Web directories have always been around ever since the time the Internet first took its hold in public consciousness. These directories are nothing but sites that contain links to other websites, often arranged in groups. Each web directory will have categories, which will each have the lists of websites related to the subject in question. Categories are usually search able so that the visitor can get to what he or she wants quite easily.

Web directories can be free or paid. Free directories earn their money through affiliate advertising or revenue from the search engines that power the searches visitors make. But on free web directories, websites will be allowed to post their links for free. On paid directories, there will be a charge to host the address of the website. The charge could be either paid as rent for a fixed amount of time, or it could be collectible in form of pay-per-click or pay-per-sale income.

If you have a paid web directory, it is very important that you promote it in the right way. Your directory should be more visible on the visitors than the individual websites themselves. If not, people will reach the website directly and there will be no need of your directory in the first place. So, you need to invest a bit in promotion. Here are twenty of the best ways in which you can promote your paid web directory (They are arranged in order of significance, but you can take that with a pinch of salt):-

#1 – Use the power of blogging!

Blogs are working very great in every sphere of the Internet nowadays. The best thing you can do is to set up a blog that relates to your web directory in some way. If your directory has many categories, then you could select just one of them – the best selling one – as your blog subject. On this blog, make frequent posts, and below each post, put the URL of your web directory. Put a line like people can visit there for more information. Spend time promoting your blog. Its direct influence will be to drive traffic to your web directory.

#2 – Use reciprocal linking methods

This is related to blogs, but is much better actually. First you have to have your own blog. Then you scout around for other people’s blogs on similar subjects. When you get some, make your own posts on them, or reply to the ongoing threads. This will allow you to put your link. Those bloggers will do the same on your blog. However, it is good visibility to your web directory.

#3 – Use RSS Feeds

Nothing on the Internet is being done without using RSS nowadays. RSS allows people to know automatically what is being updated on your website through email alerts. If you add an RSS button on your web directory, then whenever new websites are included in their chosen categories, people will come to know through the email. They will click on the URL of your directory in the email and visit the website too. If it is pay-per-click, you get income right away!

#4 – Use article submissions

Write power-packed articles on different topics (all related to your web directory) and post them on submission directories. You will include the URL of your directory below this article. All submission directories have good SEO. Hence, visitors will be automatically directed to them when they search for things. And from there, they will come to your web directory.

#5 – Write good content for your directory

Most directory owners just set up a blank directory with links. This is bad manners, actually. You should have some content for each category, describing what it is in general. That will hook your readers’ interest.

#6 – Search engine optimize the website content

Use popular keywords that people often search for and include them in the content you are writing on your web directory pages. If you want to know what the popular keywords are at the moment, you can search from Overture or Wordtracker by visiting their websites.

#7 – Use a keyword-rich name for your web directory

While you are dealing with the Internet, the adage ‘What’s in a name?’ doesn’t work. Here, everything depends on keywords. The search engine spiders will crawl your website depending on the keywords they contain, and the same is true for the paid web directories. Therefore, including a popular keyword in the name of the web directory itself is a very good idea.

#8 – Share links with other directories

You must constantly approach other web directories to exchange links. Ask them if they would be interested in placing the URL of your web directory on theirs. They might do it if you allow them to place their link on your web directory in turn. Or, some of the more snobbish ones would just charge you some money for it. But anyways, your web directory gets exposure. And on the Internet, any exposure is good exposure!

#9 – Check up on the links you our on your paid web directory

Just because the websites are paying you to put their links on your web directory doesn’t mean that you will put them there without checking up a little. At the very least, you should visit the advertised website yourself and see if everything seems okay. Do not accept links of gambling and porn websites, because most search engines omit them from their mainstream searches. Also, do not accept blank links. All these will just tarnish the image of your web directory.

#10 – Make a good landing page

Most Internet users decide from the landing page itself if they want to go ahead on the site or turn back. Since your landing page is the page that visitors will be taken to first, you have to put some resources into making it as best as you can. Write good content on it that attracts the visitors’ eyes. And include simple tabs so that they can navigate the whole web directory easily.

#11 – Split test your options

Every small detail on the web directory has some significance. It is surprising but true that some people back off from a paid web directory just because they do not like the color of the home page. You can check up such options using split testing methods. Here, you make different versions of your web directory and then put them up on the Internet. Then you check which of them attracts the most visitors. That is the option you keep; the rest you reject.

#12 – Add content to each website link

A major mistake that many paid web directories do is that they just host links. But how would the visitors know what the links are about? It is a good idea to write two or three sentences about each website that gives the visitor an idea of what will be obtained on clicking the link.

#13 – Allow multiple tabbing

All browsers now have multiple tabbing features. Even IE has included it in its latest version so as not to left out behind Firefox and Opera. The advantage of multiple tabbing is that as visitors keep on clicking on the links on your paid web directory, they are not taken out of the home page. The links keep on opening in separate tabs in the background. That ensures better use of your web directory.

#14 – Allow permalinks

Allow your visitors to add your web directory as a permalink on their own websites. There are many websites that are on the lookout for good resources to improve their own services. Since your paid web directory is a treasure house of important website links, it could be a very good resource for visitors’ websites. In return, your web directory will get exposure on their own websites.

#15 – Sign up for an AdSense campaign

By signing up for AdSense, your web directory’s link will be put up on several websites across the Internet. You will have to pay Google for giving out these ads, and in return Google will pay the hosting websites on a pay-per-click basis. But you are not losing out on anything. In fact, you will be benefiting from Google’s expertise due to its heavy-duty search engine. And the charges will be commensurate with the number of visitors coming onto your paid directory.

#16 – Do not make your web directory look like a web directory

There are a large number of people who are turned off when they reach web directories. The mentality goes thus – they think they are visiting a website with informative content on it, but instead they are taken to a list of links. That confuses them further since they have to make a decision on which link they should click on for the information they seek. Hence, you should give them some suggestive information about what each link contains. Also, make your web directory appealing to the eye.

#17 – Allow easy bookmarking

There are ways in which you can allow people to bookmark your web directory. For example, just put up prominently that they can press CTRL+D to bookmark the directory. Many people will. And these people who bookmark your directory will visit it regularly whenever they need information.

#18 – Try out eBook marketing

eBooks are the most selling commodities on the Internet, especially in people who are looking out for information. Get some eBooks written on the categories that you are including on your website. For content, you can visit the very websites you are hosting or try out other searching options on the Internet. Then advertise these eBooks over the Internet on other websites. People will click on these ads and get directed to your directory, where you are actually selling the eBook.

#19 – Market through emails

To a certain limit, you can market through direct email advertising. Do not go overboard here, or your email will land into the junk folder. Get some leads generated. This you can do by including squeeze page links below your submitted articles or blog posts, before they directly land on to your paid web directory. Send emails to these leads, and make the email rich in information. Tell them they can visit the URL (of your web directory) if they are looking out for more information.

#20 – Try paid subscriptions

This is an apparently novel method, but one that might become popular in future. Agreed that the best things are free, even on the Internet, but making your visitors become your members for a very nominal sum – something like $1 – is a very good idea of promotion. Here you are not trying to earn money, but you are trying to hook on those visitors. If they have paid, even $1, they will bookmark your directory and visit regularly. And it will also give you good leeway in advertising your web directory openly to them, cajoling them to visit and click on your advertised website links.

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