Thread: Help a Directory start-up!

I'm going to be launching a travel directory soon, it's just about designed, and I wondered if anyone had any tips. I am going to be looking at charging a nominal fee, to make sure I'm not divulged with spam.

Any tips?

Come onnnnn there must be a directory owner here who can help me!

I own the directory http://www.aaronsfreebies.com which is also a niche directory (freebies, free samples, etc) and I charge $2/month via paypal for a listing. And yes this does help cut down on spam.

You may keep option of having reciprocals with free and otherwise charge $2-5.
So, when its reciprocal listing, usually spammers won't be bothered much since they are looking for free non-reciprocal links.

Additionally , you may have subscriptions, so listed site-owners don't bother abt monthly charges if any.

Its always advisable to go about $2-5/yr and not on monthly basis but as and when your directory gets bigger and bulkier, you get good standing in the market, you may consider fee raise.

Initially start on low fee, even $1 is fine if spmmers is the thing to keep away.

I would recommend you to before launching the directory keep it with urself for atleast 3-4months. During this period get it tons of backlinks, allow it to get fully indexed then get it some decent pagerank.

Finally get a good skin and there its ready for the launch

Yeah just build backlinks and PR before goinig public. Then you can launch it for $$. Otherwise you'll have a lot of sites to reject.

If you do decide to leave it with free submissions, You'll probably get about 100 a day if you submit to DP, V7N, Webmaster-forums, and info.vilesilencer. I gained about 500 in my first 3 or 4 days just posting there. Of course, all free, but it doesn't have PR yet anyways.

Well i too agree, if you are making it a commercail paid directory...

You have to go easy to grab first attention...

Building backlinks would be a sutible strategy to build on the initial momentum

A PR 0 and a Zero backlink paid dir would be very unattractive with tens of free dirs being announced everyday

Yeah, DP is good for the freebies.
BUt then, 20 or more new free directories launch each day, and it seems most if not all advertise on DP.
Makes it hard for a paid directory, new or old, to get much from DP.

Heck, in fact all of DP is getting so damn price picky about everything.
If something is $20 from one person, I guarantee within hours of that posting, someone will be selling it for $10, then someone else for $5 and so forth.

Back to directories...
So many free ones open up each day, is it worth it to submit to each?
Not to me, as I have a sneaky idea that most of them will be abandoned in short order.
Sure sign a directory will not last long???
THe owner is too damn lazy and too damn cheap to get a template, using the default template!

Then look at so many directories where there are hundreds, and thousands, of links awaiting the owner to either approve or delete. Just plain laziness and the fact that lots of directory owners jump into this business to make a few bucks and when the work is more than a few bucks, they bail out.
Look at the number of directories for sale at DP...if you pay attention to the sellers, etc...you will find that most are directories just thrown up to make a few bucks selling the directory (especially when you see a seller saying the directory is a pr 3 or better, yet he just put the directory up! Sure sign he got a domain with pr and dumped a directory on it in hopes of getting big bucks).

Heck, I could write a book on what I have learned in the past year about directories, directory owners, template creators, databases, etc etc etc

My suggestion: Never buy or sell a directory unless its indexed well and has a PR in internal pages as well.

Thank you guys for those nice tips. Certainly appreciate that.

I am kinda new to those but I have picked a couple of persons in the team which include web designing/seo and right now are developing 2 general directories and home improvement directory. They are still on the process of skinning and doing some additional designs.

I don't really have an idea how those come and go directories are working. Are they financially not capable of pursuing the project or are they just lazy as you have said.

I very much appreciate if you guys could give some more tips as I am new to this kind of project and it would be a very valuable advice especially to me and the two members.

Thanks.

Seems like you are well on your way!
I would mod the directories so that not only is page rank shown for the sites added, but thumbnails also.
It also seems that the fewer ads, ad boxes, etc shown, the better the directory looks. And more directories are leaving that adsense crap off.
What I did to all my directories, no adsense at all.
Plus on most of them that were overrun in ad boxes, got new templates and made the ads cleaner looking and in one or two boxes only.
Same with banners, use one at most per page (even get a good rotator to show differerent banners on each page and refresh).

Most people throw up a directory, advertise it, and get so bombed with free submissions, that they either just start mass approving all sites or just give up and never bother approving/deleting.

What most people do not realize, that a directory is work! Not just the work of putting one up, but the work of staying on top of it daily.
Then one day reality jumps up and the directory owner finds out that more work is going into the upkeep of the directory than money coming in to pay for the time involved.

I just got through visiting a bunch of new directories just launched in the past few days.
Most will not survive....no template, mentioned previously.
Then the new ones that are paid, not free, yet have no template, no nothing.
Just threw up a directory using default template and expect visitors to spend money for listings. Like that will happen.

Seems like you are well on your way!

Thanks.

I would mod the directories so that not only is page rank shown for the sites added, but thumbnails also.
It also seems that the fewer ads, ad boxes, etc shown, the better the directory looks. And more directories are leaving that adsense crap off.
What I did to all my directories, no adsense at all.
Plus on most of them that were overrun in ad boxes, got new templates and made the ads cleaner looking and in one or two boxes only.
Same with banners, use one at most per page (even get a good rotator to show differerent banners on each page and refresh).

I think we have discussed those about thumbnails and we agreed to the no Adsense features, strictly. We wanted to make a clean directory and I am teaching them on how to put proper Titles and Descriptions as I have learned briefly while I was in the ODP. A good user / surfer directory with good content listing is the aim.

Most people throw up a directory, advertise it, and get so bombed with free submissions, that they either just start mass approving all sites or just give up and never bother approving/deleting.

There are 2 members right now and 1 each have their own directory to promote and make good of. This is not my main bread and butter as I have a fulltime business that I am taking care of RJ Cleaning and Restoration, its just something I became curious and why not give it a shot. Besides these are kids that have talents and potentials. They are from my country too and members of this Forum, V7N and DP. I think they will do very good and excell.

What most people do not realize, that a directory is work! Not just the work of putting one up, but the work of staying on top of it daily.
Then one day reality jumps up and the directory owner finds out that more work is going into the upkeep of the directory than money coming in to pay for the time involved.

I think given the financial options that they have the time dedication they will committ is on a very high level.

I just got through visiting a bunch of new directories just launched in the past few days.
Most will not survive....no template, mentioned previously.
Then the new ones that are paid, not free, yet have no template, no nothing.
Just threw up a directory using default template and expect visitors to spend money for listings. Like that will happen.

The planning stage and designing will take time and I am compiling some sites that needs to be listed. All 3 directories are running now but they are so BOLD and NAKED without anything as I have said the designs take time including banners and logos to be used. We will announce it in maybe 3 or 4 months from now as soon as everything is in working order.


Thank you very much for the advices and I certainly appreciate it.

Wow, I forgot all about this thread - thanks everyone!

I'm using phpld template that was designed specifically for my site, due to time though I haven't launched it, but I'll be taking all of your excellent advice on board.

Nice suggestions above and quite right.

Desire to make quick money eventually ends when they are made to do work. Since intention is to harvest money in short time, efforts need to be substantial, thats where these directories lack. I refer to ones made for money purpose only.

It really is demanding if you want tto stay on top and plan it for longer stay and with quality.

Otherwise, buy directory script, get database dump from forums like DP and put up site for two-three months and dispose. It may bring in few bucks but then such people really spoil the spirit.