WebMarketEdge

Are you ready to earn top dollar with your phpLinkBid directory? phpLinkBid is growing more popular every day and Webmasters are seeking ways to monetize their phpLinkBid Web sites to the max. The goal in this article is to break down some of the most important factors in monetizing your phpLinkBid Web site effectively and joining the top earners.

We’ll take a fairly extensive look at all aspects of a bidding Web directory and how to improve upon all these aspects to generate real earnings. This article is intended for the serious phpLinkBid directory owner who wants to gain a comprehensive understanding of their product, their goals and promoting their directory effectively.

If you aren’t already familiar with it, phpLinkBid is a paid directory script that allows Webmasters to start a bidding Web directory and receive payments automatically with PayPal. It is fundamentally a link directory that sorts links by bid amount – thus, the more you bid the higher you get listed. The bid model is a great incentive for link buyers, and a profitable link directory will utilize that model to it’s full potential.

So then, how do we maximize our profits? We should start by having a solid understanding of what we’re selling. When we understand the service that we are providing our customers, then we can understand how to improve upon that service. By strengthening the value of our service and conveying that value through effective marketing we create a successful model for a profitable directory.

Understanding Your Product

Directories are effectively an advertising service. Some people will list in your directory hoping for traffic, some will list hoping to improve their search engine performance through SEO/link building and some will list just to increase name recognition. It’s important to recognize the needs of our customers and potential customers, because now we can meet (and exceed) them!

So we have defined three distinct services that provide value to our customers. We’ll refer to the three services simply as Traffic, SEO and Branding. Strengthening each of these services for our customer is something any directory owner can do, regardless of budget.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these, because these are our “meat and potatos”.

1. Traffic
   Traffic is the most tangible service we can provide. If your directory is getting 1,000 unique visitors per day, a prominent link on your site will probably get quite a few clicks. Link buyers seeking traffic don’t just want anyone clicking their link though, they want quality clicks. Ten high quality clicks could be worth 100 clicks or more of lesser quality! Generate high quality traffic to your site, send high quality traffic to your customers, and you have happy customers.

2. SEO
   Many link buyers purchase links to improve their search engine performance, and link buying is all part of their SEO campaign. SEO isn’t entirely accurate – we’re providing links which affect search engine performance – but for the sake of simplicity we’ll just say SEO here. SEO is a popular part of the directory market because many Webmasters buy links with specific criteria for certain search engine factors such as link popularity, PageRank, age of site and indexed links.

3. Branding
   Some link buyers have a strong interest in name recognition, and are going for as much “reach” as possible. Branding effectively means attracting as much attention as possible to something and making it stick. Clicks aren’t necessarily as important as making sure that people notice the link and remember the name. If you see a name in a prominent position on hundreds of Web sites, you are going to get the impression that it’s a popular (hence, strong) name brand. Helping our customers achieve this goal will strengthen our own services greatly.

Improving Your Product

Our services are our product, and a better product is a better business. If we create something to be truly proud of, when it comes time to market our services it’ll be a breeze to talk about how much we can offer potential buyers, instead of a struggle trying to pitch something we aren’t even sure of!

Now that we have clearly identified three important services a directory can provide, let’s focus on how we can improve those services. Each of these subjects takes on a broad scope very quickly, but I’m going to keep it simple and cut to the chase.

1. Traffic
   In order to provide a better service for our customers seeking traffic, the immediate solution seems to be: get more traffic! The more traffic you get, the more traffic you can pass on from your directory. However, as we discussed above the quality of traffic is very important as well. This is one variable we should consider in all of our traffic building efforts.

   I’ll cover many methods of promoting your site and increasing traffic below, but without any extra visitors there are still some ways to send more traffic to your users. Try making the links more prominent and removing links of your own to get them more attention. Put your Link Leader in a prominent position so they get plenty of clicks. Put links in appropriate categories to make each page more relevant and increase the value of clicks.

2. SEO
   Building up strength in search engines takes time and work, and it is your responsibility as a directory owner to research and practice your own SEO and link building over time. Improving your site’s search engine strength is a long-term effort, but is PageRank or Alexa ranking all that we want from a backlink? Is it all that a potential bidder is going to want? Not necessarily. Equally important are the relevancy and quality of the site they are buying a link on.

   Focus on creating clean, unique, quality content on your directory and you will inherently improve the quality of your links. Create category descriptions for each of your categories and fix any spelling errors. Keep outgoing links to a minimum aside from your directory links. A pile of extra links might be a few extra backlinks for your other sites, but it’s diminishing the value of every other link on your site.

   Fortunately, phpLinkBid has built-in SEO-friendly URLs so we don’t have to worry much about that.

   Another factor that affects your quality in a search engine are the types of backlinks you have. Even if you don’t have a lot of links to your directory, having relevant, quality links is as important to you as your bidders!

   For the link buyer, the service we are offering is a quality backlink. This means having a quality site with relevant content and relevant links to provide the most benefit for our customers. Focus on the quality of your own search engine marketing efforts, and keep the quality of your directory links as high as possible. If you can convey this level of quality to potential buyers it will improve your results, whatever your PageRank.

3. Branding
   The subject of improving name recognition for our customers seems a little perplexing, so let’s clarify what we’re really doing. We’re ultimately trying to promote another name brand, and the quality of our site can directly affect the impression a user gets when they see a name.

   For us, it means keeping the quality and “wow” factor of our Web site at a maximum. A custom, well thought out and high quality design can not only attract bidders on impulse alone, but directly corresponds with the perceived value of a link on that site.

   Aside from what should probably be obvious at this point – maintaining a quality directory with a cool template – it’s important to keep the site focused on it’s purpose. A directory is meant to list Web sites, and too many “extra” links, ads and other distractions not only reduce click-through rate and search engine value of directory links, but they degrade the overall quality of your site. This degrades the quality of every link on the site, and especially for name recognition and branding potential, this can turn away some potential customers.

Having read all of this, we can say that improving our services inherently means improving the overall quality of our bid directory. Take the time to consider ways to better your directory and stand out from the crowd, and improve the quality of your directory as much as possible!

Before jumping into promoting your directory, there are still many ways to improve a bid directory we should look at. Here are some ideas to cover all of your bases and ensure that you aren’t driving potential bidders away:

• Make sure your directory has some links in it. Add some of your own sites to the directory or just some of your favorite ones that you find relevant. An empty directory is perhaps one of the biggest turn-offs for a bidder! However, I don’t recommend adding big bids to your own links, and especially don’t recommend increasing bids artificially as it’s highly unfair to paying customers.
• If you’re using Categories mode, set up your category descriptions with good, unique content without spelling errors. This shows that you’ve invested the time and also benefits the quality of every page and link.
• Set your META description and keyword tags in phpLinkBid Admin.
• Customize something! Even if you aren’t doing a completely custom template, customize something! Make your site unique, even if it just means adding some content talking about your directory or using a custom logo. Having a personality can go a long way to your success, and all of the extra work you do is creating incentives for a bidder to place their next bid.
• If you are displaying PPC ads, you might want to consider removing them. Any advertisement is going to “steal” clicks that could otherwise benefit your site, and in general it makes the quality of directory a little more questionable. If you do implement PPC ads, try doing so tastefully and making it flow well with your site. You should also consider blocking advertisers that are offering competitive services.

Promoting Your Directory

This is the part you’ve all been waiting for, right? Now that we have examined the ways to improve our directory and provide more value for our customers, let’s get down to conveying that value to our potential buyers!

At this point you should have considered all of the above topics and have a good understanding of your product and the value you need to provide. Before we start posting links and writing blogs about our directory, we need to know exactly what it is we’re promoting, and convey that information clearly and accurately in our promotion materials. All of your marketing efforts should be as effective as possible.

If you haven’t already, create a clear list of valuable benefits your services provide. Consider who you are promoting to and what they will find valuable. Some examples might include:

1. Over 5,000 unique visitors every month
2. Promoted on hundreds of relevant, high quality sites
3. Top ranking for the search terms “xxxxx” and “xxxxx”
4. Completely custom design with prominent leader spots
5. Over two years old
6. PR 5 home page

Once you have created a full list of benefits your site has to offer, review the list and simplify each description to be as clear and upbeat as possible. Without getting too lengthy or spammy, emphasize the details that set your offer apart. If your traffic is of high quality then make that clear. If your design is completely unique, then make that clear as well.

When you have a comprehensive list of “selling points” for your bidding Web directory compiled, you will have the ammunition you need to create effective and respectable sales copy for your blogs, forum posts and other promotion efforts. Always keep your writing clear and as error-free as possible, and focus on conveying the value of your services as effectively as possible. Furthermore, you may find it worthwhile to go back over your site and work some of these great selling points into your Web copy!

While creating your forum posts, blog posts and sales copy you should try to use effective titles. This is the first and sometimes the only thing a person will see, and you need to give them some incentive to click on your link! Condense your top selling points into effective titles, e.g. “Strong Web directory offers quality links for $1.00!” for a blog post announcement, or “Highly Promoted Directory – 5,000 uniques – PR5″ for a forum advertisement. These are just examples – you can choose to get really creative with the titles and find something that grabs people’s attention.

Now, there are many ways to promote your directory, just like any other Web site. As bid directory owners we aren’t interested in just any traffic though, we’re interested in effective promotion techniques and relevant, targetted traffic. Let’s examine some of the most popular and effective steps for building good directory traffic quickly.

1. Posting in Webmaster forums. Webmaster marketplaces are made exactly for our purposes – post in the Buy/Sell forums, Web site review forums and Solicitations forums on the most popular sites. If you aren’t active in any, join some! Digital Point Forums, Earners Forum and SitePoint Forums are just a few of the many great places to start.
2. Purchase links on other phpLinkBid Web sites! Check out the sites list at phpLinkBid.com and here is another pretty big list of sites using phpLinkBid. Not only are you getting backlinks and potentially increasing your name recognition, but you are also advertising to the site owner. Every time you place a bid they will receive an email with your URL that lets them know you are spending money promoting your site. I will often reciprocate bids on my own directories. phpLinkBid Directory has many Web directories listed which you can advertise on, and many of the phpLinkBid sites listed above have directory categories as well!
3. Link from all of your own Web sites. Add text links from all the your relevant sites you own, and optionally create custom banners to improve visibility and general quality of advertising.
4. Trade links & banners with friends or in popular Webmaster forums.
5. Add your directory on phpLinkBid.com. If you choose to keep the footer link on your phpLinkBid site, you can list here for free.
6. Announce your site on any blogs you own, and/or write up a quality blog post about your directory and submit it to related blogs for them to syndicate for free. You can also purchase blog posts in a Webmaster forum or blog posting service.
7. Add your directory URL to your signature in any Webmaster forums you are active in, and post regularly.
8. Link your directory in social bookmarking sites. There are dozens of them to choose from, but StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit tend to bring the best traffic in my experience.

Not enough for you? Here are some more ideas to kick your traffic up a notch.

1. Make sure you joined the phpLinkBid Forums and put your URL in your sig and profile. You can chat with other phpLinkBid owners and advertise your site in the marketplace.
2. Write an eBook about something you know well – directories, search engine marketing, SEO or otherwise. Make it sponsored by your directory site and give it out for free.
3. Create a custom phpLinkBid template and give it out for free, requiring that they keep a link back to your directory. This can build immediate traffic and long-term link popularity.
4. Run a contest or link special and tell your friends, post it in the appropriate forums and share it on your blog. Just make sure you are clear that the contest is running, when it starts, when it ends and the exact terms. Otherwise potential customers may feel mislead by the prices on your links. This is best done for a new directory, but can certainly work with an established directory provided some tact is employed.
5. Write up a press release and submit it to free press release Web sites. Stick to the big ones, and don’t waste money on paid press releases. Their effectiveness is questionable in this situation and your money would be better spent on highly relevant links from premium directories and Web sites.
6. Utilize any mailing lists that you run or are a member of to mention your site. For example, if you run a weekly newsletter for techies include a link and short mention of the script. Keep it non-spammy and relevant – we want a quality directory and that means establishing a name with respectable promotion methods.
7. Pay-Per-Click advertising can bring traffic quickly, but it is also a very big subject. You can experiment with PPC to drive immediate traffic to your site, but understanding and managing an effective PPC campaign is a subject unto itself, and not for the weak-hearted.

Well, if that isn’t enough to keep you busy for a while you’re apparently Superman. You should have plenty of ideas for promoting your site, and if you have worked hard on your directory then you know that have a valuable service to offer using all of these methods.

And remember, every time you promote your directory you are also strengthening your name. Even if a particular method doesn’t result in any immediate income, it is contributing to your directory in a very important way. People will begin to recognize your name and come to know the quality you can offer, which results in postitive word of mouth referrals, repeat business and bids from buyers in the future who may be hesitating right now.

After experiementing with the above promotion methods and those of your own, you will find ones that work better than others for your particular site. By focusing your energy on the methods that get results you will save your time and improve your directory and earnings in a big way. Pay attention to what works for you and what doesn’t, and always be thinking of new and creative ways to promote that other directory owners haven’t even thought of.

Marketing to Niche Audiences

I thought this subject was important enough to devote some time to. It’s not that hard to see there are already a huge number of directories on the Internet. With so many established directories out there, can we really compete against the industry leaders?

If you choose to compete directly against an established industry leader in any market, you’re going to need resources. That means either a lot of money to invest in advertising, a large staff of people to help you with promotion, or an idea so awesome that it can sell itself in a flash. Most directory owners don’t have any of these things, so it will be foolish to say that they can compete directly against an industry leader without a serious, long-term investment of time and hard work. Directories can certainly co-exist on the Internet though, and if you have minimum resources but keep your expectations realistic you can find a place in the general directory market with a moderate amount of work.

The Internet is ever-expanding and many successful Webmasters are recognizing the need for focusing on niches to stake a place on the Web. It is both a means to stake a place online without competing against the established leaders, and a natural result of the growth of the Internet and demand for services that cater to specific groups. Directories are an information service – they provide people with organized information to help them find the Web site that they need. By catering directly to a niche market you are appealing to a smaller group of people, but you may also increase the value of your product. A targetted link is more valuable than a completely irrelevant one. For example, which directory would a blog owner be more likely to purchase a link on: a categorized directory of blogs or a general directory filled with everything from knitting to SEO?

When selecting a niche it’s important to recognize the difference between attracting bids and attracting hits. You might promote a cooking directory on a cooking forum to increase relevant visitor traffic, but you would market link sales to the Webmaster of a cooking forum, not the actual forum members.

You can probably see how this will affect the niche you select, depending on what crowd you are able to market to and how many potential buyers there are. Currently bid for position directories tend to focus on general categories and Webmaster/directory related categories, and there are a lot of niches that just aren’t being explored yet; top traffic markets like social networking, medical and legal move significant advertising dollars every day. As a skilled directory owner, can you provide a valuable service to Webmasters in these markets and reach potential buyers with your message?

I have a lot more experimenting to do with these concepts but the fundamental idea of a directory is not just to provide a bunch of links to another site with a bunch of links to another site with a bunch of links, and so on… like some Webmasters may fear when counting the number of directories out there. The fundamental idea of a directory is to give someone access to well-organized and easily accessible information and resources regarding a topic they are interested in. If directory owners focus on providing a quality service and building value for niche audiences, the directory industry as a whole will continue to be a benefit to the Web and a wonderful market for Webmasters to thrive in.

Maintaining Your Site

Once you launch your site, create your design, write your content, finish your big promotion campaigns and watch the traffic come in, it’s important not to just give up! If you are serious about maintaining a profitable directory, find time every 1-2 days to promote your directory, improve your site, and think of new ideas. Whether you can work on your directory every day or every ten days, you should create and develop your promotion methods and dedicate a little time to improving all aspects of your directory.

Another important step in maintaining your site is to review links. Preferably you can check links as you get notified of payment in your inbox. If not, review new links when you can to remove any SPAM, adult content or links that violate your acceptance guidelines in any way.

Finally, make sure to keep phpLinkBid updated as new releases come out in the future to address important bugfixes and add useful new features.

Conclusion

This article is intended to help you with a thorough and effective strategy for building, promoting and running a profitable phpLinkBid directory. Your experience may differ from mine, but I hope that it helps you in some way by sharing the ideas and methods I have developed from my experiences.