Looking for advice. Have a brand new directory with a decent domain...

Just recently started up a directory, using phpld, decent template, sites looks clean as far as I am concerned.

Should I reduce the amount of categories to start?

Having 1 link total on my site is depressing me, should I start submitting links myself?

Any tips on getting people to submit? Obviously, I just started and have a PR 0, but I am working on backlinks, seo, etc.

Is this just a waste of time, like everyone on this forum seems to think?

Please enlighten me.

 

1. Not having enough categories can be a turn off for submitters. We've all been there, most people expect to see some empty categories on a new directory.

2. Of course you should submit some links. Some people call it salting or seeding. Most active directory owners will tell you that part of maintaining a quality directory is constantly evaluating the category structure. You might find the need to move categories around, close down empty ones or split categories even further.

3. Post a thread in the Solicitations forum and you will quickly be inundated with submissions. Just let people know it's new, how to post and any general rules you have. (You do have a terms of service, right?)

4. It's only a waste of time if you think that it will be easy money. Maintaining and growing a directory takes time. Take too many shortcuts and you'll run afoul of Google and have a worthless site. You'll have a tough slog to make a general directory profitable - the marketplace is heavily saturated and highly populated with scammers, cheats and lazy folks. A top-notch general directory is still worth building, you just might have to work harder than folks did 5 or 6 years ago.

5. AddToDirectories sounds like a submission service rather than a directory. Hope that doesn't hurt your efforts.


Good luck.

 

Directories don't make money. PHPLD sucks, has many issues, including payment processing.
I would suggest finding a new niche. Any sites a webmaster might use will NOT make money with Adsense. We all know what the ads look like so we don't click them. I agree with what is posted above about your domain names. Sounds like a service not a directory. If you decide to stay with the niche (not recommended) then maybe offer directory submission services, it's about the only way you're going to make any money with it.

Good luck in your work.

 

My experience has been just the opposite. All my directories generate positive revenue. If you build a quality directory, follow sound practices and treat it like a business and not some get rich quick scheme, no reason why you can not make money with a directory. What kind of payment processing issues have you had? I only use PayPal and have never had any problems with it.

 

Ya, I guess one could make a quality directory if they put a lot of time into it and wrote all the descriptions.
PHPLD lets people submit with out paying. Bug in their system I have talked with them about too. I have had many directories - years ago, and they all had the same problem. People can submit their link without paying.

If your going to make a directory OP I would recommend esyndicat. it's wayyyyy better.

 

Yes. You should submit some sites yourself, maybe one per category. You could also go to webmaster forums and invite people to submit their site for free. Many directory owners will also remove the requirement for a link back to the directory for a short time to get people to submit.

 

I was also thinking I could make it a directory of directories, or is that just worse than having an impossible to monetize GENERAL directory?

 

To do it right would require a lot of maintenance. So many people start directories with good intentions and abandon them or stop caring and accept anything. I've thought about trying a directory of directories myself but felt it would be impossible for one person to do well.

 

Very true.
Also, directories come and go. Many of them do not last long so one would have to constantly be checking for broken links.

 

My script does that for me, I don't mind the maintenance.............yet.

 

You should stick to a few categories for now, limit it to atleast 5-6 this way once it's populated with good traffic and links then you should add more, but if you add like 50 then you'll need to post your own just to get it active, for example. A new forum with 20 categories, with 1 member is not going to get 2000 posts with only 30 members or less. You should use google trends etc to see what are the top categories at the moment that people indugle in and use that.

 

You think I should start a forum on my directory? I so confuseD

 

I still suggest finding a different niche. Even if you build a quality one you won't ever get enough organic traffic to make decent money from Adsense. and you won't make that much selling featured links on the directory.
Just my advice from past experiences. For the time and money your going to have to spend your better off finding a more profitable niche.
I know a lot of people think directories are easy sites to build, populate and have many pages but still.
I played around with directories and forums early in my a career and I didn't start making decent money until I quit messing with those and moved on to providing quality, informative sites that provide content that thousands of other don't already have.
--

Just my advice. Good luck in whatever you do.

 

I believe the poster was trying to compare building categories for a forum with building categories for a directory. Starting with only 5 or 6 categories in a new general directory would be a perfect recipe for failure. Whereas starting a forum with several hundred categories would be ridiculous. The comparison just doesn't make sense.

 

Very good advice, thank you. I basically started my directory as an SEO experiment and am slowly learning that I would have been better off doing something a little more specific and unique. I will most likely start my next project (website) soon and do it a way where I can drive direct traffic to a niche that has money floating around in it.

 

I am in the directories business and find it very useful. To start with a new directory you need to be going very natural, i mean step by step. By this way it will neither overload you and so will give a good impression to the bots.
Good Luck with Yours.

 

indyonline made a good point earlier, it will be tough to see any organic searches.... what is your experience with this? Keywords are so general, millions of sites with the same info, etc...

 

Useful or makes money...?

Ya, bots will be most of your traffic emmons. Submission software's.

 

Bots that click on my ads over and over and sign-up for my affiliate deals?

 

Please tell me you made money on your general directory, and also maybe how you did it? I wish indyonline was wrong about a lot of this, but I think he speaks truth here.