I run currently a directory named "human ranked directory", which is pretty new and i will to learn from you guys on how to make my directory a profitable one. what are the promotion methods you suggest. I already tried forums, search engines, and much more. At present i am getting only free submissions. My questions are...

* How do i take the concept of my directory to next level (to make directory high quality and profitable one, so that i can compete with big boys)

* How much i have to spend on advertising? where?

i will greatly appreciate your inputs.

Welcome to the show
The current big boys directories have all fallen victim to assigning editors that have set up the category to favor themselves never to he heard from again. Some categories I need haven't been updated for 2+ years. The beauty of such directories is that there's no method of contact so they don't have a clue. Such is the territory.

well said zoobie, i dont actually favor the concept of volunteering. During the course of time, when we get lots of submissions, hiring /recuriting editors wont be a problem i think. what else do you suggest zoobie? really appreciate your input.

have you tried adwords?

i have been considering using google adwords, but a friend told me it was not worth it for him...

so i am wondering if you have had success there?

i did try adwords, since the traffic is huge, even $0.05 is getting large clicks which i cannot afford to spend. At present i am mostly dependent of natural traffic.

yeah... but the referall system is grea.t... for adword... up to a dollar

Maybe try advertising at popular community sites like phpbb.com etc.

Maybe try advertising at popular community sites like phpbb.com etc.
avertising on high traffic sites is a good idea.

I am blogging about my SEO Directory (http://www.directory.seoagency.info) and how I set it up and how I am doing.

Unfortunately I am not a lot ahead of you, as far as the natural life of a directory is concerned...

SEO Directory (http://www.directory.seoagency.info) hi your site not working and seems to have some problem.

Hi olddocks!

It's not nice having to admit that the website was down for a few hours, but that's what happened. I incurred problems with connectivity in the middle of an update.

Anyway, the link I gave was for the directory itself, not for the blog about it, so it was wrong anyway.

Here's the right link to the directory blog (http://www.blog.seoagency.info), I hope it's of some help.

Sorry again!:)