How Building A Directory Can Make You Famous Online
If you open the Yellow Pages, or any phone directory
, you will notice that businesses are grouped together under keywords or general categories. These categories describe the services that certain companies offer, or the products that they sell. Together, the collection of names and numbers in one category offer you the options on what company you should contact to meet your needs and wants.Perhaps you will wonder how a telephone directory can help individual companies earn more money. Marketing, most gurus preach, begins by knowing the competition: a brick-and-mortar directory groups companies into a single conglomeration, complete with their addresses and phone numbers. All that companies need to do is search each other out, look at the competing products and services, and then run back home and tweak their own companies to give the target market more than the other companies can or ever will offer.
The same is true with online directories, but with a twist. Because the Internet makes scouring the competition easier, it can also make networking better and stronger. If you are in close touch with people associated with you, or if you know how to interact with your suppliers and customers through email, then you can see your business boom as more and more people learn about it through your own brand of Internet marketing.
Get the Customers
How do you get the associates and competition together? You create your own online directory. Often disparaged because of spam sites that forget to take the cue from the organized Yellow Pages, online directories are simply an extension of your favorite phone directory, except that they contain links and occasionally, descriptions of sites. As a rule, online directories should be arranged by category, or by product or service. Such directories, if indeed set up by a site, should contain categories related to what the site offers.
The most basic online directory is the Links page available on most personal websites. Links pages will contain pages of interest to the website owner; the best links pages will have these pages arranged by category, complete with an explanation of what the site visitor will expect to see if he or she clicks on that link.
If you are interested in setting up an online directory on your site, then you will need to scour the Internet for people who might be interested in your products or services. You will also need to look for your suppliers or people downstream of you. Get their complete website information, describe their site, and start your marketing tactics.
Exchange Links
An online directory is essentially charity: you are giving hitherto unheard-of people a chance to shine by a link on your site. You will need something in return, and this can be in the form of a reciprocal link. Depending on your product or service, you can ask the people in your directory to provide a link to your main site. You can also offer a place in your online directory in exchange for a purchase of your products or services. Many small to medium scale online companies need publicity for their wares, and an online directory may be the place for them to advertise themselves.
On the Internet, content is king, and an online directory that simply consists of pages and pages of links is as good as useless. Be sure to not only categorize your links, but describe each one. This way, you can keep your website visitors informed on exactly what they should expect when they click the link: if you are able to engender this reliance on you for the information that you can offer, then you can make your visitors trust you and, in effect, return to your site again and again. Remember: people will care about what you know if they know that you care for them first.
An online directory can be difficult to set up, but it can be rewarding. As more people purchase a place for themselves in your online directory, the more profits you gain. If you choose reciprocal linking, then you might find more and more visitors on your site. With more links available in your online directory, you can help more people find what they are searching for. All you need to do is to be resourceful, and to make sure that your links are always up and running. There is no space for a disclaimer: be sure that your descriptions of the sites are accurate and updated, and you can be sure to have more customers accessing your online directory.
With more visitors to your online directory, you can expect more people to know your name and echo it online. In no time, your online directory might be a good place for the major search engines to find their links, or a great place for researchers to start their research work. With a well-engineered and designed online directory, the possibilities are endless for you.
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