While I was in Florida I had the opportunity to *peak* in on some things my partners and friends were doing on there own. While networking is great there, are tons of things we (as marketers) almost have to keep to ourselves. A perfect example would be that I will be assisting in some Adwords Campaigns with some of my partners however I would not dare to let them login into my accounts. Pure and simple, that’s a no-no.

I had the chance to see an awesome Article Directory by one of my partners. He has his directory being fueled by Article Marketer with automatic *drip in* articles that are added daily. The one thing I immediately noticed though is that the directory just like hundreds if not thousands of other directories out there are severely lacking the extra effort needed to becoming a power house such as Ezine Articles or SearchWarp. You probably can and will do well (I have no idea) with just a few generic directories if your wanting to yank in that Adsense income. Personally as I see Adsense only paying in pennies (ok sometimes more but woo-hoo) I would have to create a few directories that were updated consistently with Content. While this has been and generally is the idea, try utilizing what I am about to tell you and watch your results. I bet you will be pleasantly surprised.

First

You need to get a good script. There are many out there but I believe the most famous is the Article Dashboard Script. I personally do not like this script although the ad placement is pretty good. However, I am sick of seeing these float around the web so I can only imagine their are tons of them. Dare to be different and try getting something that is less used. If you got to spend money, then you got to spend money. If you can get a script that knocks your socks off and everyone else is being a cheap ass then chances are your script won’t be floating around as much. Then of course you can always go have your own made. Just get something different or a little bit more different than the norm.

Second

This is really the big thing. Instead of focusing on general article directories (like most people do), start using your head and focusing more on niche specific article sites. There are quite a few categories in Article Marketer alone that you could target to get your site off the ground. If you focus on a general article directory then you have to fight against sites such as Ezine Articles, SearchWarp, Article City, Goarticles and the list goes on. Chances are with all of your online endeavors it will probably take at least a year to establish a corresponding prominence like them. However, a great idea would to purchase yourself a high pagerank domain if you could. Places such as Sitepoint or Digital Point are great places to spot a domain. However in doing so you will get a domain already named and that probably defeats the whole purpose of registering something catchy and easily remember. You should really focus on niche specific themed article sites though because there are a lot less of those than there are general directories.

Third

SEO is probably why most people get into the Article Directory business in the first place. I know that is exactly the reason I am gearing up for both of my directories. I want to rely on SEO heavily to garner Search Engine Rankings so my incoming traffic runs on autopilot. However, those days are not anywhere near what they used to be. The power of *word-of-mouth* can be a beautiful thing. If you have never experienced it then you probably never created anything online worth talking about. (I apologize for that kick to the gnads). Ezine Articles and SearchWarp go above and beyond providing social interaction on their site. They rate authors and give out prizes sometimes when you reach a certain level. I know for a fact because I have to Ezine Article Mugs from two pen names. Now I am not saying to pour a whole bunch of money into such promotions because let’s face it…they most likely have staff members and we won’t. You should definitely provide something within your article directory that should serve as some type of incentive to encourage other authors. This will get authors telling their friends and talking about your directory in other forums.

The idea with SEO is to not just rely on the directory to funnel traffic to itself thru the SERP’s. You should also develop a traffic funnel around the directory just like you would with any other site. I think the common myth around the web is that if you have this huge article directory then your set for free Search Traffic and Adsense clicks. While I won’t deny that this *can* be true because I have seen it firsthand from other directory owners, you really have to decide if you want to be just another directory owner or not. If your content with auto dripping articles into your directory that are copied on hundreds of other sites, directories and blogs around the web then this next part is not for you.

Developing The Funnel

The cool idea about having a niche specific article directory is that you have something you can treat as your baby. If your building those Article Dashboard type directories that are fugly and unoriginal then it’s pretty hard to get a tingling feeling in your feet everytime you look at it. Making money with something you don’t even like is one of the hardest things to do and it’s horrible for your moral.

Now if you build something that you can look at each day and say “Damn, I rock” then your going to feel a whole lot better in making your directory better than everyone else’s. Even if you don’t want to be better than everyone else, at least people will look at it and take notice that you have put some effort into it.

Developing a traffic funnel around your directory is (IMO) the ultimate way to really dominate some Search Engine rankings AND get the word of mouth going about the features that are associated with your directory. Attaching a blog to a folder is a really great way to serve as a source of incoming links that can be anchor texted to your articles. The only bad thing here is that your helping author articles rank highly in search engines by this HOWEVER you can this to your advantage as well. Your directory will obviously get the traffic but you can even have it featured on your directory that you do this and this will let the authors know that this is added benefit to them. You can even take this a step further by having an auto blog that posts excerpts from your new articles and have a Wordpress plugin (Such as ALinks I believe) that has anchor text internal links to certain article categories within your niche directory.

I say to put the blog in a folder because a folder serves as a good source of internal linking structure. If you were to put the blog on a subdomain then it would be looked upon as a root source and therefore an incoming link instead of an internal. All Search Engines are different and all SEO’s have their own opinions (and we could fight this all day) but that is the way I have built everything since I been online and never been disappointed.

Along with a blog, you could also develop a site or link directory. Preferably I think a site directory would be more beneficial and most likely entice authors to interact a little more. By having authors doing their website/blog promotions within their author resource link you could also have a feature on your directory letting authors know about your free site submissions to your niche directory. This can work wonders and as your network grows along and around your article site you will be providing a power packed source for Google and other engines to love.

Making Money

There are a lot of ways to make money with an article directory but it seems Contextual Ads such as Adsense are among the most popular. What ever you decide you should know that instead of just a skinny article directory you will now have a content packed blog and a site directory that will also garner traffic. Selling advertising space has never been my thing but looking at this model it seems that with some proper marketing you could probably make a pretty good amount just from selling space. Popular affiliate programs around the content work great as well, but you could even put some Pay Per Lead offers around the categories as well. Some mortgage offers pay around $50-$60 per lead and I have promoted dating offers that have paid over $5 per free profile. There are tons of ways to monetize but getting the traffic is the hardest part.

This is just a general overview of my idea I am incorporating to my upcoming article directories. There could be more things out there that I didn’t even touch on such as Built In Web2.0 Traffic. Utilizing sites such as Blogger, Weebly, Squidoo and your Social Network profiles are other great ways to get a lot of visitors fast to check out your masterpiece.

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