If executed properly and marketed properly and aggressively business directories can be very lucrative.

When contemplating designing and marketing a business directory the first thing that must be researched is both your target audience and more importantly who is going to advertise in your site.

First of all your business directory needs to be a viable platform for advertisers to want to advertise in it. As an example having a business directory specializing in minute marts would be pointless. Convenience stores do not need to advertise and just as important no one goes to the Internet to find one!

Specialized business directories are a very good way to go as one it is much easier to market, and it is easier to keep organized. Owning and operating a city business directory is a hand full, but a specialized business directory that has information and listings for a single industry is very easy to organize.

For instance I designed a Business directory called Oregon Attorneys and Lawyers. It targets Oregon attorneys and Oregon lawyers and once it was ranking well in the organic search engines it was an easy sell to get advertisers. Attorneys advertise heavily to bring in business.

Furthermore it was easier to get ranked through SEO as it was specialized. It had main categories that broke the state down by city. It also had sub categories that delivered specialized areas of law practice in that geographical area. Attorneys and Lawyers in Oregon wanted to be listed in the business directory because of the exposure it got. Once a directory is launched aggressive SEO needs to be performed. For a directory to be as asset for an advertiser to want to be in it has to be on the first page of Google for as many specific keyword phrases that advertisers themselves would want to market.

Once your business directory is live and ranking well it is time to sell advertising. Advertising is relatively inexpensive for companies to be listed in. Average rates are usually around 20 to 50 dollars per month and less than 300 dollars per year. Bur if you quickly do the math if you had a 100 or more advertisers the rewards financially go up quickly.

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