Paid Directories

Business Directories - Why All Small Businesses Should Be Listed

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:47:00 +0000

Business directories are a great asset for businesses across the country, but are incredibly useful for small business owners. Placing a directory listing can be very beneficial for small businesses and will help improve exposure, revenue, and for quality business, a business directory listing will can improve reputation.

Exposure is a key aspect for the growth of any business. Business directories allow small businesses to expand their reach to new clients, having a direct effect on revenue. Some online business directories see views ranging well in the millions each month, and have helped many small businesses double - even triple their reach in a short time.

Revenue - A single listing in a business directory has potential to be seen by hundreds of thousands of potential clients each month. With the huge number of consumers viewing business listings, small businesses are guaranteed to see an increase in clients. This obviously has a direct effect on the amount of revenue a business will earn each month.

Reputation - Directory listings for small businesses help increase a their reputation on multiple levels. First, most business directories require a fee to be paid for each listing, letting consumers know a business is willing to spend money to get their name out there. This not only tells consumers and potential clients that a business is serious about their work, but also is willing to spend money to prove to consumers that they want their business.

Second, regarding reputation, most business directories allow people to rate and review business they've used so potential clients can be better informed about businesses in their area. This is a great thing for quality businesses, because it shows consumers that their business wants to be reviewed and they are confident they will receive good feedback. This is a huge plus for small businesses looking to build their reputation through pleased clients. An outstanding reputation will not only increase clients, but revenue and future growth as well.

These are just a few of the reasons that all small businesses should be listed in business directories. There are some new directories, referred to as a neighborhood business directory, that is built solely around customer reviews. These new "invite only" directories required all businesses to be invited by a consumer who has used the businesses service. This is not only helping out small businesses, but has become very beneficial to consumers looking for quality in the business they choose to use.

8 Valuable Insights Into Paid Directories

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:22:00 +0000

Web directories have numerous benefits. Informative decisions must be made when choosing between submitting a site to a paid or free web directory. Whatever your choice, ensure that your website conforms to all required norms: complete, detailed, user friendly, and distinctive.
The options are many and stem from two main categories: free directories and paid directories.

A free directory is a great way of getting back links. Your site will probably get listed on a PR3 or PR4 page. Sometimes, your site will get listed within a few days otherwise it may even take a month. But it can also happen that the free site never gets around to listing your site. The options in the free category are numerous and one can opt for an open directory project such as DMOZ or a free directory like JoeAnt. Apart from main directories there are niche directors that are specific to one segment only like health, alternative medicine, and so on. Remember, every listing will add to the website's Google PageRank and free directories of standing do provide a steady rate of referral traffic.

Many free directories have editors who do the vetting for no remuneration; this allows the directory to include hundreds of sites at little or no cost. Directories like DMOZ are used by Google and other search engines as databases; this means that your web site will automatically be listed in several major search engines and directories.

A paid directory is one that offers premium service which includes faster approvals. Most paid directories deliver high quality traffic or a good PageRank. Less crowded than free directories, your site stands a good chance of being listed on a higher PR page. Some directories like Yahoo charge a fee for considering a site for inclusion. This is towards costs of reviewing your site and the fee is a recurring expense to be paid yearly. However, there are exceptions where non-profit sites are reviewed free but there is a special path for submission of such sites. Other sites charge a one-time inclusion fee. The costs of paid directories can vary from US $ 25.00 (one time fee) to US$ 299 (annual recurring fee).

Whether you should opt for a paid or free inclusion depends on your needs.

o Consider what is your goal?

o Determine how much immediate exposure your website needs?

o Is there time to wait for a free inclusion or would you benefit from a quick paid inclusion?

o Is there budget provision for paid inclusion: pay per click or recurring yearly expenses?

o Do you have time to assume the role of a reviewer and vet your directory before a free inclusion?

o Or, would it be more feasible to pay for a professional editor to review the web site?

o Learn how each directory is organized and what its guidelines are.

o Surf the net and find out where your competitors are listed.

Make a working plan and choose wisely what will benefit your business plan the most.

Why Paid Web Directories Are Better Than the Freebies

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:49:00 +0000

In the online world there are two types of web directories that you can submit your website to, free web directories and paid web directories. Now you may be wondering why you would pay for something when there is a free alternative available. While free is indeed a good thing in life, when it comes to the web directories you submit to there are several reasons why paid web directories are better than the freebies.

Submitting your website to web directories is one of the most effective ways to get your online presence known by way of increasing your page rank or PR. Think of it as advertising. As with any business, the more your name is out, the more your business gets visited and thus the more you sell. The same holds true in the online world as well. The more your website is seen, the more traffic you get to your website, and the more sales you achieve. Once your PR is elevated, your website is then shown ahead of the rest on the search engines and this can lead to more clicks and more cash.

Just as with advertising a brick-and-mortar business, there is a certain amount you can do for free, but usually to effectively advertise you must put out some money. The same principle is true with web directories. To get the best you will have to pay a few bucks to do so. How much? It all depends as there are hundreds to thousands of web directories that you can submit your website too. The prices can range from $3 per year all the way to $199 per year depending on the web directory. Obviously a paid web directory with the name of Yahoo will command a much higher price than that of ABC web directory and rightfully so. The more traffic that visits a web directory, the more you can expect to pay to get a piece of that traffic to your website.

While there are many benefits to using a paid web directory over a free one, here are just a few:

o Visibility: Many free web directories sport a whopping three to five visitors per day, hardly enough to warrant your trouble, but a paid web directory can have thousands of visitors per day thus increasing your chances of getting hits and thereby increasing your visibility.

o Less SPAM: How do you spell online death? S-P-A-M. Many free web directories do not monitor their sites very well and as a result there is a ton of SPAM sites that are posted. If you are deemed a SPAMMER by association you can actually get penalized by the search engines or even worse, disallowed all together. Paid wed directories will monitor their sites far better and rid them of these SPAM sites keeping everything nice and tidy and penalty free.

o Higher PR: If a web directory is a paid web directory, that is there only job and so they will be very concerned about their PR. This is extremely good for you as the higher their page rank is the more they will be seen on the search engines and again, this increases your chances of being found. Many free web directories are simply lost in the shuffle and are therefore rarely hit.

If you have poured your heart and soul into the creation of your website, you owe it to yourself to advertise the right way. If you were advertising a regular business, you would go for the Real Yellow Pages over some free news flier wouldn't you? Of course you would. Even though you have to pay for the advertising, you know that the chances of people finding you is much greater in the Yellow Pages than with the free flier and that is what will lead to a successful business with plenty of sales. Online is no different, a paid web directory will beat out a free web directory any day of the week. That is not to say that all free web directories are bad, but you must be wary of the ones you do use. Remember, in business, time is money, so spend both your money and your time wisely.

Features of a Quality Paid Directory

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:52:00 +0000

One of the best ways to get your website known and ranked higher in the search engines is by submitting your website to web directories. There are literally thousands of these web directories out there these days and to ensure that the big search engines like Google and Yahoo! are going to find you, it is important that you make sure you are submitting to the quality web directories, so how do you determine what features make for a quality web directory?

There are several things you should look for in a web directory before you spend the time to submit your website information and these include:

o Page Rank: This is the number that Google gives out to pages on the Internet and ranks them in importance from 0 to 10. Not only should the web directory that you want to submit to have a decent page rank, but make sure that the page of the category in which your site will be featured has page rank as well. A higher page rank generally means a higher amount of people clicking on a day to day basis and this will lead to an increased chance of those people finding your site.

o Appropriate category: Sometimes a directory can have a wide range of categories to choose from and sometimes only a hand full. Be sure that your website will go into a category that makes sense. You don't want to have a cell phone site and be in the dog food category because there was no cell phone or mobile phone category. This type of action can actually hurt you with the search engines so you don't ever want to do this.

o Quality of listings: Take a minute or two and click on a few of the sites that are listed on the directory. If you are running into a bunch of sites that have no page rank, or are worse yet spam sites, run away with winged feet. Not that every site associated with the web directory has to be ranked, but a quality web directory will have quality sites listed on it, it only makes sense. If Google views you as associating with sites that spam you will be lumped into that category and your personal ranking will be hurt.

o Site design: A quality web directory will look up to date in its design and will not be littered with ads. Some ads are alright as everyone is entitled to make a living, but if the web directory is clogged with these ads, then chances are they care more about you clicking on their ads then they do about you submitting your website to their directory.

o New links: Many quality web directories have a link that you can follow that will take you to the newer submissions on the site. Take the time to check these out and make sure they actually were recently added. It does you no good to submit to a web directory that may have actually been abandoned and has no one to update the submissions.

Finding good quality web directories to submit your website to will only help you in the long run, so it pays to take a little time and determine if a web directory is actually worth your time.

Submit your site to the premier quality human edited web directory. RankDir is especially designed to be search engine friendly.

Why Advertise With Free Online Business Directories?

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:33:00 +0000

Remember the time when all information about people and businesses were monopolized by thick Yellow Pages directories? That was a long time ago. Nowadays, everyone uses the Internet for almost everything, from paying utility bills to shopping for lingerie.Free online business directories are currently at business because of the consumer clamor for an online compilation of business information. That probably explains why when people forget the pizza 'hotline', they respond instinctively by searching the pizza parlor number online.

There are many business directories existing online. Many comprehensive and reliable directories are paid. That is why most small businesses cannot maintain their business information in those directories. But why should people stick to paid directories? There are alternative options in the form of business indexes with the same information as paid directories while maintaining it as no fee, search able, usable, free-for-all online indexes.

Free online business directories can also become very good forms of advertising. Even though a business owns a small part of the market share for, say pizza. Strategic placement of small businesses among major players in the market provides enough advertising and induces curiosity among people to find out more about the start-up company. Given the fact that many people consult these directories online, it allows the product to become known to consumers. The start-up company can simply follow it up with more advertising campaigns to support the earlier advertising efforts made through free business directories.

The benefit of online business directories is obvious-it is for free. But there is more to that single advantage because it triggers other effects that add to the desirability of free business indexes. Since no membership fee is required from businesses that want to be included in the index, more businesses can have their names included in the index. And when more business entities take part in this free-for-all business index, the consumers are given a more comprehensive set of choices.

Naturally, people want to look at directories that do not curtail their choices. They are not limited to established companies that have the machinery for advertising. And because businesses can save up on online advertising costs, they can divert the amount saved into other ventures. It is translates into company savings and thus, they do not need to make the consumers pay for the advertising cost through additional fees added on top of their products' original price.

So the next time you encounter a paid directory website online, think twice about shelling 20 bucks for the service. While it is not necessarily bad for the business to engage in paid directories, it is not the best option either. Businesses may receive the same directory inclusion benefit for free, with even better results. Free online business directories are economical ways of landing on business indexes. These websites are created to be utilized by all people in the marketing spectrum: from business people to the consumer, and everyone else in between. Make good use of it-because the best things in life are for free.

Can Web Directories Submission Help Your Website Ranking?

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:41:00 +0000

Web directories are collections of links to other pages in the web, they are like the Directories or Yellow Pages we have in the real world, they organize websites under relevant categories related topics. Web directories used to be very important as most people used them to find what they are looking for unlike today when most people use search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. However these Directories are still of great importance especially when promoting our websites in the following ways:

Getting a link to your site from SEO friendly web directories improve can the chances of your site ranking higher for particular keyword in the search engine. Thus Your website will be found by more people who are searching for that particular keyword as your site will show up in the first few results for those words. There are so many factors which search engines consider to determine a website rank for certain keyword. One of these factors is links to the website. The page rank of a site is directly related to the number of quality links it has. The more links you have pointed to your website, with some distinction of the keyword you want to rank high for, the better your website ranking in the search results.

Though web directories are not as popular as search engines, there are still a good number of people who still use them to look for information thus web directories directly drives a sizable targeted traffic to your site since these visitors are genuinely interested in sites they find.

For a new website which has yet to be crawled, web directory link would help the search engine in finding your website and thus including it in its database. Directories are a great place for new websites to be submitted because the search engines frequently crawl them. When a new site is submitted to a web directory, search engines often crawl and index the site.

The Differences of Free vs Paid Directory

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:39:00 +0000

First a web directory is web site that specializes in finding, categorizing and listing links to other resources on the World Wide Web. Owners of web sites can submit their sites for review and possible inclusion. Those sites are then reviewed for relevancy and site content to determine if the site would have value to the other internet surfers.

By using a Web Directory your site can gain backlinks which are like doorways to your website for traffic to flow. They are also considered votes of quality for search engine rankings which brings additional targeted traffic through search related actions. Web Directory links create unique and topically relevant backlinks to your site.

The thing to note is that all links are not created equal. The fundamental difference in directories is free vs paid. The differences between the two are like night and day or BMW and skateboard.

Free Directory

What you get with free directories are an extremely crowded directory where your link will get lost in a crowd of low quality links, less traffic from the directory due to less visibility, much longer time between submission and acceptance, very time consuming as you typically need to submit to hundreds of these to get the value of one link from a quality paid directory and your listing will typically get placed with listings for low quality spam filled sites.

Let's just face facts, most people start a business to generate revenue and a directory is a business. With directories that allow for free submissions the owners look to generate revenue from the site in other ways and those other ways will decrease the quality of the directory.

One way they generate revenue on free directories is by installing adsense on it. Those adsense advertisements compete with the listings on the directory for the visitor traffic and decrease the value of a link in the directory.

The other common way to generate revenue for a free directory is to sell advertising space on it. The idea being to use the lure of a low quality free link on the directory to draw traffic in to see the paid advertisements like site wide sponsored links, site featured links, site wide footer links, site wide partner links and they can call them other things also. Such as our network, friends and the list goes on.

The fact is that search engines devalue web sites that sell placement of site wide links on them and that severely limits the value of a listing on those directories.

Pay for Review Directory

Some of the things which a pay for review directory will bring you and that you should look for are a directory that is maintained by professionals, rich in content with articles and quality resources/listings, unique design with additional features such as deep linking options, quick review times usually 24 to 48 hours and a directory that is focused on providing a destination resource for visitors which generates traffic.

The focus to be a destination resource is easily spotted by features and content. Does the directory provide something in addition to a place to submit links? Is there a blog with content in it? Are there articles posted within the directory category structure? Are there other features that are just there for visitor's enjoyment such as an art gallery?

In addition there should not be any site wide links for sponsors, there should not be distracting/traffic bleeding adsense. A link from a quality paid directory has more value than free links. They are seen as a higher quality endorsement of the sites listed there. It is our hope that this will help you identify a directory that is worth submitting to from one that is not.

Paid Directories Articles Directories

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:18:00 +0000

The following at the top 25 article directories by PR.

1. Ezinearticles.com (PR6)
2. ArticleCity.com (PR6)
3. Goarticles.com (PR5)
4. Articledashboard.com (PR6)
5. IdeaMarketers.com (PR5)
6. ArticlesBase.com (PR5)
7. ArticlesFactory.com (PR6)
8. ArticleAlley.com (Pr5)
9. Articlecube.com (PR5)
10. Articleclick.com (Pr5)
11. Contentmart.com (Pr5)
12. Articletrader.com (PR5)
13. Contentdesk.com (Pr4)
14. Free-articles-zone.com (PR4)
15. Articlemuse.com (PR4)
16. Article-hangout.com (PR4)
17. Articlewheel.com (PR4)
18. Articlemap.com (PR4)
19. Articlerich.com (PR4)
20. Articleson.com (PR4)
21. Articlegarden.com (PR4)
22. Articlesphere (PR4)
23. Articleco.com (PR4)
24. Postarticles.com (PR4)
25. Submityournewarticle.com (PR4)

Top Reasons to Use Paid Directory Submission Services

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:04:00 +0000

You have heard about how an online business can boom. This is not a huge surprise since the internet is continuing to gain popularity even now. This means that a business seeking an online market is not so much unexpected. Of course, this cannot be achieved just by setting up a business website on the internet. You have to do so much more that includes search engine marketing techniques. One such technique that you should never belittle is directory submission.

Directory submission can be done by you manually or you can avail of a professional link building service. Having your directory submission needs done by a professional link building service expert can save you from a lot of headaches and wasted time. Here are the top reasons why you should seriously think about paid directory submission services.

1. Your business website can be listed on the top directories that matter.

You do not have to worry that internet users will not be able to get in touch with the business that you offer. When you are listed in a top directory website, then you are easier to find and therefore, easier for internet users to avail of your products and services.

2. When you get listed in the top directories by a professional link building service company then you can be assured of getting the job done without any hitches.

Instead of listing your own site on a few directories, have a professional link building service do the job for you. This does not only make the task easier for you but you also get assured of professional services that can guarantee you quality backlinks without any fuss or surprise expenses.

3. You can be assured of increased quality online traffic.

Your business depends much on online traffic. The more visitors that you have, the more chances of making sales. If you have consistent sales, then you can expect to become stable as a business online and make your wanted profits. All these can be achieved with professional directory submission done by a tried and tested link building service company.

Benefits of Paid Directories

noreply@blogger.com (Joshua) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:39:00 +0000

There are thousands of reputable and human edited Web directories in the Internet all of them serving one common purpose, to help webmasters promote their Web sites. There are many Web directories to choose from but in the end you will encounter two types of Web directories, they are classified free and paid directories. Although some directories may offer free and paid listing at the same time, you will come to a decision where you will either choose a free listing or a paid listing. Choosing a paid listing has many benefits over a free listing, it may cost you money but the compensation acquired in return will be more than what you will pay for.

Save Valuable Time

Paid directories usually guarantee a short period of time to review your Web site. Some Web directories guarantee twenty-four hours while others might take longer but usually not exceeding longer than a week or seven business days. The important thing to consider here is the time it will take for you to know if your submission is accepted or not in a very short period. This is important most especially if you would like to promote your Web site instantaneously to maintain status or to have an edge over your competitors. For free directories, although not all of them, it may take weeks or even more and some of them may not even inform you of the status of your submission.

Increase Chances of Acceptance

Choosing a paid directories will increase the chances of your site being accepted but again it is not guaranteed. The money you will spend will be used to cover expenses for a fast review of your Web site thus making your submission a priority and will increase the chances of your site getting listed. If you choose a free directory, your listing will be included in pending list and depending on the volume of submission it will take time before your listing will be reviewed and much worse your submission may be deleted anytime. Some directories will refund your money if your site is not accepted while others will not return your money if it is rejected. So knowing this, directory editors will be confident that sites submitted are of good quality.

You Become a Valued Customer

Promoting, acquiring a reputable rank and maintaining a directory cost financial resources and some of the money you will be spending on paid Web directories will be used not only for review fees but for promotional purposes as well. There are many reasons why some Web directories offer free services but the most common is to acquire your email address to promote some products or services, to promote advertisers or to gain income from advertising service programs. Once you opt for paid listing, you become a valued customer and everyone knows the advantages and benefits of being one, at the same time you also help Web directory owners help maintain their Web site.

Before going to paid directories set your budget and choose them very carefully. Take the time to visit some of the Web sites listed if they have good quality, read and follow their submission guidelines and Terms of Services (TOS), remember, inclusion is not guaranteed so follow them strictly. Again some Web directories will not refund your money if your Web site is rejected so take this as a word of caution. Web directories are your source of quality back links and acquiring good inbound links has many benefits including having favourable rank with search engines. Take advantage of the benefits that paid directories can offer, it is debatable if the money you will spend is worth it, but if you will take the time to read articles and books about SEO, paid Web directories are always on the menu list for SEO.