You visited a few times and I would appreciate your thoughts on this post, why not comment?

Before a few years I was looking for a web site idea to start over with making money online. In the beginning writing content was really hard for me (plus publishing content was not so easy these days) so I finally decided to create a web directory.

Today, a lot of years after that, more and more directories are created every day and this looks a little odd as people don’t use web directories any more because of the social bookmarks. So a first question that comes to my mind is….

Why people start web directory sites?

Well the answer to this is simple. Web directories are :

1. Easy to maintain
2. They are attractive to a newbie webmaster
3. They can easily earn money when they have some good pagerank value

Of course running a web directory, and especially a successful one has some cons too, but most people don’t know them before they start

Cons of running a web directory

1. Requires some time – on daily basis – to approve/disapprove new listings
2. Gets a lot of spam submissions
3. It is hard to promote it as there are tons of directories out there

Now let’s start with the basics of the web directory business…

The basics

First you will need to decide the subject of your directory. There are niche directories that list sites from a specific market (eg. a directory of software products), localized directories (eg. a greek directory), directory of directories (directories that list directories) and general web directories that list sites of any interest.

In my opinion the best decision is to start a niche directory. This way you have much more chances to establish it and the promotion will be easier than a general web directory. Be sure to know a few things about your niche as it will help you in the future.

After this you will need a domain and a hosting account. The domain would be great to have the term “directory” in it with a term that defines your niche. The hosting is in general not important, but you should use an ip address that does not host another directory.

Directory software

The script that you are going to use is very important as this will be your vehicle in this business. There are many scripts out there but not all of them are good or have support and communities around them. So for that I will strongly advice you to use phpLD which is for sure the best and it has a big community for support, themes, etc.

Starting out

So now we have a domain and our new directory script installed, so we are ready to start. Before you start promoting this new site, be sure that you have the correct categories (not too many for the beginning) and that there are a few submissions. Tip: You can submit some major web sites in your directory. This way the site wont look empty and you will have some quality web sites listed in.

The promotion plan

As I’ve tolled you before, promoting a web directory is not the easiest thing to do. You need a simple but effective plan to go with. Here is what you have to do:

Promoting a web directory: Phase 1

As our site is brand new, we don’t want to submit it to the top lists right now, as most of them are going to reject us. For the beginning we just need to get new submissions and make the site look established. Make sure that the submission cost in your directory is zero, and go to announce it in every webmaster forum. There are even forums with categories dedicated to announce new directories (like DP) Also be sure that you are using a forum signature in all these forums with a link to your site.

Promoting a web directory: Phase 2

Our only purpose on promoting a web directory is nothing but pagerank. I know this sounds silly and it doesn’t have any meaning but in this “newbie world” pagerank is the only thing that makes a web directory stand out. So we need as much incoming links as possible.
Take a list of web directories (eg. http://info.vilesilencer.com/) and submit your web directory – which now has some listings and you get a few submissions every day – to a few of them every day. This is important because if you submit to 1000 directories in one day those links will be like search engine spam to google, and you wont get good rankings from them (at least not soon)
Add your directory to as many sites as you can, and make sure that you help people who submit their site to your directory to link back to you. You can do this by stating it in your welcome email, by having a “link to us” page in your directory, etc.
If you have a few bucks buy some high pagerank links. This will help more to establish your directory fast.
Post a few articles in article web sites with some links to your site attached, create a lens at squidoo, sponsor phpLD or WP themes, and in general find as many free links as possible.

Important: Increasing your pagerank is a time consuming process. Don’t expect to make a successful web directory in a few days, but be prepared to wait for months until your site becomes a money making machine

Promoting a web directory: Phase 3

Now we suppose that our directory has a few hundreds of listings, and got some pagerank (3+). In this part we need to submit it to the major directory lists and directories of directories. Bellow are some of the best lists, and I can assure you that if you get listed there, you will have a stable source of traffic :

• IseDB
• Vilesilencer
• Directory Critic
• AddURL
• Free web submission

From these sites alone, my directories get around 2000 visitors per month, so I guess it worths to try

The business plan

If you do this right and be consistent on what you do you will have a pagerank 4 or higher. At this stage your directory is established and you can start thinking different

Use your site to promote it

Stop giving free links. Give free links only to those who link back to you and help you with your promotion. To the others charge a reasonable price for listing their sites with you and a higher price for featured links.

Do some 3 way linking. Find other webmasters to exchange links with, and make sure that they have same or higher pagerank than yours.

Directory monetization

Don’t fill your directory with ads. A web directory must be clean of ads, as it is supposed to serve those who pay to get listed. Of course you can add a block or two from adsense. Adsense wont give you great results, but in general web directories get high pay per click ads.

Your purpose is to make money by selling links (listings, featured listings, home page sponsors) and believe me it is much better to get your money instantly through paypal than waiting for a check

Some last words

The web directory business is not the easiest to run, but it is good for new webmasters and people that don’t have enough knowledge to run other types of web sites. In my opinion is cool to have one or two directories in your portfolio as it can bring in some easy money in the process (I still have my directory in my ownership) while when it is established it wont require too much time.

I hope this article helped you, and I wish you good luck with your web directories

You visited a few times and I would appreciate your thoughts on this post, why not comment?

A few months ago I was seeing many proxy websites sold at the popular webmaster marketplaces. What made me interested about this business is that a full automated site can earn big sums from $10 – $100 per day with no work at all. So I thought it would be cool to experiment a little and establish a proxy site.

The result was very good as I made a site that earned about $300 per month with no work at all, and I later sold it for $3000 which was really cool. I know that this sum may not seem great to many people, but please have in mind that this site cost me about $30 and about 20 hours of work (including promotion and everything)

Today I feel like I have to share my conclusions about proxy business and maybe some tips for those who are interested to start a proxy web site.

Benefits of having a proxy site

The biggest and most important benefit of running such a site is one, automated money. But before you start being excited on this check the….

Cons of running a proxy web site

I know earning automated money is what every webmaster wants, but in this case there are many problems too. Here I will try to describe the problems I got into while I was running my proxy :

1. Proxies create overhead. That means that a proxy site can be easily crash your server if you have enough traffic, so consider that very well
2. Bandwidth. I had months where I was using 3 TB (terrabytes) of bandwidth which was more due to…
3. Hotlinking. You should be careful that other sites don’t steal your bandwidth in order to hotlink other sites
4. Abuse. Hackers and cybercriminals use proxies to do their “job”. So you must be very careful, and be sure that your host allows you to have proxy web sites.

I know the cons are too many, but I have to tell you the truth and know exactly what you may face in the future before you start.

How to establish a proxy website

Now let’s say you want to start a proxy web site(I am sure most of the people will stop reading till now ). Here are the steps you have to follow :

Domain name

The domain name is a very important factor in the proxy business, but not the way it is for other kind of web sites. My experience learned me that a domain with keywords “myspace” or “proxy” is very bad for that kind of site, because these are the keywords that network admins search when they ban sites from their network

Instead you can use words, like “hide”, “seek”, “surf”, etc.

Proxy script

In general there are a few scripts for proxies but only two are commonly used : phproxy and the CGI proxy. The first one is very easy to install, uses less server resources, but it has a big disadvantage. It can’t be used to visit myspace (login issues).

So as the most of the people will use a proxy site to visit myspace from school or work, CGI proxy is the way to go here. It is a little difficult to install it, but if you can’t you can easily find someone to install it for you (freelance sites, webmaster forums, etc.)

Promoting a proxy web site

The promotion of a proxy is a really easy part. You just need to do 3 things :

1. Get a $20 ad at proxy.org. It really worths your money as it can bring many visitors, and if some of them start to promoting your site, the results can be significant.
2. Join proxy topsites. It sounds so 90′s technique but it works great with proxies.
3. Try to promote at myspace. There are groups about proxies, and you can always send bulettins to get some extra traffic. Another good thing you can do, is link to your myspace profile from your proxy site, so people who like your site can add you as friend.

SEO is not really important in proxies, and a good SEO campaign can harm you as it can help admins find you

Monetizing a proxy site

This is the nice part All you have to do is to put 2 big adsense boxes in your home page (check this proxy) and an adversal popup in your proxified pages (you can read an adversal review here)

Please notice that it is forbidden to use adsense in the proxified pages, so if you want to add there ads from another network along with adversal, use something like CodeAds or adbrite (which is not the best, but still is an option)

Affiliate marketing is probably not something that can work with proxies, but you may try it. I did and haven’t any good result.

Final conclusions

The proxy business is a risky business but still it is nice to run such a site, as it is full automated and after the initial work you will have to do, you wont have to do anything to make money from it. If you want a final piece of advice, please have in mind that proxies got blocked from network admins all the time, so if you got your site to a state that it earns some decent money sell it

Well I think that’s all for this tutorial, I hope you enjoy it

You visited a few times and I would appreciate your thoughts on this post, why not comment?

Bellow I will try to write a beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing. According to wikipedia affiliate marketing refers to :

Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting web businesses in which an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts. Compensation or commission may be made based on a certain value for each Impession (CPM), click (Pay per click), registrant or new customer (Pay per lead) or (Cost Per Acquisition / CPA), sale (usually a percentage, Pay per sale or revenue share), or any combination of them.

Affiliate marketing is the hardest way to make money online, but it really worths your effort as it can produce really impressive results and much bigger earnings than any cpc program, including adsense. The idea is simple. You drive targeted traffic to a web site – the site that you are affiliated with – and this site is converting this traffic to sales. As an affiliate you earn a commission for every sale that is produced with your traffic.

The important part is how you get “targeted traffic”. Well in the affiliate marketing world we need traffic that can convert to sales. So if we are promoting a program about ring tones, we can’t buy traffic at a webmaster related web site, but a site that has audience which is more eligible to buy what we offer. So a basic tip regarding traffic is to avoid those “10.000 visitors” offers

Anyway enough with the theory. Let’s see how we can start with affiliate marketing in real.

Step 1. Choose a product to promote

There are hundreds of affiliate programs to choose from. What we need here, is

1. Find a company to affiliate with, which is reliable and well known. This way we will get the best support and we’ll be sure that we are not going to be scammed on the pay day
2. Choose a few products that we know something about and can write some information about them. All product must be in the same market

The first part is easy. Go with the well established affiliate networks and everything will be fine. Here is a list of networks that are reliable and pay on time :

• AzoogleAds
• ClickBank
• COPEAC
• Commission Junction

No matter which network(s) you will use, you must choose some products to promote. The important in this is to choose products from one market (niche) and you must be able to write some content about those products. The best would be to choose a market that you know enough about, but it is very important to choose a market that is not saturated (eg. make money online market)

Step 2. Create a landing page

A landing page is a mini site which we will use to promote the products we choose. Some people prefer to promote the affiliate’s page directly, but I wont recommend you to do so, as there are much more benefits from using a landing page. To create your landing page/mini site, you can use an automated blog system like wordpress, which has everything you need for that kind of site. Also be sure to create your site under a new domain name.

I wont tell you right now why you need to have a landing page – instead of promoting the affiliate site directly – or why you need a domain name, but you should trust me on this. Both are very important

Step 3. Write some content

When you are finished with the setup of your blog, you need some content. Write a few articles about the market that your products are in – I mean articles that are related to this niche – and make sure to put a few affiliate links in those articles. Writing content is a very important thing, and I guess we could write a whole book with tips and techniques so I wont say much about that. You can get some writing tips here.

In general make sure that your writing is not screaming “BUY!!!” but try to make some informative posts about the products you are promoting. The purpose is to point to a reader’s need and make sure that they will find our product good for filling that need. The “buy now” part is a work for the affiliate site so we don’t have to worry about that. Try to make your articles as much as targeted as possible. For example if you want to promote a ring tone site, write an article about “RnB ring tones” or “The best ring tone providers for XXX”. This will help you with sales and SEO.

Step 4. Add a mailing list

A mailing list is one of the most important things regarding affiliate marketing. Having a base of subscribers can give you a stable source of income. You can create one using an automated service like email aces or set it up in your server by using some kind of software like phpList.

To populate your list make sure that you give some freebie (eg. an ebook) or some special promotions to your subscribers.

Step 5. Time for traffic : Bum marketing

Bum marketing is the easiest ways to bring traffic to your site, and when you are consistent about it, it can work great. The idea is once again simple You write some articles in subjects regarding the market your products are in. This time you don’t post those articles in your mini site, but in article directories. The purpose is to drive traffic to your mini site, not to the affiliate site directly. So make sure that you put some links back to your site from your articles.

You can try this method of marketing with videos too, but this will need some more time and expertise. In this case you will need to create some relative videos – with the domain of your site attached in the screen – and post them to youtube and other popular video sharing web sites.

Step 6. Paid traffic

Paid traffic is a difficult way to make sales, and it requires to have a budget to spend until you find out what works for you and what is not. In general you need to drive some high targeted traffic to your mini site, and make sure that the money you spend on advertising is less than the money you earn. Here is an article to start over with adwords, the best program right now for paid traffic.

Hope this article was really informative, and hope those techniques will work fine for you as they work for me. I will write more about ways to bring traffic to your affiliate web site and optimize it soon, so keep in touch

You visited a few times and I would appreciate your thoughts on this post, why not comment?

Adsense is a great publisher program especially for those who are not familiar with affiliate programs. As real people know how to avoid those ads we – the publishers – have to constantly optimize our advertisements in order to have better earnings.

Bellow are some tips that will help you achieve that :

1. Use custom channels for each section of your site. This will help you know which sections are better, and which need improvements
2. Put the ads somewhere that visitors can see them. The best is to have one 728×90 ad after your site’s header, and a big box (336×280) after the content. This way you give “options” to the visitors that finish reading your articles
3. Take a look at the official adsense heat map. If your site is a forum you may want to check this one.
4. Use blue color for your links (#0000FF) For some reason people click more on ads with this color. If your site is a forum make sure that the colors are rotating.
5. If the ads in your site are not relevant to your content use section targeting.
6. Participate in webmaster forums. You can find many useful information and professionals to help you out.
7. Don’t be afraid to make changes. Trial and error is the only way to success in this business, so after you follow the tip #1 be sure to make frequently changes until you find which are the best placements for your site.

Hope those tips help. If you have to add something please comment on this post or drop me a line