Forum Moderators: skibum
have great pr..
1. How do they manage to do it when there is not content there?
2. How could someone start one of these sites?
The one you mentioned in particular appears to additionally have a listing in DMOZ, which never hurts.
However, even with those things going for it, I doubt they get _that_ much traffic from search engines. That is, actual end-user traffic rather than webmasters looking for directories to submit their sites to. As such, their traffic probably isn't worth all that much.
I really only find directories in the SERPs when I'm searching for a very specific thing, such as a site name. Often times a new site will come in under its entry on a directory with high PR. I know. Ugh.
To start a directory is easy as pie. All you have to do is get a domain and some hosting, then go out and find sites and put them in your directory. You could do this manually with HTML if you wanted, but I'd recommend a database-driven beast with submission forms and other automation. Really just a time saving thing though, and would be necessary if you wanted site owners to be able to submit directly to you.
Then when you've got enough sites listed and have been picked up by the engines, you can probably get a few desperate webmasters to start submitting to your site even if it lacks much PR.
Then a few years down the line you'll have a PR 5-6 site, assuming PR still exists, and will probably get a few hundred or thousand uniques per day. But keep in mind that the majority of them will be webmasters looking to submit their site, rather than people who might be interested in clicking on ads.
Well, that's the thought process I went through that convinced me not to make a directory. On the other hand, you could come up with a very popular one and become wildly wealthy.
It can be a great way to essentially get your own PR machine that you can point at your other sites. If it gets big enough to attract webmasters regularly, it will essentially be a hands-free self-sustaining site.
Make sure you use a human verifier and other spam prevention techniques so that you don't spend all day sifting through auto submitted trash.
Other revenue possibilities...
pay per inclusion. Only works if it gets popular enough OR you're a copy wizard that can convince me that $25 to get listed on a PR-3 page is worth it.
"opt-in or we'll drop your site from our directory" newsletters.
I doubt they get _that_ much traffic from search engines.
Why not? I do.
Roldar
It can be a great way to essentially get your own PR machine that you can point at your other sites. If it gets big enough to attract webmasters regularly, it will essentially be a hands-free self-sustaining site.
Dah Naaaaaah! ;oP
So long as you keep the links up to scratch, quality wise, and keep the directory within a niche without straying elsewhere just to populate, it is possible to provide a very useful service to both webmasters and end users. With a little bit of thought it is possible to make a little bit of ca$h as well.
I have a directory project that is only a couple of months old with just a few links and it makes me enough to pay for all the hosting and pays most of the rent on my house.
Crimsonblack, it is very easy to start a directory. You can buy some very good scripts of the shelf and before you know it you will have another Yahoo!
Ska
I was tossing the idea around myself however I decided to create just a few more sites before doing the directory thing.
Directories have several positive qualities:
- FREE PR, once you have a good directory, you can add links to your websites
- Great for opt-in email collection
- If your directory becomes popular/high PR, you can charge a listing fee
- If popular, easy to convert it into a portal site!
The added bonus of the opt-in email list great. You will have a HUGE list of active webmasters/SEO/affiliate marketers and this means that you can send occational emails to "inform" them of the latest greatest marketing products and websites which you can collect commissions from.
Besides great opportunities for AM, they *can* generate decent income from listing fees. If it's a stable and decent PR directory, people WILL pay $20/year for a direct link... it adds up.
Maybe I should have started on a directory instead of a new website! :)
