I'm considering starting a directory. However, even I have mentioned that there are tons of directories made every day. Obviously I want to build a high quality directories so here are some questions I hope some of you can help me with? General Directory or Niche Directory? Paid or Free? How do I "spread the word"? How could I make mine different? Skinny
1. custom template 2. general/niche -> your decision 3. paid 4. forums, friends online, paid advertising ala adwords and such and buying links 5. think of what benefits the end user. 6. prepare yourself for a 2nd 'job' at night
Work hard and make a brand that has a differentiator so that it stands out from the rest ................... preferred option with custom designed template ............ marketing will be required ................ paid if you want to make quality and money and ROI
Get started by adding your friends sites, sites you like, maybe you can offer some free submissions, just to set a certain tone what you are about.
You'd better make it free to make it a bigger directory first, and then you need to promote it and get higher PR, which is the most important thing for a directory. After that you can stop free submission and make money.
Pick a name that becomes brand of the future. This is the first step. Be prepared to work hard. I am afraid there are no shortcuts around.
What if I already own a business and what the directory to be subdomain for it? i.e. directory.company.com ... where is the brand there? Is it all about the already existing company brand and style? Is that what you are talking about? Regards
I think you have to invest some money to promote your directory. Someone here told me that he invest about $400 per month, and after a year he start earn decent money. Now after 6 years, he has 6 directories and earn $8000+ /month.
It's not for everyone, I started one a while back and now I want to get rid of it. It's the one on my sig that says "make me an offer" It's funny, because now that I don't want it, I made a sale yesterday. Don't be fooled it is a lot of hard work, especially when you have free listings , the spam sites will flow. It is tempting to just add anything that gets submitted as a way of getting your numbers up, don't do it. Be discriminating in what you allow.
i have a directory GoSubmit directory which is unique has all abilities to become huge directory except i dont have time to promote it. Searching for a partner myself.
Good point. I think I would rather have less sites but higher quality. I'm kinda a no crap kinda guy. I actually really hate spam so that's why I wanted to make it paid. By paid - I also don't mean super expensive. It would be something anyone could afford. Skinny
I will answer this question with another question, to you: Do you use directories to search for websites and visit them from there? Regards
No and see that's the problem. Why aren't they used. What makes them unusable. They are boring. They benefit the webmaster (PR links) more than the user. It's painstaking to click and click and click categories to get the sites you want only to find that there are 2 sites in the category you want and they both suck. The search function is useless when you have less than 100 links. For those reasons who would come back? Skinny