To be fair, business.com was much more of an advertising network than a directory, though the directory was an integral part of their delivery platform. I doubt anyone would pay $300 million for DMOZ, which is more of a pure form directory, if it was put up for sale. Though I could be wrong. Rich
No adsense doesn't work that well for directories, as I had it on mine last year. I only made about £60 to £90 for the year. You'll also get competitors or jealous directory owners come and click on your adsense blocks, thus getting you banned. Adsense is a mad idea for directories.
Oh dang, wow this all is helpful...I guess I will just fork out the dough for PHP LD and get started on that.
It will take a lot longer than that to just fill it to a decent level. Making it work takes longer, so you can be looking at 7, 10 or 12 years before a brand new, unheard of offline directory 'makes it'. The web isn't that fast! Spend some money? ....anything you get designed will need to beat Google, Yahoo etc and that won't be cheap. This will cost you more than you think, and you're not going to be able to do this with some off-the shelf directory script. Not if you truly want to be successful and make a good income, and I mean 100k per year. This is such a tough game to survive in, and you can get crushed so easily. The sheer amount of directories that come and go, claim to be the next Yell.com - well, I've lost count, that should tell you something, and there is a ton of evidence to back that up, so I'm not inventing this. These are facts. Just35.com anyone - yeah, where are those guys now. 192 closed down and that was owned by BT.......... MSN small business directory shut down.......... The Arndale, Jsearch, Jini search and many others. That is some pattern there, and BT/MSN have fortunes to pump in and keep them running - but they didn't. Why? simple, it wasnt making enough money, so they cut their losses. I suggest you make the directory specialist in some way.
What if I took my Lawof Marketing.com site and turned it into a business directory for SEO sites/advertising sites, and others?
No, no, no, that wouldn't be specialist now would it. Business directories try and serve everybody, and it's so a failed business model to pursue - unless you think you will beat Yell.com (400 million company). I doubt you could turn Law of Marketing.com into a niche type site, as there's probably a string of directories all doing what you just thought of, so it's pointless doing that - no edge you see! No you need a really strong edge, gimmick for a directory to work anymore. The press won't touch many directories, as they aren't very newsworthy and difficult to adapt into anything that creates more news stories for their paper. A portal of sorts may work, but everything 'marketing-wise' has been done tenfold, so it's silly doing that. You got to think of an industry where there is 100% no sites representing it, but even then the industry might not welcome such a portal. It's very tough to do.
What is a guru codec especialist in adsense? Tell me of your SEO expertise mentioned in your profile.
Find some webmaster related products that have affiliate programs and feature those on the submit pages.....
There are usually 3 kind of web directories 1) Free - that may have lots of links and traffic, and you can earn through adsense and adbrite at the same time 2) paid - need some investment for advertising it's listings, and you can earn by charging webmasters for listing their links there. It can single linking or deep linking 3) bidding - need lots of inverstment for page rank and promotion and you can earn alot by this, if you get successful in one or two years. i hope that this would help you. http://www.linksleader.net/24/are-bidding-directories-good/ if want to know the other perspective of bidding web directories
Well I remember a year ago when google still did not bother the directory owners, directory owners made money
Couldn't that potentially lose a paid submission, they reach your submission page, see an affiliate ad that catches their eye, become distracted and completely forget about using your directory?