Remember my Links idea ? I was sure it was a great idea but I didn’t know how to capitalise on it. Now it seems the idea has caught on around the web directory community - I wonder if I can claim to be the father of this movement :)
PhpLinkDirectory even has a spawn off of their core web directory software. They’ve made theirs available for free. PhpLinkBid also has a paid version.
Here’s an example of a successful bid directory: It’s called Big Web Links.
BigWebLinks.com is registered 11-Mar-06 to
Registrant:
Mystik Media
296 Captain Beam Blvd
Hampstead, North Carolina 28443
United States
In the space of three short months, they’ve taken their website to a Google Page Rank of 7. In doing so, they’ve attracted a host of willing customers wanting to boost their own Page Rank (Your PR increases the more inbound links you have, especially from other high PR sites). The thing about bid directories is that it is very easy to work out how much revenue they are grossing. I went through each of their sub directories and added up all the listings. $36010.15 - that’s how much they’ve made in THREE MONTHS! It’s not quite a million dollars but it’s a great start.
I was fascinated at who buys links and went through a tedious break down of each of the categories:
| Category | Total |
| Advertising | $50.00 |
| Arts | $380.10 |
| Automotive | $869.24 |
| Blogs | $211.80 |
| Business | $563.60 |
| Computers | $927.00 |
| Consumer Electronics | $174.80 |
| Dating | $389.60 |
| Education | $149.91 |
| Employment | $200.01 |
| Entertanment | $289.70 |
| Environment | $84.00 |
| Famous People | $79.90 |
| Finance | $470.40 |
| Food and Beverage | $115.00 |
| Forums | $131.90 |
| Free Stuff | $109.70 |
| Furniture | $149.70 |
| Gambling | $1,419.31 |
| Games | $315.90 |
| Government | $50.00 |
| Graphics | $224.90 |
| Health | $747.80 |
| Home | $269.80 |
| Home Improvement | $911.30 |
| Humor | $109.90 |
| Insurance | $210.80 |
| Internet | $49.90 |
| Kids and Teens | $79.90 |
| Law | $249.70 |
| Manufacturing | $344.50 |
| Marketing | $975.50 |
| Music | $239.90 |
| News | $71.01 |
| Pets | $411.79 |
| Photography | $89.90 |
| Real Estate | $1,193.40 |
| Recreation | $99.90 |
| Reference | $306.80 |
| Regional | $385.70 |
| Science | $79.00 |
| Scripts and Development | $79.80 |
| Shopping | $1,830.75 |
| Society | $80.00 |
| Sports | $496.71 |
| Telecommunications | $406.07 |
| Travel | $710.21 |
| Web Design | $213.90 |
| Web Directories | $17,456.19 |
| Web Hosting | $199.80 |
| Webmaster Related | $152.95 |
| Wedding | $200.80 |
| Grand Total | $36,010.15 |
It’s interesting to see from this breakdown that the big money making niches on the internet are Gambling, Real Estate, Shopping, and Web Directories. Yep, a whopping $17,456.19 was spent on web directory links on a web directory site.
I must say, I could never have executed as well as these guys have. Not only is their design clean and awesome, they really know how to market their site. From what I can tell, they’ve spent a few grand on buying links from high PR sites like
I’ve learnt two things about running a web directory out of this
- You must have a great design
- You must have a high Google Page Rank
… and I guess it would also help if I wasn’t working full time on my normal day job… excuses, excuses, hehehe
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[…] its own search ranking. (Try searching for Big Web Links and you will not be able to find the bidding directory website I blogged about earlier!). There’s a lot of speculation on whether all this is being done manually or whether they […]
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