This question is not criticism. I'm sure that there are great reasons to own a free directory and I just would like to understand what they could be.
A free directory is easy to fill with websites and easy to promote (before switching it to paid ). You can earn from express reviews while keeping it free and paid. A friend of mine recently launched a free directory, and within 24 hours he had 500+ uniques, and within 7 days he already had 2 paid submissions.
NO! there is none, but here are some realistic reasons why people run free directory, 1) as posted above, the free backlink, no matter how crappy, how bad a reciprocal... some people will still love it... 2) To harvest the email ids of the submitters so that later they can be spammed to death, 3) Free traffic, mostly bots though, or free loaders looking for just a link, but still some considers it as a traffic, alexa surely dose 4) The featured link temptation - i would not bank on it though... 5) Passion to run - if anyone is into it for passion, its just not worth it... too much of spam, just bots and freeloaders as mentioned above, its useless till the very bottom,
I did this and stopped as non of my goals were achieved. To earn money you need to invent something different. IMHO.
I see some good point made and some of the problems with free directories as well. In general, directories do not make great adsense sites. I was thinking of starting a free directory just to promote my paid directories in the email templates. While I think that this is a good strategy, I did not do it simply due to the time involved in reviewing submissions. Free directories can get 120 submission/day easy. Some may have time to review that many sites for free but I do not.
Something to think about is that people submitting to get a free link will most likely want more for free, so even though there would be more exposure for your paid directories, thats maybe all that it would be, just more exposure but not more paid submissions.
Yes pipes. Not everyone, but a vast majority of those who submit to free directories will never pay for anything online. I'm not saying that they are wrong, it's just how it is.
Sad to say, that's probably true. That's why many savvy directory submitters use one of the free, "throwaway" email services (yahoo, etc.) for the email required in directory submissions. I do, and I'm not at all surprised when I check that throwaway email now and then and find it absolutely filled with spam. I never, ever use my main email address in submitting to free directories.
So true, its not like they can be converted either. Its similar to how at first it was believed that those that download pirated music, films and software are robbing the companies of their wares, when in reality, the majority of those doing that would never buy the dvd, go to the cinema or purchase the music cd anyway.
goumez "get backlinks -- that what i want" Sure but to what end? I assume you mean backlinks to your directory. It is possible the you can get enough backlinks to get pagerank, then go to a paid directory. Is that what you mean?
I forgot to answer the thread question When i was starting my directories i began them as free, only for a short time, i guess they could have been referred to as Free/Paid, as in the featured listings were paid. I think what made me take that step first instead of starting them as paid from the beginning was my lack of knowledge and picking up bad advice from others. A lot of what i was reading and doing was based on others suggesting that you begin free, build up your database, must have pr etc etc, then go paid. I know, bad advice that they were giving, even they know that now, and bad decisions that i made by following that advice as maybe others did at first too. Since then i think ive usually advised new directory owners to go paid from the start if their intention is to make it paid at some time in the future anyway. Unexpectedly i found that more questions and complaints are received when running a free directory, like questions asking why their site wasn't listed or why it wasn't approved yet or when would it be approved, even though they were not paying for the listing, sure they were contributing to the directory by providing content, was almost funny that they found it suitable to complain.
Sure pipes all directories must be free for a short while to get them going. I would do it if I needed to.
I had launched mine as free for a very short time...probably the first month or less...I did get many submissions then! However, when it became paid, submitters actually started to "adhere" to the guidelines before submitting sites. Fortunately for me, my paid submissions started coming in well when the directory was only couple months old.
"Fortunately for me, my paid submissions started coming in well when the directory was only couple months old" Very cool. There are many free directories out there that could make at least some profit if they converted to paid.
For last couple of years. I start a new free directory every 6 months. I put some custom mods on it, take it to good PR and Alexa and get some featured links too. Then I sell it off to someone who can monetize it better ;-)
What about 10 and more years old directories like DMOZ and AMRAY that continue to offer free inclusion and doing that without any support from Adsense? I don't think that there is something wrong with offering free inclusion.
"What about 10 and more years old directories like DMOZ and AMRAY that continue to offer free inclusion and doing that without any support from Adsense? I don't think that there is something wrong with offering free inclusion." Yes and what a blessing DMOZ is to us all....NOT. I wish DMOZ charged for review. Maybe then they would treat us with some respect and be able to hire editors that did their jobs.