I found in a DP thread a list of these SE-friendly directories, and have been working through a list of them submitting one of my sites: http://info.vilesilencer.com/main.php?rock=seo-friendly.php Anyway, there are a lot of "free" directories that are taking submissions. As I have been working my way through this list, I keep asking myself the questions... How are these guys getting pagerank if they don't require a recip? How are these guys making money? I have a couple of niche directories I'm running in a three-way linking scheme (You add your site "A" to my directory "B", and then please link to my related site "C")... but I don't see many directories requiring any kind of return link anywhere? I know many of them have adsense on the site, and others have "express submission" for a minimal charge... other than that, I don't quite see how these can be worthwhile for the webmasters to run. Am I missing something? Should I take my health directory and turn it into a "free directory"? http://www.the-health-directory.net Right now, it gets minimal traffic. If I opened it up as a "free directory" I could get on some of those free directory lists. --Mark
If you think back links is the only factor to get PR , then your right .Those free directory won't get PR . But IMO the back link is not the only factor about getting PR .The real traffic from different IPs may be the other factor (this is just my guess ) . Take my Directory for example ,I offer free submission for the web site owner but I also submit my web site to other free directories .So I think my directory will still get some PR for the next PR update .
yes free directories are profitable, if you have both free & paid options availble that is. some directories also do well with adsense on them.
Yes, back links is the factor to get PR. So it is hard to believe that they could get pagerank if they don't require a recip. I have also collected 355 free, non-reciprocal directories at my site: http://www.submithelper.com/User/User_Directory.aspx However, I found most of them really have improved their Traffic Ranking, and some of them got pageranking. Maybe it is not the only factor to get PR ( just my personal viewpoint). And there will be a good way to improve their Traffic Ranking if they don't require a recip.
I think people that runs directories also have other websites don't worry about them,am sure they're making quite a lot of money on their other websites
From my experience, ads like adsence and the like pay less than what I can get for a year long sitewide. I think you can get decent money from a free directory, but you need to step aside and think of it as something besides a MFA(made for adsence) site.