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Free listing versus Paid listing Hi All, Another question: 1- Free listing (create volume and traffic and awareness) then sell the banners / advertisement to more solid organization / company. OR 2- Paid listing (little volume, low traffic and less awareness) then sell banners / advertisement once the traffic is solid. Thank you for your feedback... |
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All I can offer is that you have exactly identified the difference ! Depending on one's goals, either is selected. Most opt for 1 because they want volume, traffic, and awareness. Options 2 is generally used for quality over quantity. A recent forum thread example shows the difference of this theory: Option 1 - Google results example OR Option 2 - BFD.tel results example :)[/size] |
www.406i.tel has gone with free partial listings with the option to upgrade to additional information with payment. This could mean adding additional information, or having a whole subfolder for a business with payment, and this subfolder has additional options with more payment. And we've stayed away from third party adverts, more money is available with direct advertising. Some businesses are willing to exchange advertising as well. The phonebook may be on it's way out the door, but I think it's business model is a good one to follow for the .tel directory. |
Thanks guys for your suggestions. 406i.tel looks very interesting. Once you list the customer's phone number on your directory for free, why would he upgrade? I found it very difficult to convert a free listing customer to a paid listing customer. The client does not seem to think he needs to pay. And, he does not care if his details are accurate. So you end up chasing the data for him in the hope that people will use it... I am not too sure Hope to hear more from others. |
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The trick here is (with our experience on other non .tel commercial directories), assuming your tel is a geo domain, that you must first display only non commercial listings for free (i.e. places of public interest, churches, museums, parks, public parking lots etc. Then when your directory gets visitors you can start selling the listings to commercial establishments. Just like any other biz venture, this takes time unless you publicise your domain in search engines or other places where you can attract an audience. Once stared giving FREE they never want to pay you. This is our experience with directories. Hope this helps.[/size] |
A lot depends on what the directory is for, but for most, in the begining, a combination of free, paid, advertising and affiliate links is a good way to find out what works for a particular directory. I've had a couple of succesful .com directories that started with free listings and paid feature ads. The benefit of free listings is the ability to populate a new directory and build up a database. A poorly populated directory is never popular and rarely revisited, free listings and afiliate links can be invaluable in quickly populating a directory. It's easier to make a paid ad more appealing than a free listing on a .com than a .tel by adding lots of extras for paid ads, i.e. website links, online booking or ordering facilities, reviews, testimonials, photo albums, full descriptions etc. This makes converting free listings to paid ads easier. The hardest part of a .tel directory with both free and paid listings is defining the difference, adding a web link and a couple of pics is often not enough to convince people to pay when they have a phone number and email for free. TELcp is quite right once free, they will never pay for an ad unless it has guaranteed extra value. Hard to do with .tel. Directories take time to develop, and until you have page 1 results for your customers searches, don't expect them to come flocking to you, you have to go out and find them, convince them to try, then deliver results, with stats to back it up. Only when you get customers thanking you for the increase in traffic, bookings etc. and renewing there subscriptions do you have a directory that will flourish. Time and effort in marketing, SEO, monitoring, and keeping your few converts informed and updated is required to increase bookings. I don't expect any of my .tel directories to be making anywhere near a decent regular income for at least 5-7 years. So in answer to the thread topic Free or Paid, I am trying a free, a paid only and a combination of both, I'll let you know which is best in a few years time. |
Paid. .tel doesn't need another hundred thousand domains with rubbish in them. |
@tel4rent Forgot to mention something important. A full page rentals (an exclusive right for the rentee to display records, Text ads, Image ads to display own products with price tags, geographical location and other information) will attract more prospective candidates as a full page guarantees that there won't be any outgoing links to other competitors. This is important when a visitor arrives to a page by search result; more chances of clicking what is available rather than doing another search. Thereby, the rentee retains the possible transaction. In order to maintain exclusive display rights per rentee per page basis, you must avoid display of Adsense and other affiliate links. So, if you plan to start a "Paid only" directory (even if you are still displaying information of places of public interest, also on full page, as explained in our previous post) it's better that not to display any Adsense/Affiliate links at all. Keep the directory clean. When you present a full page to a prospective rentee (or buyer or whatever), you can explain all above. Further explanation (briefly) of the .tel technology how the one point contact info is located on a single page and the ability to update such information within few seconds will also help. When you have a paid directory with full page rentals, you don't have to worry too much about the order of display of pages on the main page. And if you wish this can be rotated once a day or so without affecting the throttling limits. Visitors will either search and go to a page or the visitors will arrive directly to the page (for this purpose, the rentee can give away the URL of the page he/she occupies. This new URL (orhe new business contact address) can be transmitted by his/her email, business cards, other directory listings, blogs etc - You must explain all these benefits to the rentee). Remember to plan your directory tree with allocations for expansion in the future. And also not to have too many links on the main (root domain) page. Hope this helps. Cheers! |
@ All, thanks for your help. I always look forward for practical, hands on tips.... 1- Paid is the way to go. Free customer never pays for a listing. I agree, i experience it. And data is never updated or accurate. 2- Full page exclusive to customer is great. Clients like it and they pay for it. I agree on it and it is the case in my area. 3- Full page exclusive works well with search engine and clients like that. Be found and reached directly. But it requires a lot of work and maintenance. 4- We have already cut down on the number of category on the root. Always twisting it. However, if you want to make it a template for other geo domain, it becomes a nightmare to maintain them all. But great points and tips....many thanks. Another challenge i am facing with my clients: - Some of them want to use their link to advertise on their own ( car, letterhead, advertisement etc...) but the link is too long. What do you recommend? Shortening? or? Many thanks |
interesting thread... my two cents, consider your market and what works and go with that. in some cases a free listing is the only way to go as there are free alternatives, in others free + affiliate and in some directories it may command a price and therefore should be kept clean and free of any free listings. regarding url - to date, i'm yet to find one customer that actually publishes their url from any of our directories. they see the listings as simply add ons to their existing marketing efforts and will always use their existing urls or actually buy their own tel. We're trying to get some premium top level listings sold with brandable surnames, professions, etc but thats an even harder nut to crack..... |
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Well, this will not be a problem if you provide a URL like clientname.yourdomain.tel It is just like having an email address similar to firstname.surname@domain.com Cheers![/size] |
@ Telcp Well...it is not that simple. With such directories, you could get something like the-Blue-cheese-restaurant.restaurant.england.tel And that's not really easy to remember or to type on a mobile browser. By the way TELCP, is it possible in your system that every link generates automatically or manual a shorten name... @dottel.net Interesting enough...some of my clients are actually seeing it as a very affordable/branding listing and want to use it to the max. Specially that it is mobile friendly. You will be surprised to meet many people that do not want to buy another domain, manage it, update, remember another password etc... You know what, they are even lazy because when time come to renew it, they won't even bother because they don't see the value of it. But we you do it for them and it is part of a common directory, they like it and want to use it to the max. That's why i am looking for a way to brand their link nicely...Anyway, let's see. Getting the client to buy his own .tel is in the plan but not where .tel is at this moment...Not enough exposure of .tel Let's face it...even for a directory it is not easy at all. We get things like: - What is .tel? - We love the idea but How will end user know about .tel? - What is your marketing plan to promote the brand? or your directory? How people will know about it? - It is great but your categories are empty...Or you have a lots of work to do to fill all this categories. - Why are all your categories empty? Am i the first client? Come back when you have more listing... - Why should i be listed in another directory? or you directory does not show on google - the best one i got...Why is it so cheap...IS IT A SCAM what tells me your .tel will here next year Although it can be very challenging, you get people that jump into it without blinking...they really thing it is a great idea and product...And i have FAITH So be persistent people... |
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Take a look here (10th post of the thread), you will then have a better idea of what we are trying to explain. Cheers![/size] |
