Domain Advice

Hi

I have a domain I've been sitting on for a few years and every once in a while I'll get a notion to do something with it. Today is one of those days.

The domain itself is a niche domain, and one which a directory would be the obvious avenue to go down - think, plumbersCalifornia.com type-domain.

So my questions for you good people are:

If I didn't want to go the directory route, what is the alternative? Rank and rent? Is there still money in that? Any other approaches I could consider?

If the (paid-?)directory is the best approach, is there a tool and or WP theme I can utilize to scrape and upload a batch of business'. The thoughts of manually putting together a CSV of 200 or so companies to make the site look more established to paying clients bums me out. i could farm that out to Fiverr I guess...

Following on from that - in your opinion are paid directories a worthwhile model? Or just do a free directory and try make money from ads?

Thanks for reading and any constructive advice you can provide.

icinine said:

Hi

I have a domain I've been sitting on for a few years and every once in a while I'll get a notion to do something with it. Today is one of those days.

Click to expand...

Just do it already.

icinine said:

The domain itself is a niche domain, and one which a directory would be the obvious avenue to go down - think, plumbersCalifornia.com type-domain.

Click to expand...

Got it. But personally I would stay away from plumbing lets hope the real niche has higher margins & better overall selection.

icinine said:

So my questions for you good people are:

If I didn't want to go the directory route, what is the alternative? Rank and rent? Is there still money in that? Any other approaches I could consider?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't rank & rent. Not because SEO isn't important but the overall funnel is what matters. Traffic from state relevant sites, forums, blog comments, articles, power-threads on forums, shared promotional materials (charts, graphs, free info or offers to help target market) long tail pages on your site, social media, YT videos, traffic can come from so many places and should come from many places.

Then I would broker leads. The key is to make it profitable for both you & the client. The more profitable it is, the harder you will work. I picked a higher paid industry & thought "I only need 4-5 leads for a nice margin" then somehow activated & worked my ass those first 2 yrs towards those goals. Which down the road became bigger goals. And if it's something you're actually interested in you can take over the industry yourself.

Generate leads > higher manager > have them pay you.

icinine said:

If the (paid-?)directory is the best approach, is there a tool and or WP theme I can utilize to scrape and upload a batch of business'. The thoughts of manually putting together a CSV of 200 or so companies to make the site look more established to paying clients bums me out. i could farm that out to Fiverr I guess...

Click to expand...

I don't like the paid directory approach. And why are you showing an CSV of 200 companies to clients? To pretend they're paying you already? I wouldn't use a CSV to do that.

icinine said:

Following on from that - in your opinion are paid directories a worthwhile model? Or just do a free directory and try make money from ads?

Click to expand...

No I wouldn't do it it's like the craigslist model. The model was oversold on WaFo it's a model to sell not a model to use in most cases.

icinine said:

Thanks for reading and any constructive advice you can provide.

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Constructive advice? There are really so many niches hidden in the dark. Some that have good money behind them. And I wouldn't settle on a niche until I've really researched both the niche & name of the domain at least 3-6 weeks. There are many things you can rush in the overall set up & marketing process but never rush the niche, name of the domain, how it will be monetized, how much traffic you really need to make x amount of money. Develop good ideas & take the time because good ideas are what activates most people.

Unless you are super popular and have big names in your listing nobody is gonna be interested in a paid directory.