In a course of two weeks, I recieved a few emails asking me how to make money from a general web directory. Some asked is it even possible to make money with a General Web Directory? I don’t know why I was being asked so many questions like that until I realized I was getting a few hits from 2Blog.in where he called me a Guru of Directories. I saw this post a while back but that was the one that came in my mind when I wondered about that. Therefore, I decided to write my thoughts about this issue as well as some of the other well known directory owners in the industry.

I believe that it is possible to make money with a general web directory, but those QBC Directories (yes I know the term is overrated) doesn’t stand a chance in making good money as they used to. I would like to start out with the quotes and then present my own view in details.

I asked Mikey of Zorg-Directory the question which is stated in the title.

Mikey Replied:

Yes. It requires a lot of time and effort though. Money can help a lot but is not totally necessary.

I didn’t just want to rely on source therefore I also asked Bruce of Authority Directory

Bruce Replied:

Yes I think general directories can make money, but the directory owner needs to be patient. The directory has to be properly promoted, maintained and allowed to mature. It is not a way to get rich quick.

I also asked Brian of Seo Web Directory

Brian replied:

You can but it’s harder than it used to be. I noticed a drop in submissions since Google reduced PR, seems like people are losing confidents in general web directories. As you know there is more benefits to directory submission than PR. I feel that the way forward is niche directories.

Ok people we know what is going on with Google. Directories used to sell alot of links because people were abusing the resource and was trying to manipulate PR. Which made directory owners greedy and buy links to increase their Pagerank, so they can make ten fold of their investments. Which kinda didn’t work as we can see. Alot of people think it was not good for directories, but I think it was actually better for the industry. Now we will not have any more crappy directories.

How can you not make a crappy directory and still make money. Well first of all…[This post is too long, read it and you will definately learn something]

Can money buy everything? Can it buy you? Can it buy your identity? Not mine. Definately not. There are some things that I would not sell for money and my identity is one of those thing. I recently visited a webmaster forum which I used to be very active in, and was shocked by the theme. They just sold the entire theme design for sponsorship. How lame is that?

For a few thousand bucks, you are going to give away your own identity? It is just very sad to see that. If you are wondering which forum I am talking about, Yes it is Namepros. They sold theirself out, and along with the forum, they sold out all the loyal users who have been supportive to namepros. I have been a member for over 3 years now, and It was very disappointing to see that the administration will be so cheap.

They sold off the entire theme design to this guy named Rick Latona for a certain period of time. I don’t know when it is going to revert back, but here is a screenshot:

This will just drive your users away if you ask my opinion. Now, I have lost the respect I had for that community’s administration. If you want to be respectable in front of your user’s eyes than don’t ever do that. What are your thougs on this? Would you ever sell your site’s branding off for a certain period of time for some money?

Now if you are wondering which car i bought, I bought a 2008 Honda Civic EX in a Gold Color (Full Features). This car runs and looks smooth, and the best part is i dont have to pay monthly payments. Now I am posting the pictures below, and i will tell you how i did it.

First important thing i had to do was manage my finances, and stop carrying cash. Let me tell you that Cash is not something you want to carry in your pocket because it encourages frivilous spending. Even if you don’t need something you will end up buying it at the spot because you have cash in your pocket. I put my online income in my savings account, and transfer some into checking as i go. Next thing i did was managed my finances through Excel (A custom program i created) in which i can enter my daily income and spending, and at the end of the day i had my net Income. I analyzed what i was doing. I made smart investments as in promoting my website. (I did make alot of stupid ones as well, but you have to understand that i have been in this business for almost 5 years now) therefore i have some what of an idea what is good and what is not. Each month, i took out a good portion of my savings, and transferred it to another separate savings account. (I opened just a savings account, not connected it with Checkings, so NO CARD). That means i can only slide the card for my other account which doesn’t have that much money. Now if you have read my about page, i am only 17 so i don’t have a credit card, but i do have a Debit card which can be used as a credit.

Now those were my finance strategy. What exactly did i do last year? I started the year of 2007 by launching my last website (IDK.in) which was promoted heavily. It was a webdirectory, and i know many webmasters are not a fan of webdirectories, but a good webdirectory can be helpful. It was my ONLY project as i worked part time because i was in the senior year of my high school. One project means i can concentrate on it more. If you have multiple projects and you are working part time it gets really hard to do a good job on each. I set up a paid directory and added a blog in it. I am a free lance designer as well, so i did alot of custom work. Now in all together i was close to hitting 5 figures last year, but with directory alone i made enough money to buy a car before i sold the website. In Late September, Early October I sold my directory as i started college and couldn’t manage to stay updated with the directory world as so much was going on from the google side.

Now i bought a decent car which gives me very good Miles Per Gallon, and runs smoothly. Yeah i have a massager in the front both seats That feels good when i drive especially in the winter as it have a Heat Pack. Soon i will be getting Balkhis logo on the car with much more customization then i will post more photos

I hope you liked my success story and i hopefully inspired a few if not more. Main thing you have to do is keep track of your finances, and give your project your 100% so basically only have one project if you are the only person working (Part Time).

First of all you need to ask yourself this question who is your targetted audience? At this point i am hoping it is not Search Engine because if it is then you need to rethink again. If after rethinking it is still search engine you can pay me as i am taking a psychology class and i can help you, and probably convince you into switching if you have serious goals in making money online.

Let me remind you bloggers, or any website owners, Search Engine Bots will not click your ads, and they will not join the webhosting companies or buy other products through your affiliate ads. While they should be in the list of your things to pay attention to, but they definately should not be on the top. The top of your list and your upmost priority should be your targetted audience, real people, such as mine are you guys. Webmasters and starters who have a vision for success online. If i start optimizing this site for search engines, and only post keywords and just try to fill up my posts with hyperlinks to all my other websites then i will loose all the users who come to my website, and my subscribers as well because my content won’t be useful if i add all the irrelevant links.

Second not only i will loose traffic, I will see some really good SERPs results. Wait a minute that is not suppose to be a good thing you know why? Because you will be penaltised on the next update. Yeah are you making funny faces at me? It is true. The moment you start optimizing your site for search engine and make them your targetted audience they will start paying to much attention to you, and TOO Much attention is dangerous because every single activity of yours will be monitored and you will be penaltised for your mistakes. (Abusing Keywords), Useless adverts, Paid Links, and many other reasons the SEs can find for you.

Don’t stop now keep reading in the full post. Make sure you put your comment as well.

Recently, Shoemoney talked about some harsh facts about easy money online and whether it is so easy. I agree with him entirely and i wanted to elaborate on this subject with my thoughts therefore i tried something different. I have never done this before, I recorded myself in a video and talked so i want you guys to tell me what you think of it.

Here it is