Article directory and a fast way to waste money.

[hotftuna]

Fast way to waste money is to invest in a business model that you do not understand and then do not take the time to learn about it.

A year or two ago a bought Quality Free Articles - Submit Your Article - Popular Article Directory | Free Article Submission | Free Article Content and Article RSS Feeds based on great Alexa rank. Besides advertising my directory on the site, I have done nothing to improve the quality of the appearence, function or content of the site.

Site receives plenty of article submissions, perhaps too many. At 1k/week, there are too many to review carefully.

Before deciding to flip this site, I would like to know what potential business models are possible. Is there any value that this site can offer to me or my directory clients? I would not even suggest that my directory clients submit articles to this site unless it was helpful in promoting their sites.

Of course if I keep the site, I understand that I will have to invest some time in it.

Thank you in advance.

[John Rogers]

I dumped mine several years ago after it crashed. I too was getting about 1,000 article submissions a week.

The revenue it generated nowhere near compensated me for my time. When it crashed, I buried it permanently.

John

[tameem]

Thanks for info i think i should be more careful when dealing with this kind of submissions

[hotftuna]

Thanks John,

I have an idea for the domain, I may just dump the content & script.

[TheRichJerksNet]

Instead of dumping why not build onto it and make sure you stop the "auto" submissions.

You have your content and structure set now time to improve upon that and build more advanced features and functions into the site.

James

[talfighel]

Why don't you add you own Google Adsense ads in it. This will make you some extra money. Look at Ezinearticles.com. They have been doing this for the longest time and they are making a lot of money each day from Google Adsense ads.

Anytime, someone adds an article, your site adds a code for Google Adsense ads.

Tal

[hotftuna]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Instead of dumping why not build onto it and make sure you stop the "auto" submissions.

You have your content and structure set now time to improve upon that and build more advanced features and functions into the site.

James

Sad to say but I'm not sure if all submissions are made directly to my specific article directory or if it is part of a network.

I do know that the domain is listed on a number of article directory lists- that is a good thing.

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by hotftuna

Sad to say but I'm not sure if all submissions are made directly to my specific article directory or if it is part of a network.

I do know that the domain is listed on a number of article directory lists- that is a good thing.

Very easy to correct and block auto submissions. Trust me if you are getting 1k a week those articles are not being submitted manually by the author visiting your site.

You must give authors a reason to go and post manually and adding adsense is not a good thing as the post above suggest. We have enough adsense junk farms on the internet.

Think outside the box and do not follow someone else just because they are doing it.

James

[fullmatrix]

How about adsense? I'm not experienced in this business model, but I think you can improve the layouts and put adsense on it.

You can also try different advertisement for a different section of your directory, maybe put amazon ads on electronics article section, CPA on business section etc.

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by fullmatrix

How about adsense? I'm not experienced in this business model, but I think you can improve the layouts and put adsense on it.

You can also try different advertisement for a different section of your directory, maybe put amazon ads on electronics article section, CPA on business section etc.

So you are in competition with the very authors that are giving you the content that helps drive traffic to your site ... Hmmm.. Not sure about that.

I do not think it is wise to be in direct competition with your own members.

Consumer visits: reads article and notices ads offering a solution so now consuming has to decide do they click on the trusted amazon ad or an unkown authors link to get their solution.

Ok good for the article directory but bad for the authors that supplied the content to make that sale happen. So now authors look for someplace else to post their content and maybe while they are at it they delete all their own articles.

Do you see the flaw in this thinking ?

James

[hotftuna]

Thanks all for your thoughts and ideas. I had removed adsense when I bought the site because it is my experience that AS works best on niche sites.

The first thing I want to figure out is if submissions to this article directory are syndicated on other sites. I must be receiving syndicated submissions but not sure if I can broadcast them.

[fullmatrix]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

So you are in competition with the very authors that are giving you the content that helps drive traffic to your site ... Hmmm.. Not sure about that.

I do not think it is wise to be in direct competition with your own members.

Consumer visits: reads article and notices ads offering a solution so now consuming has to decide do they click on the trusted amazon ad or an unkown authors link to get their solution.

Ok good for the article directory but bad for the authors that supplied the content to make that sale happen. So now authors look for someplace else to post their content and maybe while they are at it they delete all their own articles.

Do you see the flaw in this thinking ?

James

I don't see any problem with that, most of the web 2.0 like squidoo and hubpages do that, its not that you've taken something and giving back nothing to the members. You give them space, good backlinks and and traffic, members give contents.

And don't forget that article directories members will have 500 - 1000 words long to convince readers to click on their links that most of the time is more relevant instead of clicking not so relevant article directories advertisement.

It's a fair trade IMHO

Justin

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by fullmatrix

I don't see any problem with that, most of the web 2.0 like squidoo and hubpages do that, its not that you've taken something and giving back nothing to the members. You give them space, good backlinks and and traffic, members give contents.

And don't forget that article directories members will have 500 - 1000 words long to convince readers to click on their links that most of the time is more relevant instead of clicking not so relevant article directories advertisement.

It's a fair trade IMHO

Justin

Tell that to the many article directories going out of business... A adsense farm is not a business model.

You certainly cannot compare this with some web2.0 site that gets millions in funding.

Just being real .. I refuse to toss any ads on my authors articles, its called respect for my authors.

James

[fullmatrix]

Nobody forced you to do that man. Its just a suggestion to the OP and probably can spark some ideas. If you don't want to put ads in your article directories, so what is your solution to the OP?

Justin

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Tell that to the many article directories going out of business... A adsense farm is not a business model.

You certainly cannot compare this with some web2.0 site that gets millions in funding.

Just being real .. I refuse to toss any ads on my authors articles, its called respect for my authors.

James

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by fullmatrix

Nobody forced you to do that man. Its just a suggestion to the OP and probably can spark some ideas. If you don't want to put ads in your article directories, so what is your solution to the OP?

Justin

Justin,
LOL - Please do not take my post as coming accross strong.. Sorry.. I did not mean anyone forced me, I was just saying it is not something I would do and I certainly would not suggest anyone else to do.

The OP has a structure already set with content, so the OP needs to figure out a way to add value to that site for its current members. This means thinking outside the box and do not follow what others are doing.

Look at the trends of what is going on and what others are responding to and then create functions and features to help your members to use those new trends. Doing so makes your members happy and happy members mean some would even pay to be an upgraded member. - Hint Hint!

James

[fullmatrix]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Justin,
LOL - Please do not take my post as coming accross strong.. Sorry.. I did not mean anyone forced me, I was just saying it is not something I would do and I certainly would not suggest anyone else to do.

The OP has a structure already set with content, so the OP needs to figure out a way to add value to that site for its current members. This means thinking outside the box and do not follow what others are doing.

Look at the trends of what is going on and what others are responding to and then create functions and features to help your members to use those new trends. Doing so makes your members happy and happy members mean some would even pay to be an upgraded member. - Hint Hint!

James

It's cool man

I agree about outside the box thinking, its not easy I must admit but if you keep looking the trends it might spark on your head sooner or later. And its also looks like a large amount of browsing time to me lol

So best of luck to hotftuna, hope you find solution to your problem soon. Best wishes to you too James.

Cheers,
Justin

[TheRichJerksNet]

Justin,
It is not hard to find the solutions, the hard part is putting the solution in place ..lol That is the time consuming part of it all. Look at what all the big web 2.0 sites are doing right now, pay close attention to what deal are being made and how they are being made - well ok it takes some research, your right Justin ... lol

James

[Sonomacats]

Most of what I'm going to suggest has already been said. Add Adsense and change it so that submissions are manual instead of automatic. eZineArticles.com makes a lot of money simply by having Adsense on the site. It'd be difficult (although) to do much else - i.e., affiliate products, etc.

What I would do if I were in your shoes

Add Adsense to what you already have and see what happens. Give it at least 2 months to see if that's a good model for you.

While that's going on, I would also make submissions manual to slow down the crap. Start reviewing the articles you already have, keep the good ones and remove or rewrite the garbage. If you've rewritten them, they then become yours and you can link them to whatever you want.

You could also turn it into niche article directory (i.e., only self improvement articles), but the domain name doesn't support that very well, so I would opt to keep this one general. But you could get other specific niche directories and take the articles from this site (i.e., self-improvement) and put them on your niche directory site. Again, if you've re-written the articles because they're crap, then they're yours.

You could also follow the about.com model and get a couple of people to take charge of certain areas. They get a cut of the Adsense from those areas in return for reviewing and/or rewriting the articles in their area.

You already have a nice piece of VRE, so rather than dump it, try a few changes and give it a decent amount of time to work and then make a decision.

Finally, I'm sure there's more you could do to make this a unique article directory - something no one else is offering. So look around and see what isn't being done and figure out what might be of use to a specific audience or group. But don't walk away just yet. This still could make you some decent money with a little work.

[Eric Lorence]

Adsense is a good way to recoup server and domain expenses, and just my smaller sites cover those. - Try adsense out for a while.

What makes good "business sense" is turning a profit, you do what's best for you.

It will be taking a chunk of your time, so if your looking for "autopilot" income - dump that directory today.

BTW, dump all those "candice123candice" author spam articles - do a big author and article dump and trim that database down by half - looks like a lot of spam there.

[hotftuna]

Thanks Eric.

The fact is that this directory is crap because a) it is part of a network & b) I have not screened-out junk.

This is an ArticleMarketer directory and I just found out that there was a new script released a month or so ago. New script was installed this evening. I doubt that this will make much difference but I have hardly had a chance to see the admin panel yet.

I removed adsense when I bought the site and the new script added it back.

[Eric Lorence]

Originally Posted by hotftuna

Thanks Eric.

The fact is that this directory is crap because a) it is part of a network & b) I have not screened-out junk.

This is an ArticleMarketer directory and I just found out that there was a new script released a month or so ago. New script was installed this evening. I doubt that this will make much difference but I have hardly had a chance to see the admin panel yet.

I removed adsense when I bought the site and the new script added it back.

I'm pretty familiar with article friendly, so if you need some help getting it fixed up - just PM and I'll give you a few pointers.

I think it might be accepting Isnare articles - and those are the worst.

If you see a file in your root with the name "Isnare" in it somewhere, delete it. Article Marketer used to be decent in pre-screening - but they're under new ownership now, things may have changed.

[tin tin]

Instead of ditching the site, why not test, tweak and change anything that can possibly be changed then give it a try. They say change is inevitable and it might just work. You have done the hard part and now all you need to do is understand how you will monetize even if it is through adsense.