Would you change to a free search engine?

[catch2948]

A couple of years ago, I started a PPC search engine, basically just for the heck of it ... Never really made me much money, but was one of my first projects ... I had always planned to turn it into a free search engine, with static html pages (there only 7 static pages now) ...

Anyway, 2 years later the site is Google PR 6, and is pretty busy as a search engine (still doesn't make me much money though) ...

Should I go ahead & make it a free search engine (with static html pages), or not? A lot of people are telling me to go ahead with the change because more html pages with good content make push it even higher ...

As always, thanks in advance for your replies ...

[FleaPit]

sticky the url and i'll take a look.

[catch2948]

There ya go

[Oaf357]

Well if it's getting significant traffic and you still want to make money there are ways to do it. It just depends. The second you make it free though might change that.

[catch2948]

The site gets anywhere between 750-2500 uniques a day ... I was thinking that if I turned it into a free search engine, vastly expanded the content catagories, then in a while, I would be able to sell ad space ...

[Oaf357]

Yea. You'd probably want a tad more traffic before offering up ad space. But, adding more content always helps with that and making it all free would probably help to. Sticky me the URL when you get a chance.

[FleaPit]

Ok nice looking site but the first thing that strikes me is that it is doesn't look or feel like a search engine. It is product and service driven rather than information finding. I don't see any real value in changing it to a "traditional search engine" format even if you were able to generate more traffic. I would liken your model to espotting therefore you should look to provide your system/database as a commission based content provider for other high traffic sites (akin to a white label structure). This would give your brand name and clients much greater exposure, and ultimately increase revenue for you.

[bobmcd]

Hello Catcha,

I'd change it into a Pay Per Inclusion search engine and charge a renewable annual fee. Keep the fee to below $20 per URL. With a PR6, it could present value.

BobMcd

[jeremy goodrich]

750-X uniques per day should be worth something :)

Figure out the right path between monetization & user annoyance that works best for your site - and then go for it.

(please, let's keep the 'stickyme' stuff in stickymail where it belongs - thanks!)