build new directory

directory

[colintho]

New directory - whats the general opinion on the following:

suppose there is a new directory being built (currently with just a bsaic directory structure & PR4)

would you want to be listed in a new directory?

would you pay a small fee for inclusion in a new directory?

how much - how little?

To develop and accelerate the growth of a new directory - would you be interested in or particpate in "group" promotion of a directory - both for the marketing promotion and PR value?

What kind of return / reward / payback would you expect for active participation?

[Powdork]

I hope so. I have a new directory currently indexed for 2 months with pr 4. It ranks very well though if not yet for the general money search, but for all of the individual cats. Plus, its limited to three listings per cat. This is with a zero budget for links until February, when the first invoices will be due. If you believe it is a new directory with someone eager to go out and get your business then you could be getting into something that may be worth way more than what you pay until the price rises which it probably will. If it is someone who generates tons of sites for the purpose of getting listings and then forgetting them than its a bad idea. Questions; What experience does the propietor have in the area or product category? What organizations does the proprietor belong to related to the product, category, etc.? What plans does the proprietor have to promote the directory, and your category, in general. Then, get to know the proprietor enough to let him/her know what promotions work and what don't. Which ones lead to sales and which waste your bandwidth.
Just so I know if I'm in line, what do you consider a 'small fee'?
Powdork

[colintho]

$20

[giemie]

hello,

another question:

lets say you have a directory and one commercial entry in the directory would cost 4.99/month, would you use 2checkout.com for recurring billing? or is this too complicated and does it look unprofessional to the advertiser and keeps him away from listing with my site? what if you reach 1000+ listings would you still use 2checkout or what can you suggest? a real merchant account? would you as the advertiser use 2checkout.com to pay?
how would you manage pay per month?

got some better ideas,experiences?
thanks

giemie

[Big_Balou]

Bump

I'm thinking of doing something along the same lines for a very niche market and would be interested in hearing from more people about what would make them consider listing in a new directory and what would make them think twice about it.

[Powdork]

I'm not certain of the success of my venture yet but for my market there is only one serious local directory to compete with. I've tried to make my site as different from theirs where I think it will help and as similar when that will help. I'm a member of the competing directory so I have a good idea what the needs of the prospective clients will be. For instance, the competing directory uses a giveaway package to draw customers. I know that many of the referrals are not looking for our business but just trying to win free stuff. Many times when returning email to the referrals I will get an email back asking to unsubscribe. That tells me there is an opportunity to do better. So theres one way to market it to the clients; targeted traffic rather than a waste of bandwidth to get people without money to visit and ask for brochures. In addition, and more importantly, I have a good idea of what the customers are looking for so I tailor the site for that as well.

Another note about the giveaways. Many times people will fill out both a request for information and the giveaway forms. In the request for info they will say their wedding is for 50 people. When they fill out the giveaway form their wedding mysteriously will jump to a wedding for 200. It just leads to bad info.

[Big_Balou]

Powdork,

are you saying a giveaway to visitors to gain traffic or to clients (listers).

I'm looking ata niche where there are only a handful of directories, one of which is a subscription model, and only one of which seems to have a loyal following and that one is a very specialized subset of the overall topic.

The area of interest would lead to very targeted traffic to any clients but other than the potential for targeted traffic what have you used, if you can share, to motivate site owners to submit to your directory when you started out?

[Powdork]

Hi big balou,
I spent twenty minutes writing a response but then went to sticky you with the urls. Naturally, that meant my message disappeared, since it was more than just back buttons. Brett, can't you fix that? Anyway, I still sent you the URLs thru sticky. I'll try to repost my message later, but my eyes are gettin heeaavvvyyy.

[Big_Balou]

Thanks Powdork. Looking forward to your post. In the meantime I'll take a look at the url's.

[Powdork]

Hello Big Balou
One of the keys of being a member in the competing directory was that I made alot of contacts (this an actual organization, with meetings and stuff). For one of them I took on some SEO work that was extremely successful. That started to get the word around. In addition, I designed the site from an SEO (Google actually) point of view from the beginning. There is way more content available on my site than on the competing site. All of it is original. As much as possible I try to write the content before seeing my client's sites to avoid any duplication. Then I check to make sure. Fortunately, many of my clients catch phrases and slogans will be in the form of images on their sites so I can use that without worry. If there is a phrase I'm worried about duplicating I search for the exact phrase on Google to make sure it doesn't appear for their site. If it is returned in the results I don't use it. I put as much keyword rich content up as possible in the beginning with one external link and my full internal linking structure up just to get things indexed. Then I added clients (free) and more content and more external links. Now, the site is up and running for two updates. It outperforms the competing directory for virtually all of the categories but not for the general term. That will change next update mostly due to internal link structure (replaced 'home' with 'keywords') By April I expect to be on top for everything related, but there are no guarantees. Now I am in a position to send out invoices based on numerous referrals and excellent serps. Most of the perspective clients are laughing when I tell them how little it will cost. I'll be laughing when I cash their checks and the design work is done.:)

It is a lot of work and not something that can be done with zeus. The key for me is an intimate knowledge of the category and the potential client base.