Hi there, Over the past few years, I have been building my network and it is getting pretty large and my sites rankings, PR values are all pretty high right now.I use these high rankings to kick start my new sites which has worked well so far. Now, I am considering setting up a directory, general or niche, I have not decided. My question is, is it still possible to make money from directories? Assuming I can use my current network to get the directory to .... lets say a G R of 7 (Which is why a lot of people pay for listings....lets face it) will people still pay for the directory submission? I was thinking of charging only a minimal amount, and considering I have not even registered a domain for it yet, Its a long way off. Who here has made any significant amount of money from their directory? By that I mean, to cover hosting costs, general overhead, script fees and enough to treat your lady (Or gentleman) to a nice steak dinner every now and then? Any advice would be very much appreciated.
I am not that expert but as a normal site owner, I won't pay money to submit my site to a directory unless the directory have something special that it can offer.
yes, you have to consider that there are tonnes of new directories everyday... there must be a motivation to submit to your directory.
That's true. There are so many directories. Unless one makes them unique in some way, they all might be lost in the crowd. But yes, if you can work hard on it, there's still money to be made.
I think directories are good to set up if you operate in a specific niche and are very selective with sites you admit. Don't just make a general all-subject directory.
A directory to make money would have to be PR7 at least If you can ge to that you will make pretty good money.
You just need to have some patience and good plan for growth. Are there people in your niche that would advertise once you get your directory established? Do you have some good ways to point traffic toward the new directory?
Thanks for all the replies guys. I have a pretty large network and I have no problems getting my sites to a PR of 6 just by interlinking. While I would like to stay away from PR being a selling point, I guess it will always come into play somehow. You guys all mentioned that it must offer something, or be more than just a free for all. What exactly? For example, what would a directory have to offer you guys, apart from PR passing, for you to pay for a submission. Finally, what sort of payment models have you directory owners been successful with? Permanent listing in a directory for $5 or annual renewal etc? Any info would be much appreciated.
i dont like paying on the internet, but i guess a lot of other site owner will be will ing to pay to be linked to a pr 7 site
you need an aged directory to start some profit... without PR transfer into the categories of a directory, people wont pay you for entry... no point in having a HP of pr7,when the inner pages are 1-2
You'll need to invest some time in customising your directory script to prevent automated submissions, and even then you can expect a lot of junk submissions. So you can't rely on your submission form to provide you with all you need. If you want to grow your directory, you will need to either write most of the site descriptions yourself, or supplement your index with someone else's database of sites (eg Dmoz). I don't recommend becoming a Dmoz clone, they tend to get zapped by Google.
I would only pay for inclusion in a directory that had high PR and was specific to my industry (travel).
I am setting up a new directory now, www.CommonDirectory.com - I have had over 200 submissions in less than 24 hours, so I think new directories can still do very well. Once I populate my new directory I am going to setup a partnership between it and my other directory, www.AllDotNet.com which should help drive traffic between both.