I currently own a popular directory where i get decent express submissions. What are your suggestions so that i could squeeze the maximum profit out of it. I am thinking of accepting sitewide sponsored links, but again i am afraid that it could seriously hurt the rankings with google. Looking forward to hear your opinions!
You have pretty limited options since it is only PR4. Increase your PR at least to 5. Maybe make your submission page and guidelines a bit shorter, and probably remove adsense from the same page. And make it look a bit more professional.
Selling sitewide links would keep many people from purchasing listings in your directory. I won't buy a link in a directory selling sitewides if I can help it.
It doesnt look like a directory too much to me. It reminds me of when you type in a domain name slightly wrong and you get a page full of affiliate links trying to get you to click. If I would have landed on that page by accident or through google I would have hit back. What it would be worth doing is working with css a tad and maybe a few more graphics to group things up a little. This would keep me more interested and make me want to search around more.
Basically a simple way would be to increase your traffic which is guaranteed to increase your submissions Squeezing margins sounds OK and is in many instances but getting more traffic is the easiest process and will ensure short, medium and log term sustainable benefits
But how to get more traffic for fee? Increasing traffic will increase the costs, and not necessarily profits.
Where did you find it? Everywhere you look around, whatever business it is, everybody will tell you: the more clients (traffic) the better chance someone will buy something. Also increasing traffic not necesserly means increasing costs. Buying traffic is preety stupid but getting it naturally - ohe yes, that's what we all need.
Do you have proofs to back up your claim? And can you please elaborate why many people would not submit to his/her directory? I have seen 90% of web sites displaying banners/text adssite-wide or somewhere --even Forbes does it. So your point is totally unreasonable. Or are you talking about PR juice? Can you prove that having OBLs on homepage harms PR? I can prove that it does not if --you keep it limited. Check Elegant Web Directory which always had 12 OBL since last update --. It was PR6 -with PR4 innerpages. This time it got much stronger with those OBLs -as most of its inner-pages have become PR5. So if you are indicating loss of PR juice --its a myth --it has no practical VALUE.
I have heard quite a few people saying this. Even my own policy is not to submit to directories with over 5-10 sitewide links, if I am submitting for PR juice.
As I said --it is sort of myth. Check Alive Web Directory -- how many OBLs --does it have? It still lost PR1. Then please check the example I gave --Elegant Directory. Ofcourse --I am not saying --you have hundreds of links --then you become a link firm. One just has to design the template in a planned manner -to have enough space -for advertisement- I think below 20 OBLs is just fair enough.
This is not really related to what I said. I do not think website loses its own PR juice when linking out to other sites. Just that it spreads outgoing PR juice among all links on the page. So if I submit to a directory with 20 sitewide links, plus 5 in category, I am sharing PR juice with 25 sites, instead of 5. I would gladly sell sitewide links on my directory, as it would be a great additional income. But it will decrease the value of my directory in submitters eyes. At least that is how I feel.
Take a look at your Adsense block, and consider whether or not it's right for your directory, or even all categories of it. Consider that people who buy featured links want them to stand out, and Adsense will detract from that. It might actually benefit you to get rid of it altogether, in order to encourage more people to buy featured links.
Check out this site and see no of sponsors sitewide links! nice money . It really tempts me to sell sitewide links assuming that i really dont care about PR. Say if i sell sitewide links and put no follow, would the buyers willing to signup??
"Do you have proofs to back up your claim?" - He already gave you proof, he said you most likely won't submit. I am sure there are other folks that think like that too but it is a fine balancing act to earn money to keep promoting you directory you usually need to sell advertising. Personally I have tried to limit the number of site-wide links on my directories to give maximum benifit to folks buying listings but like everything else it is a 'value' option. If a site does not sell banners or site-wides they usually charge more for listings.
Sell banners, set your own prices , automate the process, and have detailed stats to offer your customers by setting up an account here: http://boostedads.com/website-page.php?pageId=1002 and selling text links, photext ads, or banners. Many cool features, enjoy