I have a successful free and paid directory, the one in my signature, Tip Top Directory. I've got over 18,000 links, a decent PR2, with an Alexa rank of 21X,XXX (sometimes even lower!), and I'm charging $3 for premium listings. I have 3 deeplinks for freebies and 5 for the premiums. I don't get very many premium purchases at all, sometimes none in a month. One or two at best. At the same time, I get plenty of traffic and plenty of submissions for freebies, and I do end up deleting about 10% of those. I make maybe a dollar or two on the ads every month or two, but I'm not really sure how to monetize this thing from here. In all of the value estimators I've seen, it ranges in value from $3k to $12k. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to milk this site's moneymaking potential? I'd prefer not to sell it.
all you need to do to improve your directory is remove the google adsense and design a logo immediately.
I can do that stuff, but I'm talking monetization. I get rid of the Adsense, ok...it's not really doing anything, anyway. The bracket's just a template error, I assume from adding the freaking adsense. As for a logo, I can do that, I just haven't had any good ideas, yet...I guess I could go with a retro-ish Altavista 1990's type logo with real mountains in the background or something, and actually use the entire header...Anyway... Outside of that, guys, what should I do? There's no point in having this directory if it isn't going to be profitable.
Add site reviews and other 'deep content' value added services. That should help your monetization campaign since more webmasters would be encouraged to pay up.
Just getting traffic and no.of link doesn't denote your directory being successful. What does your directory have to offer submitters that other directories don't? Content? Unique look? Advance mod? Better Ranking? Publicity? There is a lots more to work on your directory before you can expect it to bring in some decent revenue. Adsense is a BIG NO NO. It really pisses off a lot of submitters. You need to still improve that directory a lot.
So your directory makes around $6 a month, but sometimes nothing. The common assertion is that they are worth about 10 times the monthly income so that $3k to $12 mark is probably more than a little off. If you want a directory that attracts paid submissions you need to make it attractive for people to submit. In ways other than offering a free link as that don't make you anything. So lets look at yahoo. You have 1209 inbound links to your site. You need to build some links and promote your site. Build serps. I agree that you should remove that adsense from the front page. Add some article content and if you really want adsense on your site put it in with the articles. You need a new banner - your search function does not work and a directory without a search function well.... You are accepting spammy submissions so you need to tighten up your editing standards. There is no reason for you to have a link with anchor text like this on your site "Beach luxury resort vacation|luxury family resort| luxu" - and I only had to look at about five links on the latest links page to find that. This means that anyone purchasing the directory would have a HUGE cleanup on their hands if you sold it. I am not going any further. You get the idea - if you want submitters to pay for reviews to be on your directory, your submitters are going to demand a quality directory which gives them some value in return. One thing you could do right now to start making something right away is install something like this for sponsored listings. I am not saying I would install it, but it may be an option for you.
Surely you must be having a laugh - only 10%? With a phpld-based directory you should really be deleting at least 70% of sites submitted especially with that amount of traffic that you claim to receive, bearing in mind Alexa ranking is a farce and by no means indicates the true amount of traffic received, especially in the 'webmaster' world.
Ignore value estimators, they are generally just silly. If you want to sell links, put your prices up, and reinvest. You need a better logo, because that alone will make the difference between making sales and making people hit the back button. And clean up the listings, as a priority. Who wants to be listed amongst pages and pages of junk, even if it is at the top of the list?
I'm not to fond of the pre-made template though. Just seem's using a pre-made, you not really into your directory. Go with a custom template, add some more mod's. You have a lot of listings, but how many of those sites listed are not a parked domain? How many of those sites listed are affiliate links? Did you rewrite any descriptions? The revenue will come in do time but in the mean time, try to make some template edits, with a logo...etc Go threw your listings or hire someone to do this and clean up the directory. Latley, i browse around directories and see how the owner takes care of it before i think about submitting to it. PHPLD 3.3 has a lot of new features in which you could incorprate into your directory. Have you looked into the new version yet?
Along with what the others have said about upping the quality of your site, look at your original post here from the perspective of a customer. For free, I get a listing with 3 deep links. For $3, I only get two more deep links. Predictable Reaction - I'll just take the 3 for free thank you.
What if I did a relaunch, and totally remodel the site (template, buisiness model, etc)? I need to upgrade phpld anyway. I would probably only keep the paid submissions, and drop the freebies. I would probably then make the free links reciprocal only, and paid for the other two. From there, I could build links, serps, etc...
Honestly if somehow this site fell into my lap that is exactly what I would do. Well except for offering the reciprocal link part. Don't offer recips as not many like them, they are hard to track and search engines do not like reciprocal linking.
Keep your head down, keep adding quality conent and eventually you'll start to shine. Success doens't happen overnight.
You'll be breaking your contract with your submitters if you dump the free listings. That's my biggest pet peeve with folks who take their directories from free to paid - dropping the free listings.
I'm not so sure there is any duty of care other than a moral one to keep free listings as people haven't paid for any service. Morality rules in my books though YMC