strategy Are paid directories back?

[DotEverything]

Are paid directories back? Or are they still a thing of the past?

 

[King]

As in?

 

[DotEverything]

Meaning.....years ago....paid directories were a good business. Are they still? Or are they a thing of the past?

Business Directories

 

[Chris Hydrick]

What comes to mind for me when I hear "paid directory" are/were advanced/optimized niche networks such as TvRepairMan.com.

If I recall correctly, it ran, or still runs on, a pay-per-call lead gen site. Where, an enduser (customer needing a TV Repair) will call a phone number, and that call will get redirected to a local repair man. The repair man makes $XXX, and the lead gen website get I think would earn around $25 per call.

See the Wikipedia of Howard Lerman

After seeing a salesman trying to attract new customers to a gym with a “Wheel of Savings”, Lerman came up with the idea for GymTicket.com, a lead generation service that directed people to gyms in their area. Within a year, GymTicket.com had over 3,000 gyms across the country signed up.[7]

Lerman and his team expanded their business to include nine additional categories, including LocalVets.com and TVRepairman.com. As the group considered itself to be the "next Yellow Pages", they condensed this designation to create the company name, "Yext".[7]

Lerman decided to focus on this business listing model, and spun out the pay-per-call business as a separate company called Felix. He then sold Felix to IAC’s CityGrid Media for $30 million in April 2012. All proceeds from the sale were reinvested to fund Yext's new Powerlistings product,[10] now called Yext Listings.[11] Yext's Knowledge Engine now offers a suite of products, expanding the company's services beyond simply business listings.[2]

Though, that's a beefed up version. It could be as simple as W pays Y to list X on Z.

In return, W will market X to related niche customers, to drive traffic, and potential leads to Z for Y.

See the Web Directory Wikipedia page for more.

Web directories may be general in scope, or limited to particular subjects or fields. Entries may be listed for free, or by paid submission (meaning the site owner must pay to have his or her website listed).

Monetizing[edit]
Directories have various features in their listings, often depending upon the price paid for inclusion:

• Cost
  • Free submission – there is no charge for the review and listing of the site
  • Paid submission – a one-time or recurring fee is charged for reviewing/listing the submitted link
• No follow – there is a rel="nofollow" attribute associated with the link, meaning search engines will give no weight to the link
• Featured listing – the link is given a premium position in a category (or multiple categories) or other sections of the directory, such as the homepage. Sometimes called sponsored listing.
• Bid for position – where sites are ordered based on bids
• Affiliate links – where the directory earns commission for referred customers from the listed websites
• Reciprocity
  • Reciprocal link – a link back to the directory must be added somewhere on the submitted site in order to get listed in the directory. This strategy has decreased in popularity due to changes in SEO algorithms which can make it less valuable or counterproductive.[7]
  • No Reciprocal link – a web directory where you will submit your links for free and no need to add link back to your website

 

[twiki]

Done and dust.

 

[DotEverything]

As in?

Done and dust.

Why do you think?

 

[twiki]

Why do you think?

Been there.

 

[DotEverything]

Been there.

my understanding there are some successful ways to do it

 

[twiki]

my understanding there are some successful ways to do it

There is a successful way to sell anything, including land on the moon. But the field is now done, however there will always be some guys still doing it.

 

[TCK]

IMHO, there is a place for highly specialized niche directories that also include high quality content. Generic Web directories don't seem to thrive anymore. In fact, most are defunct or aren't updated anymore.

 

[DotEverything]

IMHO, there is a place for highly specialized niche directories that also include high quality content. Generic Web directories don't seem to thrive anymore. In fact, most are defunct or aren't updated anymore.

Thank you

Any examples of successful directories?

Do you know if any good private label templates?

 

[NickB]

from last year, but still applicable.....

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/web-directories-list/287799/

Most directories are sh*t now and not worth the time, energy and can have a negative impact

 

[TCK]

Thank you

Any examples of successful directories?

Do you know if any good private label templates?

There are many niche directories. One that comes to mind is this one:

https://www.forbes.com/lists/list-directory/

I don't know of any private label templates that I could recommend. I think you are aware of one or two that have been used in the past.

 

[TCK]

If you want to have a successful directory, then it must be content based.

 

[DotEverything]

If you want to have a successful directory, then it must be content based.

Agree. It’s a good bit of work.

 

[ikhub]

Paid Web Directory are quite relevant if you can fly back time using a time machine. Unfortunately for that you need to wait till future until time machine is invented.

 

[DotEverything]

Paid Web Directory are quite relevant if you can fly back time using a time machine. Unfortunately for that you need to wait till future until time machine is invented.

So, if I have a time-machine, they are a good business?

 

[Robbie]

We have Mot-Station.com it’s something every car / motorbike needs once over 3 years old in the UK.

we built it for free and it gets ok traffic but only three owners of the garages pay out of the thousands listed.

There are other sites in the UK like Bark.com, TrustATrader.com, CheckaTrade.com etc who all work either on a monthly subscription or pay per lead but they invest heavily to advertise so I am not sure the profit margins are that high...

I would say you need either a small niche that you can own or have outstanding SEO skills to outrank everyone in the category.

just my two cents...

 

[Rich]

Until last year I ran a local guide for the catskill mountains with folks still submitting their website link/business info for $10 each. I think if you do the right advertising inside a niche it can be successful. Agree with TCK it should have relevant content to help with indexing in search engines.

 

[NLP]

Wasted effort, unless you have developed relationships in the industry/location, A LOT of quality content, and a lot of time. (And probably money for paid advertising).

Nobody really consults these things anymore, unless it's an industry-leading brand like Forbes or WeddingWire. Those are robust websites that have a lot of content beyond the directory, and decades in business.

 

[Mytz.com]

What are the main things in it?

 

[lock]

It works backwards someone has the targeted traffic and they categorize it. Most of what your talking about would be ghost towns. But see sig tor traffic exchanges.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Think of the collapse of 'Yellow Pages' which was the leader in the paper print version, as such the online paid directories have followed the same decline - only faster.

 

[loredan]

Oh directories... used to run lots of them from '02-'03 until Google killed them off.

 

[TheBaldOne]

I think that 'paid directories' as in just a site with nothing but directories on are a thing of the past.

However, , having paid directories on a website is the way in which, IMO, is the way to mature and evolve the 'paid directories'. By this I mean the building of a website that includes such is the logical progression of the idea. Take the domain 'AnywhereCarpenters.whatever', now that should have general pages about the area and woodworking, say local evening classes on the subject, any old wooden furniture that was made locally and now in the local museum, brief history of companies in the area concerned with the timber or furniture trade, etc., etc.. Then when you have this website set up you can incorporate local advertising on these grounds and offer local companies highlighted spots or boxed advertising placements on the different places as well as having a 'directory'.

Of course such directories can also include things like architects, antiques shops, builders, and anything else that could possibly be associated with the use of wood in some form or other and it is not limited to just 'carpenters'.

One thing that used to drive me personally mad is when in the past you went on a directory site, say for Idaho you would get listings for Hawaii and Alaska for example. So the directories have to be well sourced IMO to gain traction.