Reno - 4:21 am on Sep 8, 2011 (gmt 0)

To clarify, my reference was to niche directories that targetted an audience interested in very specific stuff, for example, online artists galleries. I have very firsthand experience with this ~ an online directory I started in '99 was attracting new participants every single day, but when Google began it's punishment regiment, those numbers started to drop off, and now I get (at most) maybe one or two new people each week. And I know it's "fear of Google" related because numerous webmasters told me so directly ~ they would be happy to take a free listing, but if they had to also give me a link on their "Favorite Links" page, they were afraid of a penalty. Whether that fear was well founded is not the issue ~ they thought it was a distinct possibility because that's the general impression that Google wanted to convey. By cutting back traffic via link swaps, as I said, people had to turn to other means, and PPC stood to be the big winner. Since Google rules PPC, the implication is obvious...

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