Free directories that are not free
October 2nd, 2006
This really annoys me a lot.
Well…sometimes I only laughed at it in despair.
People will purchase a domain name like free-directory.tld, guaranteed-free-submission.tld, a-free-link.tld, etc., all with the intention to start a directory, and all names presupposing it to be a free one.
Then, they only allow paid submissions.
Paid-only submissions to free directories make as much sense to me as going to a jazz concert only to get a punk rock band delivered as a last-moment subsitute.
And I don’t even believe in last-minute subsitutes (aka change of plan decisions) in this case. It’s just about tricking people.
If you see such, even if you got a budget for paid links, I highly advise you NOT to pay them a cent. Paying to tricksters will usually only benefit you for a very very short time, if ever.
October 3rd, 2006 at 6:08 pm
I think a lot of these directory owners has started a free directory while adding the first ~ 1000 links. After a some month they got a good PageRank and they having some visitors.
I think at the moment the submission queue is rasing they think about to ask money for speed approvals. If the first few people pay for submission they close the free submissions.
Changing the “free” domain name is not possible afterwards…
May 16th, 2007 at 5:15 am
If the domain is free something I don’t think they intended to switch. I think what happens is that after establishing their site, the amount of work involved in editing a free directory becomes too much for them. If you do a good job promoting your directory, and keep it free, you can recieve thousands of submissions a day. This is why I started my directory with every intention of it being paid.