After reading a few forums, I have stumbled among a rather good blog which provides pretty good advice for all new directory owners -  8 Reasons Why You Should Not Start A Directory. I agree with most of the points, especially the one that says that directories take a lot of time and effort to create and maintain. And I might add, it takes a lot of patience as well. New Directory Owners should not expect everything to be smooth and easy. They should not expect easy money with minimum work. A directory really takes a lot of time to create and to maintain a high editorial standard. The listings which a directory owner allow in his/her directory makes up the content of the directory, so it had to be good. You need to really browse through the site first before approving it. Descriptions of the listings should be comprehensive and unique enough so that visitors can understand what the site is about and the listings should be correctly categorized. And just think of the time (and money) you need to spend on advertising and promoting your site. You definitely need to frequent forums and promote your directory to those already well established. They can help get customers and visitors to your site.

I also agree that you need passion to start a directory and not just think of your directory as a money making venture. A lot of directory owners gave up after starting their directory in just a few months, accomplishing nothing at all. I really doubt that a directory will be successful in just a few months, it will probably take a few years before you can see the results of your hard work. And it is the passion that keeps a directory owner going.

Sad to say, it is almost impossible for a directory to offer something unique to the web directory industry. Even if you have something unique, it will be copied three folds before you can even login to your control panel. Yes, it’s that competitive. I think that the most important thing a directory must provide is to offer better value to their customers. Actually, that is simple. You just need to have a attract targeted traffic to your site’s categories and listings. And please make sure your directory is Search Engine Friendly.

The thing I disagree with the article is the domain name. Directories don’t need a directory sounding domain name for it to work. Seriously, if your domain name isn’t spam sounding and if you promote your directory well, it doesn’t matter. In fact, if your directory domain name is unique sounding, all the better, seeing that there are probably thousands of “something-directory.coms” out there. Unique is good in this very crowded market.

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