Niche directory - How much to charge for a premium listing?

[pistolpea]

Hi everyone,

I wonder if anyone here can help me as I'm going round in circles!

My website,<removed>, is a UK directory of independent cafes and tea rooms. It is currently in its infancy, however I have recently had a boost in members which is great. There are two types of listing, free and premium. This is where I'm having trouble. I don't know how much to charge for the premium listing.

I've tried to make the premium listing as featured-packed as possible so the customer feels like they are getting value for money. Having looked at other directories the pricing seems to vary quite a lot. I know my website is not currently an attractive proposition in terms of being fully populated but I'm concerned if I don't charge enough from the outset I'm going to shoot myself in the foot and not be able to raise the price in the future.

Does anyone have any experience in this area? Any input and ideas on the amount to charge would be much appreciated.


Kind regards,

Peter

 

[british steve]

Much will depend on how much traffic your site gets. If you only get 10 visitors a day then a paid listing will be a waste of money even if its £20 per year. Why not offer free for the first year to get venues listed and then offer them a good deal to upgrade. Also many of you customer bases will be getting calls and offers from the other 500 plus diectories so to be viable your really need to stand out!

 

[pistolpea]

Thanks for the quick reply.

That sounds like a good idea to get the directory off the ground.

I had thought of maybe offering the next x signups a big % discount to get people to join. I'm worried when it comes to the end of the year though it will be difficult to say your membership price isn't discounted any more and they will walk away.

Pete

 

[british steve]

In the real world only a very small percentage will pay for an upgrade. Anyone with half a brain will ask what your traffic numbers are - if they are low they you will be wasting your time. We get several calls per week from online Directories asking us if we want to pay to go on them - we always say no.

 

[alexp3]

I signed up for a niche directory which does free listing for 3 months and after that it is £5 per month, per area. Really good idea because its a long enough trial to get an idea of the return on investment but you're not giving away advertising for too long.

I'm half way through the period and I know now that I will definitely be paying to advertise when it runs out.

Another important thing is that they didn't take card details so I had no hesitation signing up for the free trial.

 

[TommyGG]

How much traffic does your site get?

If it's hardly anything, work on building the traffic up before charging people. If you charge a premium for a listing on a site with hardly any traffic, it's a very unfair proposition that customers will also have difficulty evaluating before purchase. It could easily be interpreted as scammy.

You should be looking in the region of thousands of uniques per day before charging for a premium listing becomes a fair proposition with actual value.

 

[Clinton]

<deleted>

 

[johndon68]

Clinton - you do know that this thread is 4 years old...

John

 

[Clinton]

Clinton - you do know that this thread is 4 years old...

John

Thanks, John. Have deleted my post now.

Strange. This thread showed up in my new posts feed hence my replying. Should have checked the dates first though!