Is there a downside?

**Kovich** · 27 September, 2009, 19:50 PM

I'm thinking about starting a niche directory for online business/internet marketing sites on a subdomain of Make Money Online | Running Online Business - but I'm wondering if doing this could be damaging to the domain and my blog somehow!

Could anyone clarify?

**Will.Spencer** · 28 September, 2009, 14:03 PM

I don't think that a directory is damaging, but I do worry that a directory in that niche might be seen by Google as linking to "bad neighborhoods."

It's not really dissimilar to the risk we run here with the NetBuilders Directory.

**Hellas** · 28 September, 2009, 16:23 PM

Originally Posted by Kovich

I'm thinking about starting a niche directory for online business/internet marketing sites on a subdomain of Make Money Online | Running Online Business - but I'm wondering if doing this could be damaging to the domain and my blog somehow!

Could anyone clarify?

It depends on which type of damage you mean but I suppose you mean on search engines penalties.

If you think that addition is something which will help and be usefull to the visitors then do it and screw search engines.

If you think that addition is something which will have use for search engines and not for visitors then dont do it.

However even search engines probably will just penalize subdomain not whole domain (subdomain as subdomain.domain.com).

However this is personal oppinion, I never had penalized page at least I never noticed.

**Mia** · 15 October, 2009, 15:56 PM

In my experience directories themselves seem to be damaging to, well... themselves. Directories by nature are often times considered link farms by SE's. There's really little you can do to avoid being labeled as such...

That being said, it does not mean it will happen. While there is little you can do to avoid it, there is A LOT you can do to CAUSE IT. Avoiding the cause is what I suggest.

As others have suggested avoid bad neighborhoods.... Do not sell site wide links. Keep your advertising to a minimum, and by ALL MEANS, PLEASE PLEASE keep the directory fresh and updated. A clean well maintained directory is going to carry far more weight and respect than one that is abandoned to fester with old, dead irrelevant links.

**AstroNyu** · 16 October, 2009, 01:22 AM

Originally Posted by Mia

In my experience directories themselves seed to be damaging to, well... themselves. Directories by nature are often times considered link farms by SE's. There's really little you can do to avoid being labeled as such...

That being said, it does not mean it will happen. While there is little you can do to avoid it, there is A LOT you can do to CAUSE IT. Avoiding the cause is what I suggest.

As others have suggested avoid bad neighborhoods.... Do not sell site wide links. Keep your advertising to a minimum, and by ALL MEANS, PLEASE PLEASE keep the directory fresh and updated. A clean well maintained directory is going to carry far more weight and respect than one that is abandoned to fester with old, dead irrelevant links.

This is also applied to ALL listing site no matter if its general directories or proxies directories. Good advice there Mia.

**bogart** · 1 November, 2009, 00:24 AM

Originally Posted by Mia

As others have suggested avoid bad neighborhoods.... Do not sell site wide links. Keep your advertising to a minimum, and by ALL MEANS, PLEASE PLEASE keep the directory fresh and updated. A clean well maintained directory is going to carry far more weight and respect than one that is abandoned to fester with old, dead irrelevant links.

Sounds like a lot of work. Can you still make money with directories?

**Mia** · 3 November, 2009, 16:49 PM

Originally Posted by bogart

Sounds like a lot of work. Can you still make money with directories?

Yes, you can certainly make money with directories. Are you going to quit your day job? Probably not. Is the potential there to do very well? Yes. If I charged what others do, I probably could quit my day job, assuming other directory owners that charge 10 - 20 times what I charge get that.

**bogart** · 4 November, 2009, 00:52 AM

Originally Posted by Mia

Yes, you can certainly make money with directories. Are you going to quit your day job? Probably not. Is the potential there to do very well? Yes. If I charged what others do, I probably could quit my day job, assuming other directory owners that charge 10 - 20 times what I charge get that.

I guess with some promotion some money can be made. What about niche directories charging for a yearly listing?

**Mia** · 4 November, 2009, 17:38 PM

Originally Posted by bogart

I guess with some promotion some money can be made. What about niche directories charging for a yearly listing?

The only real promotion you need is WORD OF MOUTH... Let people know about the directory, and keep it updated. That's about all it takes. I've never spent any money 'advertising" my directories. I've also never bought any links for them either.

**ruben** · 4 November, 2009, 19:05 PM

I think your worries have been answered
choose your outbound links wisely
update your directory frequently

and I'm not 100% sure but I think its better not to ask for reciprocal links.

I would also suggest you yo read this if you are planning to charge a fee.
http://www.searchmasters.co.nz/artic...es-paid-links/

The right question:
Do paid links that pass PageRank violate search engines’ quality guidelines?
The answer to that question is yes.

Matt Cutts
Google Software Engineer
SES San Jose, August 21, 2007