Best Inbound Link ROI

Small company with a small budget needs best inbound link ROI

[mentor]

We are a small, 2-person company and are considering buying links in various directories. We are already listed on DMOZ and Yahoo. We are not sure which, if any, of the other directory listings(MSN, Business.com, etc) are worth the cost and will deliver the best ROI.

1) Are these paid directories worth the cost? We have about $1,000-$2,000/year to spend.

2) Does it make sense to hire a company that will submit our site to paid and free directories?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[martinibuster]

Commenting on specific directories may not be appropriate for this forum. In general, most directories don't send traffic, although some of them do. In terms of ROI you might be better off spending your money where your consumers are congregating.

If you are fishing for Alaskan salmon you charter a boat to Alaska, right? Here's an example. If you are angling for consumers of widgets, and you know that widget consumers congregate in several widget forums, wouldn't it make sense to approach the forum operators and make them an advertising proposal? In the proposal, try to get them to agree to post something positive about your product (why not, right?).

I have purchased some great advertising spots from relevant websites that send targeted traffic. Doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, either.

[Nuttakorn]

Do you have any suggestion for tools for researching the relevant website that they open for sell the advertising area? Right now, the things has been changed, many publisher use the Google Adsense and make the money from that instead. Some they suggest us the bid on the CPM in Google Adwords.

[martinibuster]

And many publishers are whining about the poor adsense payouts. Which is why many are willing to accept advertising. Even if it's a banner, as long as it's a direct link it's still good.

[mentor]

Assuming that the site will accept a banner, does the banner have to be static to receive the benefit of an inbound link? There are many sites that offer "rotating" banner ads.

[opifex]

martinibuster is right on the mark. especially since your site or product are already accessable from at least 2 sources, search for the best venues to get linked from. check out what sites are refered to in searches for your product or service .... if any are directories it would be a good bet to go with them for your advertising.

[idolw]

i'd buy adwords. at least you can get direct and somehow targetted traffic from such links.