When paid directory owners decide to completely change the website

You submit a listing (or 10) to a directory and pay for the permanent listing option. In 6 months or a year you go to check the directory and find out the webmaster has decided to change the website to a completely different topic or sold the directory to someone else who's either completely changed the website or deleted all the listings on there.

What do you do?

 

Never pay for directory listings! lol or take legal action!

 

This is a very unique situation, we are not able to take a legal action as the amount required in legal proceedings are huge, only we can pursue the directory owner to keep the listing.
Before we submit to a paid directory, we should know very well about the history of the directory and if possible the owner (S) associated with it. It is always better to submit to a trusted paid directory for long term benefit.

 

Stick with reputable and long established directories. Fly by night directories are take the money and run operations and you honestly can't do much about it.

 

who's pay a directory submit?

 

LOL, love your English.

 

It happens when you are looking for only HIGH PR, not aged or reputed directories.

 

My first reaction is that sites come and go all the time; it's the nature of the web. Any link agreement, free, traded or paid, is virtually impossible to enforce. If the other side removes the link, changes the site, or sells the site there's really not much recourse. You can ask for a refund or new link.

It sucks but there's not all that much you can do. As has been said, the monies involved are usually not enough to make it worth while to chase them legally.

I guess I always make the assumption that any link building I do comes with an expiration date. Sometimes the date never comes and sometimes it comes within a few months.

 

i have situation same like that too.

Submit to High PR directory, after several month that directory was not available anymore ( after PR dropping) << who will you blame for that ??

no one can blame for that. why??? coz you buy by your own will , no one forcing you to purchase it. so if you had money why don't you spend it wisely & think it twice or more. LOL

Better to choice not directory From beginning create already High PR ( maybe using FTV )

 

I see people on the forums use the threat of legal action over insanely small amounts of money. Even for a $300 review fee for inclusion to Yahoo would make absolutely no sense to hire a $500 / hr attorney. Even if the person were an attorney themselves it would make no sense spending the amount of time they would need to on it when they could be charging another client $500 / hr to work on their case.

The only case where I was a little miffed about a directory deleting everything was in the case of Romow.com. That was more on me though because I just did not see that one coming.

I don't like the whole lifetime terminology myself and prefer one time review fee vs annual review fee. I look at it in terms of the listed sites change more than mine and sometimes the changes the listed sites make disqualify the listing. Terms of service should cover those cases.

 

I dont think legal action makes sense. I doubt anyone has ever taken actual legal action after making threats here. I do think PayPal chargebacks or credit card chargebacks (if less than 180 days) makes sense though.

I thought about yearly or one-time review fees too. I advertise my directories quite a bit (coupe hundred dollars a month on FB along and more). I can't justify continuously sending traffic/clients to my listed members and charge them only once but my directories are also only one part of a larger overall business

 

I think this topic came up some years ago when directories were just beginning to spring up left and right. The assumption was that "permanent" was generally accepted to mean 6 months to a year. I think most people understood full well that most of these directories that just "popped up" would likely not be around in 6 months to a year.

Now, if you had a contract or some type of terms guaranteeing you a longer period of time, I think you'd have a far better chance at assuming some type of legal or monetary action. Unfortunately in the world of the internet terms like permanent and "unlimited" are understood to be anything but. I think you assume a risk listing with any internet related business, just as much as you assume that same risk joining a forum, signing up with a web host, you name it... Many of these ventures are fleeting at best.

 

Permanent means the life of the directory as long as the website continues to comply with submission guidelines.

 

First after penguin totally killing directories so no more listening in these areas.If you are talking about business listening not website listening than I think Stoner is right about it.Life of directory but at transfer or close the Company is liable to compensate its customers If they can not offer there services any more.
I do not think you are going to court and sue the owner for that much amount.

 

The Penguin update did not kill directories. It did make operating a poor quality directory worthless thank goodness. For most reputable directories at least 8 plus years old it's business as usual.

 

The penguin update killed thousands of websites and directories which are of low quality and duplicates of duplicates + spam +spam....Good directories still exists and are doing very well. Infact penguin/panda are good for seo industry

 

I ask several SEOMOZ guys and I see many articles clearly stating forget about listening other than DMOZ or yahoo directory.
http://www.seomoz.org/q/seomoz-paid-directories-list-are-paid-links-always-bad

 

LOL, SEOMOZ are becoming a joke with their unsubstantiated anti directory campaign.

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Be careful who you listen to. Those guys have been saying directories are evil for years. Yet, they continue to submit their client's sites to them. Just read their own rants. Whenever Google makes an update those "SEO Pros" claim they are inundated with complaints from clients about directory links. Why would that be happening if the people writing those articles weren't submitting their client's sites to them? Furthermore, they must not be submitting to high quality directories because they would not be getting link reports from Google if they were.

It's been nothing more than an idiotic marketing ploy. Directories are evil, pay us to promote your site instead. Oh, did we forget to tell you? We'll be submitting your site to directories as part of our service. Why anyone is still listening to these jokers is beyond me.

 

Only greedy webmasters who's main objective is to become millionaire within a short time are the victim of panda/penguin updates. Yesterday I came across some 3-5 high pr directories banned by google, i was surprised to find that the directories contain all crap paid listing, i mean the directories approved paid listing without editing the description.