Starting an online business directory can be quite easy, but if you have no idea where and how to start, reading this article will help you get started.

Step one:

The first thing you need to know about starting an online business directory is who your target market will be, in other words what kind of businesses you want to include in your new business directory.

If you already have a current online or offline business, then you already know your target market and can move on to step two in this article.

However, if you have no idea who your target market will be, then you will need to do some research, I would recommend starting a business directory on something popular and likely to generate future income. That will gradually help grow your current business.

Here are some very popular and profitable niches for an online business directory you could start.

1: Real estate directory

2: Travel Directory

3: Online Dating Directory

4: Automotive Directory

5: Fashion Directory

There are many more and to find them simply go to eBay.com or Amazon.com and see what is popular on those sites, or you can go to Google and do a search for keyword terms like “Hot Niches” or “Popular Niches” . ” or “popular business” gets the idea..

Then, once you’ve decided on the niche for your new business directory, you’ll need to purchase or register your domain name.

Second step:

Buying or registering the right domain name for your new online business directory is going to be the most important thing, so make sure you do it right from the start.

A good domain name should be no more than two or three words long, and should contain the niche name and directory words and should always be .com. If you can avoid it, you should opt for .net. domain if the .com domain you want is already taken and not for sale.

So, for example, if you were going to start a new niche real estate business directory, the ideal domain name would be RealEstateDirectory.com or RealEstateDirectory.net, but all the good domain names like this have already been taken, but may be available. sale so just visit the website and see.

If you find that the domain name is not for sale, you can also try adding a hyphen between the two words. Click Like RealEstate-Directory.com or RealEstate-Directory.net and see if they have been taken or not, and if they are taken to see if they are for sale.

If you have to go with a three-word domain name, you can put something like your town or city name in front of the domain to make it… Like NewYorkRealEstateDirectory.com or NewYorkRealEstateDirectory.net and see if it’s taken.

A great free online resource I have found to help think about a new domain name and see if it has been taken or not is RegistrarStats.com, give it a try.

Once you have found the domain name for your new online business directory it is time to register it, I recommend Godaddy.com for this as they are the cheapest and offer the best services.

Step three:

Now that you have your domain name for your new online business directory it is time to find a hosting company, I have tried many and the best I have found is SeoHosting.com which is owned by HostGator.com and they have been by long time and have thousands of satisfied customers.

Step four:

Now that you have your hosting account for your new online business directory, it’s time to create the directory.

Now you can do this in a few different ways, but it all comes down to how much money you want to spend.

If money is not an option for you then I would recommend hiring a PHP coder from a website like RentaCoder.com or ScriptLance.com or eLance.com and have them build a custom solution for you, this way you will make your new directory. business stands out from all the other cookie cutter directories online these days using an out of the box PHP directory script.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with this type of script, and we used one for our own link directory, but we’ve gone a step further and created a custom template for our directory which turned out to be a pretty good one. investment.

The directory script we use and recommend if you have a very limited startup budget is PhpLinkDirectory.com.

Step five:

Now we come to the final step and that is promoting your new business directory, this can be done with or without spending money.

Below, I’ll list five free options and five paid options that you can start to help spread the word about your directory.

Free options:

1: Join online forums and discussion groups related to your new business directory and make a post inviting business owners to list your website/business in their directory for free or at a discount.

2: This one is related to 1: Make sure you add a Sig line linking to your directory in all posts you make to forums you’ve joined.

3: Submit your business directory to other free link directories online, just do a Google search for the keyword Link Directory.

4: Link to your business directory from your other websites you already own or run this way search engines will find your directory and index it.

5: Email friends or clients and ask them to link to your business directory and in return link to your website from your directory if relevant.

Payment options:

1: Start a Google AdWords campaign to instantly start driving traffic to your business directory, but be careful because if you don’t know what you’re doing with AdWords, you could end up spending a lot of money to no avail.

2: Buy some paid links from other websites or directories that are similar to your own business directory.

3: Submit your business directory to the Yahoo Directory at a cost of $299 per year. Being listed in the Yahoo directory will make your directory more credible in the eyes of search engines and your visitors.

4: Buy some offline newspaper advertising if your directory targets businesses in your local area.

5: Buy banner ads on other websites that relate to your business directory and try to trade for a period of 6-12 months as it can greatly reduce all banner costs.