Nov 8 2007

Top 7 Reasons Why New Directories Fail

As a matter of fact, new directories have a high failure rate - high enough that I am scared of. According to my personal research and calculations as many as 70 to 80 percent of new directories fail in their first quarter of existence. In fact, I know far more people who could not establish a profitable directory than a number of people who actually do.

The following mistakes are the most important common causes of directory failures:

  • Lack of experience: not having enough the know-how in order to run general or niche directory. (Most of the time niche directories appear to be much more successful than general directories)
  • Lack of expertise: not having enough essential knowledge of directory operations, including seo, category creation, design and user usability.
  • Lack of strategic leadership: not taking the time to set up performance objectives and to implement the strategy.
  • Poor financial control: not keeping track of advertising campaigns, measuring its performance, and a failure to account and control all other expenses.
  • Growing too quickly: lack of controlling expansion and addressing the right problems at the right time.
  • Insufficient commitment: not spending enough time running the directory and not meeting performance objectives.
  • Ethical failure: failing to act ethically and legally towards both customers and search engines.

I hope this article is going to help you understand the causes of your failure and ways to eliminate them. Please leave your thoughts and ideas by commenting.

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5 Comments on this post

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  1. Kalina said:

    Thank you for this, very helpful to those of us still new in this game. ;)

    November 8th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
  2. Amit Nyamtabad said:

    I think that really commitment and exposure is the key to sucess.

    November 8th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
  3. Xavier VESPA said:

    Maybe lack of agility could be added, as you may have to bend towards new objectives as the project grows (that’s a tough decision-making requirement)

    November 9th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
  4. Ilyas said:

    The best post for all the newbies.

    November 10th, 2007 at 2:58 am
  5. Mel said:

    I will make sure none of those things happen. Another great post btw, thanks.

    August 10th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

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