There are thousands of directories and only some of them are successful. The mark of success is not necessarily having thousands of listings but on how many ‘humans’ use the directory to find what they are looking for. Obviously when people use the website and benefit from it the webmaster also profits from it. And we have a successful directory website.

This brings us to the question what type of directory can be useful to ‘real humans’. It has to be ones that have information and links to sites that are what the people are looking for.  General directories usually do not fit the bill because they are too vast to be really targetted. Exceptions though are the real pioneers of the directory segment. But for new entrants to this business, it is important to build a niche directory. A niche directory will necessarily have better targetted sites listed and will be more useful to ‘real humans’.

The next important factor is the type of submissions accepted in the directory. There are three main type of directories: paid directories, free directories and reciprocal directories. Again what you choose for your directory should depend on your niche. Very niche directories may choose to go for free submissions since the number of quality sites in the niche are very few. In most cases, the directory webmaster himself has to find relevant sites to add to the directory. With the best sites in the rare niche on one site, this is a dream come true for a person researching the niche.

Paid directories work better where the niche is more popular and there are a larger number of sites competing. Making submissions paid ensure that webmasters serious about their business only add their sites. Either way your directory becomes better at delivering quality results.

In the next section, we will look at how the look and feel of a directory can affect its chance of success in this very competitive segment.