it to submit to those highly recognized and strong directories, but it will prob suck most of the $500 right up too...... no right or wrong answer. Either ways will be good to start.

 

You can add some authorative or organizational sites like google.com, yahoo.com , adobe.com at the start -- dont offer it for free submission if you are going to promote it and making it a paid directory..

Buy some high PR links...
Buy some quality and strong directory listings..

Wait for PR update

 

Would it be smarter to wait until I had $1000-1500 to invest?

 

If you have anything to invest then invest it, don't worry about trying to get everything to happen all at once, as time goes on things will start to pick up and others will see your progress. You'll get there it just takes some time.

 

Raithe there is an article here that might help you. Check it out. You may find it useful.

 

Some excellent informations are given above follow them are u'l have a gr8 directory future. start with a fresh new directory instead of buying any old domain or directory.

 

Agree with that. In this way you will have total control of your own directory, meaning that you will know all things going on on it. No undiscovered "surprises" no "previous owner sins" to carry.

 

Very pleasing to see a solid thread with so much good information and advice most posters deserve green

This is exactly how good threads should run

Good Luck Raithe don't think you will go far wrong if you follow the posted information here

 

IMHO I'd suggest not to offer free links, the time it will take you to reject 95% of them would be better spent finding quality sites (e.g. authority sites, .gov sites .edu sites etc.) to populate your categories. When you have some PR you could consider offering a $1 submission offer in the announcements forum to further populate your directory, just this small price will encourage good submissions and discourage spammers and QBC's.

Good luck with your project