Brian, what's your take on bid for position directories?

[Solicitors Mortgages]

Originally Posted by tamecrow

No it's not, and neither is anything else with regards to SEO. It's the same reason that keyword density figures are pure bull. We need to forget algorithms and percentages and concentrate on keeping it natural. We're becoming far too obsessed with what search engines want and forgetting why they want it.

I just felt that your original post was a bit 'scaremongery-ish'

I think Bid directories are great because it allows the highest payer to gain a tactical traffic advantage. No traffic = no sales.

regards
James.

[tamecrow]

Originally Posted by Solicitors Mortgages

I just felt that your original post was a bit 'scaremongery-ish'

What can I say? I'm a scary git

[Brian Turner]

Originally Posted by Solicitors Mortgages

I just felt that your original post was a bit 'scaremongery-ish'

I think Bid directories are great because it allows the highest payer to gain a tactical traffic advantage. No traffic = no sales.

regards
James.

Trouble is, how many directories actually offer real traffic?

I know the Platinax Directory gets some decent traffic in itself, but I've tried out premium listings on other directories, and the traffic advantage has been ... negligible.

[bumfluff]

Originally Posted by tamecrow

We're becoming far too obsessed with what search engines want and forgetting why they want it.

I think that's an important point. The methods employed by search engines are always going to be adjusted and tweaked, but the end result is that they're looking for information that's relative to the query - so the way I see it is that in the end, sites with a lot of good useful info will be the ones that come out ahead.

[dvduval]

I think in certain situations a bid for position directory can be an effective way of making some money, but I think you have to be careful, especially if you are trying to buy pagerank, and then turn around a sell it through a bidding process. There has to be some other value to the placement besides pagerank alone.

In phpLD we added some other optional features to spice it up a little:
One of the main features of the new model is bid expiration, but people are going to have to test it in the real world to see what kind of money you can make. Here is how it works:
1. Initially, links on the homepage start out at as low as $1 and it is clearly stated they are featured links. The admin can set a minimum starting amount.
2. The admin sets how long featured links will last before expiring.
3. The customers can add funds an the exiration date is extended. The admin can set the increment (ex. allow only whole dollar amounts or allow increments of 0.25 for example)
4. The admin also has control over the time for the extension. So maybe initially a featured link last 30 days, and then if they come back and add funds, it is extended 30 more days (or how ever many days the admin specifies for this setting)

What I like about this model, is people are paying for the potential traffic they may receive from your front page, and it is unlikely bids will get driven up too high, yet revenue should continue to come in. This follows more closely a traditional print ad advertising model. The cost of ads are determined on a monthly basis, and the price of the ads automatically adjusts based on the demand.

Again, you need a model that is not just based on pagerank.