Starting Up Your Own Directory
The directory market is a very big industry; there are over a thousand of directories on the Internet today, with a couple new directories opening every day. The market is constantly growing and the main thing is that only a few directories actually make it popular. Opening and maintaining your own directory is hard work but when it’s complete and if successful, the results will pay off.
There are a number of factors you have to consider when creating your own directory. Below I will talk about the main factors and also try giving advice on how to overcome these stages.
Hosting
First of all you need a good and reliable hosting service, which I like to call the heart of the directory because without it you won’t be able to get anything up and running. Make sure you do your homework on the hosting company, find out how many customers they hold, are they reliable, are the servers secure and mostly if there system goes down often as it is irritating when you try to visit your own website only to find it down. It is not always the best option to go for the cheapest package you find, most of the time quality comes at a price so just look around for a decent hosting package.
Domain Name
The domain name is probably one of the main factors of your website. It’s a must that you have a catchy and easy to remember domain name. Also try to think of a domain name which isn’t too long; it would be best if you can think of a name which associates with the website’s service and content. Without a nice domain name user will not find it appealing and will be less attracted to your directory.
Software
Okay, now you got a good hosting and an attractive domain name, the next step is to start creating your directory. Creating a directory isn’t recommended unless you’re a decent programmer of some sort. Instead, you may go ahead and download a pre-made software and install it into your hosting. This will save you a lot more time than making the directory. If you don’t know where to find a directory software, a quick search on “link directory software” should point you to the right direction.
Website Design
A good directory needs a good design. There are many applications to use to create your design from the Adobe collections to Microsoft. It is very important to have a good website design. User will only purchase links from your directory only if they believe and trust your directory. Having a nice unique template would build their trust and increase your chances of earning money. A nice, friendly, easy to use design will attract an immense amount of users. Always remember to try keep it as simply as possible don’t add too many adverts, too much unnecessary text and also try keep it within a nice colour theme.
Directory Structure
As you are creating a directory, you will need categories. Try making the categories cover almost every aspect of your website topic as you can, the more categories you have the more better it is for your directory as your users will have a better range to place their website on. If you categorize your directory perfectly, user will have an easier selection of categories which will make your directory friendly and easy to use. If a user cannot find a category, he or she will most probably cancel listing on your directory and you cannot afford losing a user. Gaining and thinking of your categories will be the hard part but once you’re done, you’ll feel a lot better.
Listing Packages
Now comes the money making part. A website owner pays a certain amount to get listed in your directory; the majority of directories earn their revenue from this method. These are four main listing types:
| • | Featured Listings usually appear at the top of a certain category above all the regular listing submissions. It is usually in a bold and highlighted format, this is so that featured listing has greater exposure that regular listing which helps the link to gain more traffic. Therefore a featured listing is submitted for a higher fee. | | • | Regular Listings are classed as normal listing in a directory. Normal listings in directories are most of the time ordered by ranking, but the listing can also be ordered alphabetically, date of submission and so on. This type of listing can be paid or free, the design is usually a basic style with a link and description of the listed website. | | • | Reciprocal Listings are a unique type of listing, where the submitter has to link back to your directory in order to get listed. This type of listing can also be paid or free. Usually with a paid reciprocal listing the payment will be for a quicker submission approval rate. | | • | Free Listings are the ones which are completely free with no link back required. This option is usually good for non-commercial websites or charity websites. It is a good idea to initially allow free listings for a short period of time to get your directory off the ground. |
Remember users prefer to pay less than more, so make them feel that they are getting more than their moneys worth.
Support
So now you got your website made and up and running, the final thing you now need is a support system. A good customer service should be your directory’s number one priority. You need to make user feel that you care about there needs and support them when they require it. There are many ways of having a support system; you can either have FAQs, email system or a support ticket system which are mainly available for free. It would be best for your directory to have all three of those support systems. One final thing before you set off, remember to reply back to the user as soon as possible. I have seen a lot of poor customer service from websites all because of their late reply.
Take time on covering and completing these steps, if you feel that something isn’t right or good enough start over again. If you are not satisfied with your own directory then user will not be satisfied either. Cover these factors with perfection and you’ll be good to go with a good directory up and running.
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