Are paid link directories worth it?
A remnant of the mid 90′s, paid link directories, unlike the rest of the internet, have failed to evolve with the times. The vast majority of the paid link directories out there are based off a simple premise, people will pay for exposure, even if it’s dubious at best.
Why do people pay to join paid link directories?
As I eluded to earlier, people join these paid link directories because they perceive that the exposure offers some value to them. The marketing of these sites is simple, charge people a pittance which is usually about 10 dollars a year and build up your volume. Like any industry, the more people pay, the more money the link directory makes but unlike other industries, there is no guarantee that you will get anything in return. Let me repeat, you paid for exposure but the site owner has NO vested interest in you succeeding nor any responsibility to actually expose your site to the world.
Well… are paid link directories really worth your hard earned money?
I believe people join paid link directories due to lack of knowledge regarding how the internet works.
First, if you aren’t on any major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN Live and to a lesser extent DMOZ, Altavista, Dogpile, AOL, Excite… then don’t expect much of anything from these paid linking sites, you haven’t covered the basics yet.
Second, creating a blog on your site will drive more traffic due to it’s unique content then paying hundreds of dollars to join these paid link directories.
Third, who actually is visiting these paid link directories, I bet more often then not they are people just like you, considering joining and paying for a link. As such, I fail to see the value of other consumers testing the waters with other consumers when there is no interaction between them.
Forth, Google and many other search engines now decrease your PR value if you paid to be on a site without letting them know. For instance, you paid 10$ to be on xyz paid directory, if this site is flagged, guess what happens to your ranking… it nosedives. You paid to get LESS traffic to your site!
Are there alternatives?
Absolutely, submit your web site to as many search engines as possible, I use a program called AddWeb to do this efficiently, I consider this a better investment then paid link directories any day of the week. You must also be patient, it may take months before the work you do NOW begins to pay dividends. As mentioned previously, start up a blog as the more unique content you have on your site, the more search terms become of interest to various search engines. Now for the shameless plug, use buzvia to track your marketing efforts, paid banners and other type of links both free and paid need to be monetized somehow, buzvia will give you a quick way to see if they are worth the investment or not. Once you have these basics out of the way and you still want more marketing muscle behind you, consider programs such as AdWords, Commission Junction and others of this kind. You will have better ROI (return on investment) then you will with a paid link directory. Short answer is paid link directories are NOT worth your money much less your time.
The Bottom Line
If it sounds too good to be true… it is, especially when it’s on the net!
