Do you own a directory that requires users to pay for inclusion? Maybe you allow visitors to submit their sites for free, but if they want a featured or expedited placement they have to make a small payment. Whether a link costs $2.99 or $299, it's difficult to convince your visitors to take out their credit cards and purchase a link. In order to increase the percentage of visitors that convert into customers, you first need to put yourself in your visitors' shoes. What aspects of a directory will make them want to pay for a link to their website? Believe it or not, it's much more than PageRank! Trust Visitors have to trust that you're not going to take their money and then let your directory's domain expire next month. A quality, original design is one way to gain your visitors' trust, but the best way is to build your directory's brand identity. If visitors have heard of your directory before they visit, they'll be much more apt to buy a link. Building Brand Identity Several paid directories have a great brand and reputation in the industry. Aviva and v7n are just two examples where the directory's reputation alone will attract plenty of paying customers. How did they get to this point? Well, it's no coincidence that these two directories are advertising on some of the top SEO blogs and websites. Advertising The truth is that advertising your directory is the best way to increase your paid submissions. When a potential customer sees that you are spending money to advertise your directory, they know that you are taking the directory's promotion seriously. Advertising also allows you to shape your brand identity any way that you see fit. Unfortunately, it's not enough to put a link to your directory in popular forums. Your directory just becomes lost in the hundreds of other directories that are released each month. In order to differentiate your directory from the rest, you should look at advertising on sites where your potential customers are. If you own a niche directory, you should advertise where webmasters of that niche congregate. If you own a general directory, you can be more broad and advertise on sites that attract any type of webmaster. One of the best sites to advertise directories is DIRZAP. DIRZAP is a free, semi-automated directory submission tool. Every DIRZAP user is actively promoting their site through hundreds of directories, and are interested in hearing about the benefits of buying a link from you! Each page on DIRZAP has only one advertisement located in a highly visible position. Advertisers are charged based on impressions, so you only pay when your ad is shown. Also, the ad banners are rotated in an effort to combat "ad blindness" which occurs when users are repeatedly shown the same ad, in the same position. For more information about advertising on DIRZAP,including the affordable rates, please visit http://www.dirzap.com/advertise. NOTE: I'm offering a special discount for advertising on DIRZAP to digitalpoint members. PM me for details!