Hi, I have been running a new PR 5 directory since about two months now. Already 1700 approved submissions. As I get about 20-40 submissions a day I have to spend quite some hours per week on it. So far the ROI has been that they subscribe at my newsletter that I send bi-monthly or something (they can unsubscribe) and selling of sitewide links and from linkbrokers.com I need an advice now because it may be that this dir goes up to PR 6 in the update. This as since the last update it has gotten more than 30 backlinks from pages with PR 3-5. As the domain has the word free in it I intend to keep it free but if it goes to PR 6 and the innner pages PR 4-5 it is a bit ... What would you have done? BTW, I announced it on SEO Chat and people started to flame it immediately, I really don't understand some people there. Thank you.
Jim, I think by picking a domain name with the wod "free" in it you have sort of painted yourself into a corner - it would be difficult to retain credibility by going to a pay model, unless you change your domain name and set up redirects, etc. If your goal is ROI, then I can only see you acheiving that with the current domain with the use of advertising. So bottom line: What I would have done would have been to start with a different domain name.
You are right. The site has an interesting story. (it was a shitty FFA site from my little brother that suddenly jumped from PR 0 to 5 and I bought the domain for 60$ and made it into a dir. Since then the backlinks has multiplied by several factors.). I think I will keep it free but maybe charge for advertising etc. I have seen that many other dirs have a system in which they tell you that it takes months to get in but pay 5$ and it takes 2 days. That could be one way of running it but I don't like it as I don't like to backlog the submissions. Another way could maybe be to have two directories on the same domain - one free and one paid. And the free one have much deeper in the URL structure. Well, I will figure out something. You would have moved it, but some questions then: If you move the domain how much do you loose by the 301? Would you cancel or move out the db of the current listings to another dir and start over from scratch with a paid model? Thank you.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about the free in the url Instead I would always keep listing free but charge for value added services Some ideas: 1.) By paying their result is listed over free ones - usually on first page (Where PR is usually the highest) 2.) By paying they can access some type of stats for their listing 3.) By paying, they get some sort of attention grabber graphic like a big star, etc I definately wouldn't change the url though. Too many variables there I would also remove this: (The reason for the PR 0 on the subpages is because the directory was made after the last PR update.) No need to call attention to it. If you didn't put that, most people wouldn't say anything
Thanks Jason for the advises. I will keep the domain as is, actually it has the best KWs. The site will undergo a complete redesign soon and I will set up different methods of getting benefit by paying. Your advise number 1 I have already applied but by those providing a PR3+ backlink but now when I have PR I will probably change this to be paid instead - or have two versions. Thanks a lot.
I would make that change personally. I'm not a big fan of the recip option. I respect a paid directory a lot more. Plus it probably makes it easier on you not having to constantly check if they are linked back, using no follow, robots'ing your link, etc (even if its automated)
Yes but sofar it is only 30 featured links - that's checked in no time. And no, I would never make a recip mandatory - I know what happens to such dirs by the SEs ...
Jim, One more value-add option for paying users might be deep-linking (if you don't already offer this).
Yes! good point. Until now I required a recip for those but I will work out something really good. Just hope I finish before the PR update ...