Monetize Your Website by Creating a Paid Web Directory

When it comes to monetizing strategies or techniques for websites, many people will just think about using adsense and affiliates. Adsense is popular because it easy to add to websites. Affiliates also easy to implement. And if you market well, you can make much more money with affiliates than adsense.

It's always good though to think of other ways to make money with your website. You know the old saying, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Who knows, adsense could start charging a huge fee to join or your affiliate products could become unpopular. Here's an easy way to monetize your website that many people don't think about: create a paid web directory.

When people think of web directories, they might think about a stand alone site like dmoz.org. However, what stopping you from putting a directory subpage on your site?

One of the most famous web directories is actually on a subdomain. Can you think of it? You've probably visited it more than once.

The directory is dir.yahoo.com (Yahoo's web directory).

Yahoo's web directory charges $299 per year to have websites listed. In fact, many webmasters will get their first inbound link from this directory because it's popular and high quality. A Yahoo web directory link is one of the best paid links to have. It helps you get better search engine rankings.

Anyways, back to your website. Obviously, your website is not as popular as Yahoo, but if you have a quality site with good content and some consistent traffic, you might be able to charge $10 or more a month.

Maintain Your Directory

To make it easier for you to maintain your web directory, use directory scripts (directory management software). Directory scripts keep your directory organized with categories. Also, it helps your potential customers by having a form where they can submit their websites. The form makes it easy for your customers to submit their sites. They don't have to open their email account to contact you. Once a customer has submitted their site, you can have the scripts email you the customer's information.

What about customer payments? That's also automated by the directory scripts. The scripts make it easy for your customers to give you money. Simply add a paypal button on the submission form.

I would use paypal because it's a well-known online payment service. Also, paypal allows non-paypal customers the ability to pay with a credit card and paypal is easy to integrate with most directory scripts. Just don't forget other payment methods like check and money order for people who don't like to pay with credit card.

Here's a forum thread about free web directory scripts (talk.iwebtool.com/thread9648.html). This thread can help you get started on your search for a great directory script for your site.

Promote Your Directory

Don't forget to promote your directory. Blog about it. Write a press release about it. Go on forums and post about it. Get multiple links pointing to it. Buy adwords clicks. Basically, you can use the same promotional methods you use for your website.

Also, put your directory in a place where internet users can find it. If you do this, you will attract more customers. Don't hide it in a page that no one will visit. Put a link to your directory from your home page, preferably above the fold. More people will join your directory because they'll get more exposure since it's one click away from your front page.

Pricing Your Directory

There's two main ways to price your directory. You can charge a one-time lifetime fee. If you have a small, low-to-medium traffic site, this may help you get your first couple of sales. Webmasters love paying one time for lifetime links. As you may remember, Yahoo's directory charges $299 a year. And one of the well-known text link brokers (text-link-ads.com) also charges monthly fees. By charging a one-time fee, you'll be giving your potential customers an attractive bargain.

The other option in pricing is charging monthly. If you have a high quality, popular site, this pricing option can turn your website into a passive income generator. For example, just having 20 sites in your directory for $20 a month is a recurring $400 a month. Many website owners would love to have $400 a month from their website. And the $400 doesn't include the adsense and affiliate revenues. How's that for motivation to make your website better?

As your get more traffic and higher page rank, you can always raise the price. However, a good business practice is not to raise the price for those sites that were submitted under the lower price. For example, let's say you have a one-time fee of $40. Ten sites pay the $40 to join your directory. After six months, you increase your traffic and page rank. Thus, you're able to raise the fee to $100. I would not charge the first ten sites the $60 to meet the current price. This business practice will make your customers happy. In fact, I would put a written guarantee on your directory that you will not charge old customers extra if you do raise the price.

Raising The Quality Of Your Directory

Only accept quality sites in your directory. This makes your directory more useful, both for your website visitors and your customers. If someone submits a site that doesn't have a lot of pages or has low quality content, don't be afraid to reject it. You don't want to make your directory look like any site can join. A couple bad sites is all it takes to bring down the credibility of your directory. Only accept quality sites. You'll miss some sales in the short-term but you'll reap the long-term benefits of building a high quality directory. By only accepting good sites, you'll attract more good sites to join which will further raise the quality of your directory.

Finally, every approved site should be relevant to your industry or niche. If you have a blog about dogs, don't accept sites about celebrity gossip. If your visitors come to your site looking for tech deals, don't approve wedding sites!

Conclusion

If you're looking to further monetize your site, give web directories a try. You may be surprised with their profit potential.

Source:
Ryan Caldwell, "How To Squeeze More Income Out Of Your Blog." Performancing. URL: (http://performancing.com/node/6463)