Golden secrets when advertising in directories

My rules for success are:

1. Don't pay more than £50 per link for 12 months basic ad space

2. Monitor ALL results

3. Dump any underperforming advertising at once! Be Brutal.

4. Before renewing links/adverts - try and negotiate a 20 - 30% reduction in cost. If the directory/site refuses, then threaten to pull the ad. You might get laughed at or something, but you must pull the ad so they get the seriousness. It does work a lot of the time, and remember a lost customer is another lost payment. This works better than you think, so do it!

5. If an advert works well

- then roll it out in a bigger way. Buy a larger ad, or more smaller ones.

 

They didn't stay Golden Secrets for long did they?

 

Unless you had 30'ish listings I would be that guy laughing at you. Maybe after you had been listed for a minimum of 3 years I would consider it.

 

Reaffirms my reasons for not selling advertising. Dealing with jerks who think they can dictate terms and prices.

 

Event_King, you are a terrifying expert.
If I remember well, a banner on v7n forums was $450+ , go tell them your opinion I think the "boom" replies you'll get, will be like Hiroshima

 

i think someone recheck other options as well before jump

 

EK so i can gain a better understanding for 50 big ones what would realistic expectations be to class an ad as underforforming or viable ?

 

Works after being listed for 12 months - I've done it. It will work on large directory operators that suffer from revenue drops, they are desperate to retain the business.

 

It may work with some of the smaller or less exerienced players, but from my side i work the exact opposite.

If people are nice, ask proper questions in the right way, and in general treat me like we all like to treated, then they woulld probably get a nice surprise and discount for their loyality as a good customer.

If i get some one that hollers and shouts ( this interuots my quiet radio time and tranquil settings ) then they go to the bottom of the important list and pay full price and would have no drama's pulling the pin, quietly sitting back in the chair turning the radio up a little, while they tell some one who cares.

 

Underperforming can mean:

Traffic from the advert is ROI, that traffic is either searchers or submitters (advertisers). Eg: I took an advert with MSN SBD, and it was sending me about 50 visitors a day, out of which I got 5 to 6 submissions a day - so for me it was a result. I think it cost about £30ish for the listing and was about to renew when SBD shut down, so my listing was performing for me.

If SBD sent me any less traffic, then I would probably consider it as an underperforming link and not renewed.

I would consider any directory that sent me less than 500 visitors a year, an underperforming link/ad, and a failure. Especially if I were paying £200 plus, and a lot of directories and engines do charge that.

See, you may get 500 visitors for £200, but less than 10% will be the right visitors and maybe just 7% will convert to a sale, so although its something, it's not great or anything. Mass of traffic doesn't guarantee good conversion at all, and most sales people sell using the "We are big and popular pitch" which is bad sales technique, when people demand targeted ad space. Not all advertising is bought or sold on necessity, much is sold on fear factor and impulse buys in order to boost profits for the publisher.

Nice profits for publishers yeah, but the advertiser ends up overspending buying expensive ads which don't give extra return. Wasted money and underperformance, see.

 

Yes there are lot of factors that come into play, ad placement ad type, ad wording or graphics, the landing web site once they are directed.

going by what is above if 200 = 500 visits rounding that out you looking at spending .5 for one visit so in theory 50 out > 100 visits from that 10% are the right traffic so 10 and from that rounding 5 are converted or a cost per sale of 10 big ones

that is very rough but shows a working example. now if people spread thier advertising budget over several options ( 3 as an example )

they will see a top performer a mid range and the looser, so what should happen then is you dump the looser and take a new option ( keep all records )

then over time what will happen is you will build a portfolio of what works, but this in itself is volitile as even these factors change and what was working wont and vice versa.

 

Yep, the secret is to make that advert stand out, and the publisher is responsible for that. Publishers can't guarantee clicks, that's down to each searcher - but the advertiser needs a good advert so it converts well for them.

Seems to me that advertisers get their ads wrong, then blame the publisher without checking performance at their end.

 

Thnx for sharing those tips! but, do you own your very own directory?

 

Nice directory link tips.
Thanks for this.
I'll try it next renewal month.

 

Number 2,3 and 5 are nice advices for the others i am not sure....

 

Event_King, can you tell us which are the best directories for ROI in your experience?

 

It's difficult to answer that question because I don't buy listings in directories, the last one I paid out for, was in Mirago, but I didn't see much ROI from them - and Mirago are ESTABLISHED .

So it just goes to show that even long established and famous sites can fail to deliver. I think I got some traffic from them, but can't actually recall when. The odd directory sends me 1 or 2 visitors eg:

http://www.kingbloom.com 3 visits

http://www.sitidi.net 4 visits

various others between 10 & 15 visits

(ROI from directories is per month, roughly), so 48 visitors for 12 months from 1 directory isn't good.


Yahoo may send something, but I'm reluctant to shell out £200 to be reviewed, and the only decent directory MSN sbd is no more - there's nothing left.

My advice would be if you are strapped for cash, to link swap - or go PPC, because truly effective advertising is going to cost you £1000 per month at least for 10 to 20 keywords...

These directories won't send you hardly anything, I wouldn't bother with them. Search for niche directories and portals instead.

 

If you look closer, you might find that you average 15 visits a month from this directory. Too bad it's their link checking bot, and not actual visitors.

 

Thanks Event_King.

I wouldn't pay a dime for Yahoo directory listing currently. In old days yes but now their directories are buried deep down somewhere that even from their home page finding link to directories takes some looking.

Yes, I totally agree about link exchange being the best option for webmasters when it comes bringing your site out, but I don't think there are many webmasters willing to change links with a new site like mine - without any PR as yet.

I only submit to directories for back link. I don't expect any noticeable traffic from them.

The only way to break out of this catch 22 situation is to buy your way out by way of advertising or buying links...it seems. If there are other ways, I'd love to know about them..

 

Well, I would certainly recommend forum signature links, particularly from forums that match your site's topic. A site I have newly launched appears to be primarily getting indexed from one of my forum signatures.

I got a kick out of a new directory I was going to submit to the other day. They were relatively new and were requiring that any site submitted must be at least 6 months old as part of their new quality standard. Had to laugh because the directory wasn't even that old.

If your site offers something of value, chances are good directory owners will accept your links as will others. Maybe, I'm just a weird bird, but the quality of a site matters much more to me than it's age, PR or number of indexed pages.