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 type 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 what your target market is going to be then you will need to do some research, I would recommend starting a business directory on something popular and that will earn you 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” captures 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 the first time.

A good domain name should not be longer than two or three words, and should contain the name of the niche and the word directory and should always be .com. If you can avoid it, you should go for .net. domain if the .com of the domain you want is already taken and not for sale.

So, for example, if you were going to start a new business directory on niche real estate, 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. Like RealEstate-Directory.com or RealEstate-Directory.net and see if they are taken or not, and if they are for sale.

If you have to go with a three word domain name, you can enter something like the name of your town or city 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 that I have found to help think of a new domain name and see if they have 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’s time to find a hosting company, I’ve tried many and the best I’ve found is SeoHosting.com, which is owned by HostGator.com, and they’ve been for a 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 number of 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 having them build a custom solution for you, this way you will make your new directory de business stands out from all the other cookie cutter directories that are online these days by using a ready-to-use PHP directory script.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with these types of scripts, and we use one for our own links directory, but we’ve gone a step further and created a custom template for our directory which turned out to be a pretty cool one. investment.

The directory script we use and recommend if you have a very limited starting 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 you can start to help get the word out 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 ties in with 1: Make sure you add a Sig line linking to your directory on all posts you make to any 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 that 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 their 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 over a period of 6-12 months as it can greatly reduce all banner ads costs.