Web Business Ideas - Article Directories

One web business idea that really took off about a year and a half ago is having your own article directory. The emergence of several article directory scripts, and the popularity of article marketing really fuelled this. A lot of website owners who themselves used articles to market decided to start their own directories.

There are a number of ways to make money with an article directory. Contextual advertising is an obvious choice, and can be very profitable once the directory becomes established. Whilst you're not likely to earn a full time income off an article directory, it remains a great web business idea that can contribute a good stream of part time income.

As well as contextual advertising, you can earn money from marketing to your list of authors. Your author list is not going to be as responsive as an optin list generated from a newsletter, as authors tend to have to agree to receive mailings from you for the privilege of publishing in your directory. However, if you keep in touch regularly, and provide valuable information and resources, then your list can become more responsive.

How do you set up an article directory?

There are a number of scripts available. Article Dashboard is free, and the directory that script creates is quite nice. However, there are some serious drawbacks that prevent me from recommending it. It has some very serious security issues, and quite a few webmasters have found their sites hacked. In some ways, the article directory script is a victim of its' popularity. It became a target for hackers. This would not be a problem if the script was still maintained. Bugs and security issues could be fixed as they came up.

But, the article directory script is not maintained and updated. So, there are no fixes available. This was the reason I chose not to use the article directory script for my own article directory when I was looking for a new script (It initially started out using a content management system).

Instead, I decided on Article Friendly. I'm glad I did. Not only is it updated regularly, but Jan, the guy who owns it, is really nice. Support is excellent, and they have a great forum if you need help. This script also includes a link back to your directory when your articles are reprinted. And you can get automatic submissions from Article Marketer, allowing you to build your database of articles very quickly. Even with a niche directory, it will grow quickly.

One tip if you do want to set up this web business idea - create a niche article directory. You'll do well in the search engines, and it will allow you to stand out from the 'same old' crowd of general article directories. 

Of course, if you want an even more profitable web business idea, you should look at setting up your own membership site. You can learn about the details of setting up a membership site here. With a membership site, you can easily generate a full time income.