Business directory - how to market it?

[Ryan26]

Hey, guys. Came here for some expertise. I launched recent new project of mine that I had no experience in. Online Business Directory. I know that there are many available already, but the problem with them are, that many businesses are already out of business, so it means old content. Also, many of them looks terrible from design viewpoint.

I tested facebook ads got 0 engagement (20$)
I tested google ads (~15$) - good engagement.

As always I see that Facebook never works. Google works and that would be the best solution but at this moment I'm gathering money for next project I want to launch and don't want to spend a lot of more money in google ads.

What would be your suggestions to market it? I have tried some Facebook group posting - doesn't work as well.

Take a look please and give me some feedback. http://foxme.company - it's totally free.

[Freelancier]

I had one from 2006-2013, then shut it down, because it never made any money. Just a total waste of time trying to keep the spammers out while hunting for anyone who would pay for an ad.

Not worth the time or effort.

[Ryan26]

I'm not going for money here in this situation. With this project I want more for myself + marketing purposes. This is not my retirement plan. But thanks for the tip.

[Freelancier]

With this project I want more for myself + marketing purposes.So did I. I figured it was a bit of advertising for my own consulting firm (since it had a "Designed by" link on every page and I figured I was doing something good for the community.

No one wanted to pay for it. After a while, you learn that you need to spend your time maintaining your cash cows and funding your fast growers. When something is neither growing fast nor producing cash, you're better off going outside with someone you like and playing.

[Harold Mansfield]

Hey, guys. Came here for some expertise. I launched recent new project of mine that I had no experience in. Online Business Directory.

I tested facebook ads got 0 engagement (20$)
I tested google ads (~15$) - good engagement.

As always I see that Facebook never works. Google works and that would be the best solution but at this moment I'm gathering money for next project I want to launch and don't want to spend a lot of more money in google ads.

What would be your suggestions to market it? I have tried some Facebook group posting - doesn't work as well.



My advice? Shut it down and move on. I could give you a 100 reasons and the last 10 years of internet history why, but here's a few:



You have no idea what you're doing. You know nothing about the web, marketing, or even advertising.
$35 is the extent of your ad testing, and you think you've done enough to make conclusions.
You're trying to make something work that keeps failing over and over again because no one needs yet another business directory with no traffic.
The only reason people used to join them is for back links, and even then they didn't want to pay. Now that strategy is dead.
You don't have the dedication. You're already talking about not wanting to spend money on it.
You've just started it and already your mind is on something else.
There's plenty of well funded, well built, well marketed, easy to use places to find or connect with businesses that are more beneficial to both business owners and customers starting with plain old Google, Linked In, Yellow Pages Online, and Review sites.
Most business marketing needs are local. Most consumer needs are local.
You haven't done anything new, or original. You've just purchased a WordPress directory theme and plopped it up. The same as 1000+ other people.


I don't know why, but a business directory is always the first thing someone new to the web comes up with as their great new idea. It's a dead idea that has been done to death.

Now if you were an organization and your directory was specific to an industry, or even maybe an area...you may have some luck.

But take it from someone who has worked on a crap load of directories owned by people who have never done anything online and thought theirs was the best idea since sliced bread...they NEVER work. No one ever uses them. They never get any traffic, therefore are of no benefit for anyone to pay to be in it.

My advice is to move on to your next idea. There is no marketing advice I can give you that is going to make it work.

[Ryan26]

You must be some arrogant as*hole.
First of all, whi sad that I dont know anything?
I came here to look for some advice, not for telling me that I'm idiot.
1. I still have web development, social account control business already for 5 years, that goes well.
2. I have spent more than 5000 on ads. Facebook never works. This time as I mentioned I did it for testing purposes to show for clients, that with small funds we suggest to use google.
3. I have sucesfully sold around 5 my web projects and even one retail business.
4. Have launched two different food products and advertised them in tv.
So please next time when you want to be arrogant prick again to someone who you don't know - shut yourself off for a few days.

You're welcome to NOT post in this topic.
I came here for suggestions on project I haven't done. I want to see how it goes. Even if it fails in a year or two I will know another market. We learn from mistakes.

[Harold Mansfield]

First of all kid, you need to check your language and your attitude.

At no time did I call you names or did I insinuate that you were stupid. The only reason I haven't bounced you and banned your IP address is because I'll take some responsibility for not knowing how sensitive and thin skinned you are. Most grown ups aren't so sensitive.

The bottom line is that I took from exactly what you said.


Hey, guys. Came here for some expertise. I launched recent new project of mine that I had no experience in. Online Business Directory.

You're the one who said you have no experience in what you're doing. I didn't make that up. There is nothing easy about online success and you've chosen an outdated business model with no experience. I wouldn't suggest that anyone walk blindly into that.


I know that there are many available already, but the problem with them are, that many businesses are already out of business, so it means old content. Also, many of them looks terrible from design viewpoint.

You're the one who said this was what you thought the problem was. All I did was point out that you misunderstood the real problem and you didn't even solve the one you think exists by merely buying a theme and putting it online.


I tested facebook ads got 0 engagement (20$)
I tested google ads (~15$) - good engagement.

If you spent $5k advertising this project then you should have said that. Why would you say you spent $35 if you spent $5k? Just because you spend on another project, doesn't mean you'll get the same results with this one. Each is different. It's not one sized fits all. Some ads don't work on any network. It's not always the network, sometimes it's the ad and it takes more than $20 to figure that out.


As always I see that Facebook never works. Google works and that would be the best solution but at this moment I'm gathering money for next project I want to launch and don't want to spend a lot of more money in google ads.

Again, you're the one who said in the previous line that you spent $20 on Facebook and then concluded that it doesn't work. You're also the one who said that you don't want to spend a lot of money because you want to do something else.

If you believed in this project you'd be putting all your effort into it. You can call me all the assholes that you want, but these are your words.


What would be your suggestions to market it? I have tried some Facebook group posting - doesn't work as well.

Take a look please and give me some feedback. FOXME.COMPANY | Online Business Directory (http://foxme.company) - it's totally free.


I did exactly what you asked and took a look and saw immediately that you hadn't done anything except buy a theme. You didn't solve any of the problems that you yourself say exist or take the time to do anything different.

So based on what YOU said about your own project, what you said about your own level of experience and dedication to it, and having lived through the rise and fall of directories years ago, and knowing how useless they are to consumers, and businesses and having watched 100's of them fail over and over again, I gave you my advice.

I'm sorry it's not what you want to hear, but it's based on what YOU said. I didn't make any thing up. I took your words, what you have and gave you my opinion.

If you just want people to lie to you and tell you what you want to hear, you're in the wrong spot.

The truth is that general business directories are a waste of time. It's an outdated idea whose time passed years ago. Google killed directories. The only reason they saw any modest success after the fall of DMOZ is because they were a cheap source of back links. Now that doesn't even work anymore. Most directories just end up as link farms or poorly rated link exchange sites and it's actually harmful to be listed in them.

I've been working on and following directories since they were all on eSyndicate and phpMyDirectory. Before there were any WordPress Directory themes.

You're only looking at it from the standpoint of what you want, not what benefit it holds for users or businesses that's better than anything that's already out there. The only chance you may have isn't in doing what has already failed multiple times, it's in specializing in an industry or locale...and even that is a big maybe if you can't compete with what's already out there.

So telling you to cut your loses when you've already expressed apprehension, is the best advice and "expertise" that anyone is going to give you. At this point it's like starting up a Pixel site. Sorry for not sugar coating it for you. No one wants to hear that their idea is outdated after they've already set it up. My bad. Seems like if you had all this web experience that you say you do, you would know this already.

Would you rather I lie to you and steer you down a bunch of worthless marketing ideas that I KNOW won't work, and will waste your time and money just to make you feel better?

It's a great idea, what a beautiful design, and the web has been waiting for a directory like yours, and you should dump all of your money in ads...yeah..do that.

Feel better?

[krymson]

Ryan, you came to this forum looking for constructive criticism. We're giving you that. The web has been around a long time now and a million other people have tried to pull off the same idea, whether your intentions are to make money off of the site or not. What we're saying is 15 years ago, yeah, you could have built a business directory and had it moderately successful with visits, now you're going to pay for space that no one visits. You would have to spend the time, energy, and money to have people visit your site. From what we've seen there's nothing that sets you apart from a business directory I can throw together in an hour. There's no niche, there's no wow factor, there's no "i can only get this type information on this site". There's nothing there that would keep users coming back for more.

Now take a look at your competition:
Angies List
Yellow Pages
Craigslist
Back Page
and on and on and on

These sites spend TONS on marketing... TONS. And I'm sure you've only heard of maybe the top 3 and Craigslist isn't even a business directory site, it just a place that people spam their services or products. So 2 business directory sites out of a million stand out, there's a reason for that. Angies List spends literally millions in advertising, and Yellow Pages is the phonebook that everyone has grown up knowing with all of the businesses being listed in the yellow pages of the phone book. What are you going to offer that they already dont? Updated listings? So every day your going to call the businesses listed and say "hey, just checking, are you still in business?" I highly doubt it.

So before you go off on some of our members, especially tenured members, and especially tenured members who have years experience in the field you are asking questions about, I would check your tone and realize no one is being condescending towards you, we give our honest opinions like you ask. If you can't handle the answer then you're more than welcome to delete your account and link drop on another forum.

[RR151]

Hey Ryan,

Are you still here after getting a kicking from someone who knows better. Sure hope so...

I really like your design it looks great! Only thing is your world wide scope looks like your trying to eat the whole elephant in one bite. The directory is similar to setting up a forum trust me I know.

It is the chicken and egg thing. Looking at your site you have to have businesses interested in joining, right? If they see just one business they won't join. What's first the chicken or the egg?

Maybe take a play from your friend and mind - Google. What they do is add everyone in the database and then they get the businesses to take ownership.

Here is what I would do,

Step 1: Pick a market as a test market and import all basic contact information: 1) company name, 2) street addresses 3) phone.

Step 2: Add a form like the one below in each business. This one below is for the Empire State building. The customer just adds their address and the directions are given to that specific business. This is something that is not used and is good "value proposition."

<form action="http://maps.google.com/maps" method="get" target="_blank">
<label for="saddr">Enter your location below to get directions to the Empire State Building</label>
<input type="text" name="saddr" />
<input type="hidden" name="daddr" value="350 5th Ave New York, NY 10018 (Empire State Building)" />
<input type="submit" value="Click here to get directions" />
</form>

Step 3: Now you have a website that doesn't look like the Badlands S.D. Upgrades are a street view photo, hours of operation and what ever you deem an extra.

If you are still here and you like what you see we can talk more.

Just a thought...RR

[turboguy]

Ryan, I think your site looks great but I have to agree with the others you might be better off spending your time and money elsewhere. After taking a quick peek at your site you definitely have a lot of talent but you are barking up the wrong tree. You are getting some very blunt answers here and that is better than sugar coating bad advice. I was almost beginning to think that the real identity of one of our members must be Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank but since it looks like you are from England you probably don't know who that is.

I will be the exception here but I am saying this not with the intention of giving you encouragement in your current path. Everyone says a directory can't work. Well, actually one of my sites is pretty much a directory and there are 200 people who pay from $ 100.00 to $ 250 to be on it. Some of my customers who have spent thousands do get on for free. There is a lot more to that story however and the money they pay doesn't go to me. After starting that directory as a benefit to those who bought machines from me I donate the ability to be listed on the site to the trade association for that industry (I was a founder of the trade association). Being listed in the directory is the main reason people join the association and being listed can generate 10's of thousands of dollars to their income.

I am going to try and offer some constructive criticism. Based on my quick peek your scope is too broad to have any chance of success. The reason my directory works is that it is very focused on a very narrow field that few ever look for and it is hard to find any lists or directories of that field. I would say that at best one in 5000 people might have need. I only get about 25,000 visitors a year on that site but the conversion rate is probably pretty high. They don't come there unless they are looking for those services and there really isn't any competition. I would suggest that if you are going to do it pick something very specialized and build the best directory on the internet. Perhaps something medical like Dental implants or even better Prolotherapy (I picked that because I just tried it and although it is not well known it worked great for me and doctors have money to advertise. What I am suggesting is don't do restaurants. Do Indian Restaurants. Don't do auto repair, do classic car rebuilders. Find some specialty that is hard to find and build the best resource for that specialty there is and you might have a chance of success.

All in all, however there may be better things to persue. Having a directory is a pain. I am constantly getting requests for corrections (just did one 10 minutes ago) and keeping the dead wood off the list is almost impossible. Having a directory is a pain.

Another option might be to have reviews like Yelp or Angie's list but I am not sure the world needs another Angie's list or Yelp.