Chapter 1

[Bruceper]

Introduction
Recently I was asked to write a small "book" about making money with directory websites. The results of which you are reading here.

This may sound like a strange opening, and I will agree that it is. However the fact comes across that there are so many things you can do with a directory to earn money that a book might make my life a little harder. Why a little harder? Because it means exposing everything that I know, some things I don't know, and one way of finding out what works in earning money on the internet.

So instead of telling you that the secret to earning money on the internet with a directory site will be in chapter 42 (yay 42!), I will tell you right now. The secret is hard work and busting your back at making what you have the best.

OK, so that's no secret. Our dad's told us this when we were 7 and we still don't believe him. But it's the truth. Now what is hard work? That's where the definition gets a little fuzzy when it comes to the online world of making money, and the "real life" world of making money.

This "book" will detail some ways to make money, some real world business practices, some knowledge and some advice on all aspects of running a directory website successfully..


Chapter 1 - I found this cool directory script that can do this amazing stuff and I'm going to be a millionaire!
Chapter 2 - Someone should give me free content, I can't make it myself!
Chapter 3 - Be a good host, or find one now (includes domain registrars)
Chapter 4 - Getting a makeover, making your site look good
Chapter 5 - Traffic, when a traffic jam a good thing
Chapter 6 - Adding advertising
Chapter 7 - Finding advertising
Chapter 8 - Google is your friend, so take him out to lunch
Chapter 9 - The ultimate combo - content, looks and traffic and with cash for dessert
Chapter 10 - Starting all over again
Chapter 11 - Security - A blanket just isn't enough (bonus chapter)
Chapter 12 - Payment systems - Can you afford not to get paid?


Chapter 1 - I found this cool directory script that can do this amazing stuff and I'm going to be a millionaire!

Great title isn't it? It's probably not going to happen but in this world anything is possible. The first thing that you really need to is to determine your goals. Lets say you determine that you need your online business - it IS a business - to replace the income from your current job. Regardless of where you are located, who you are, what education you have, your background, your skin colour, religion or whatever obstacle you might see in your life, most of the population would all like to lose our boss and work for ourselves. For this example I will assume you need $2500 per month to replace your income. If you need double that, then double what i'm about to tell you, if you need half of that... and so on.

So you determine that you need $2500 per month to live on. And you go online and find this great script for $100. Now you're going to need somewhere to put it, and instead of going for some cheesy free host with an ultra long URL you decide to buy your own domain name for $10 (for more on domain names read chapter 3). Great, now what?

Well, you can work your butt off and hope that one site can make you $2500 per month. Or you can work your butt off and hope that you can 10 sites make $250 per month. Really when we're talking about an online business, I have found that it is easier to make money when you have multiple sites. But if 10 sites can make you $2500, why not make 100 sites and make $25000 per month?

WHOA! Don't get carried away. Maybe after you replace your income you'll decide to keep working at your job a while longer, use your newly doubled income to hire someone to do the work for you and then you can start adding more and more.

Whether you want to make one site, 10 sites, 100 or 1000, all of the information that you will find here will apply. My personal preference is the mid sized sites that can make a few hundred dollars a month each. And I'll let you know why it's my preference later on.

But lets get back to the point, and the really easy point at that. You want to know how to make money with a directory script and I'll tell you what I know and what I've seen. I have some experience with working on the internet. I started my first commercial site way back in 1995, since then I've owned and sold and bought hundreds of domain names (perhaps even thousands, I don't count). I've run directory scripts for years now and I've built them, changed them, upgraded them, traded them, sold them, and worked on them.

At the current time I am only running around a dozen directory sites. Some very small that I haven't worked on much, and some medium to large sized. Not all of them make money, and we'll get to that in a bit. The ones that do make money bring in varying amounts of funds from numerous sources. The source of your money depends on what your directory is about, this is the first big tip that I'll tell you about.

So like we discussed earlier, you have your script, and you have your domain name. Lets say the name is bobs-links.com. About the only thing you're going to get out of this is a general directory, which is a site that lists links from all sorts of categories. Since this directory doesn't specialize in anything in particular, you can't get really good advertisers since there just isn't the draw to your site like a specialized directory would have.

But what if the domain was fishing-links.com? Then you could go after a market! The fishing market is a huge business with everything from boats and trailers, to bait, rods, reels, lures, tackle boxes, outfitters, fishing lodges, trucks to tow the boat, oil (for two/four stroke motors and the truck), tv shows, magazines, trade shows and the list goes on and on and on. But it's all about fishing, and that's the point. Even though the list I gave you started to get really general (trucks, oil, tv shows, magazines) it was all focused on the one subject and this is where it pays off.

When your site can say that it is all about fishing, and then place ads on the site from General Motors, Cabela's, Rapala, Beckman, Fenwick, Johnson, Humminbird, Minn Kota, quaker state, royal purple, K&N, Jegs, Bayliner, Chris Craft, Larson, Johnson (if you've never heard of these companies don't worry, but they're really big into advertising and fishing) and any other company you can find that will pay you. The opportunities are endless really. Just because it's about fishing doesn't mean it's about fishing rods, it's about the lifestyle and all the gear someone could ever want.

So now you set your sights on making a fishing directory. Suddenly you realize you know nothing about fishing! Well the good news is that you can make your directory on any subject and it can be huge. But for our example we're going to stick with fishing.

The next thing after the directory script and domain name you're going to need is content. It's a vague word but in the directory world this means categories and links. A category is simply a heading, such as boat motors or fishing rods. We'll get to links in a bit.

For fishing we could have 2-300 categories easily. You could add all these categories to your directory and be done with it. However with 300 categories on your home page users would be confused and lost at the selection you offer. Which introduces us to subcategories. Subcategories (subcats) go inside a category and are an offshoot of the category. For example we could have boat motors as a category, and inside that category we have subcats named "two stroke motors", "four stroke motors", "engine oil", "two stroke oil" and the list goes on. Subcats are a way to better organize your directory.

So now you have categories and subcats and all is well. People will find your site, add their facorite links and you'll have a million links in a week and making a million dollars a month in no time right? Wrong. For different types of sites content means different things. For a directory site it means you have to add links yourself, but it's not limited to only links.

A "link" is a link to a website or a store that sells the product in a specific category. If your site is empty and just filled with categories people will show up, see that there is nothing there and leave disgusted, never to return.

Other forms of content are articles that you either write yourself or can get for free online, a blog, white papers, press releases, software/programs, coupons, ebooks and the list goes on. Content is basically stuff you can add, that adds substance to you site.

Copyright 2007 Bruce Peresky - All Rights Reserved - No duplication permitted without written permission from the author