subject: Starting your own article directory: Things to consider [print this page] Starting your own article directoryStarting your own article directory. What a good idea. It could make you a lot of money if you could handle it right. Imagine being able to approve your own articles and monetizing such a website. In this article I will describe a few things to consider if you are thinking of starting your own article directory.
First of all, the best advantage of owing an article directory is that you could write your own articles with your own rules and promote your own products, the directory itself. Noone will ever tell you that you didn't format that url right or that you need to write more words or not use bold etc. You will have your own directory and approve all your articles. It would be wise though to follow the rules you set for others (see below).
One things to seriously consider is the article writing rules. How will you approve the incoming articles? It's nice to have a popular website but you must be able to support it right. You must set clear rules. Maybe you must pay attention to the rules of other article directories and try to differentiate your rules a little bit. It would be nice to offer something other directories don't, for example you could accept very small articles (although they do not do well in search engines) or accept images too. You could allow more backlinks than other directories.
Monetizing your website is very critical. You should not expect to instantly become #1 article directory on the internet. You must first educate yourself on how to become a popular website, then after you are well known you should think about monetizing it. The internet is out there. It is an inexhaustible source of information. Learn everything from how to be loved by the search engines to deciding whether you will use adsense ads on your website. The adsense revenue could make you a lot. There are entire businesses (article directories) which base their revenue entirely on adsense. A big decision to make.
The expenses. When you start it might be early to expect to make money from your directory but you must find a way to cover your expenses so that your website remains alive. Web hosting costs, domain name costs, programming costs etc. It would be nice to have some money saved when you start. That would cover an emergency event (e.g. your credit card is full and you can't pay your web hosting company). In a few words you must have a source of money for the directory expenses in order to keep it alive. Of course, the best would be to make all the money you need from your website but that's not always the case so you must be prepared.
I bet you still think about it. It is a nice idea. Article directories are very popular.
One other thing to consider is the software that you will use. There are free article directory software out there and paid ones. If you choose the free software you must be a pretty good programmer while if you choose the paid ones you can claim support. It is important so choose your software wisely. Pay attention to the software features and the platform it supports. Most importantly see if there are already built-in monetizing features, especially adsense.
Starting your own article directory: Things to consider
