Why Invitation Only Business Directory

I’ve been running UK Small Business Directory for over 20 years now and have used numerous methods of including new listings in that time.

In the very early days, I had an automated system where people added a listing and it went live on the site.

I soon realised this wasn’t a good idea as the spam listings were going through the roof.

I then changed to a hidden submission page which people had to send an email to me for to gain access.

Again, the spammers made this unworkable

I then added an approval system which meant people added their listing to a separate database, I would check the listings, delete bad ones and only approve genuine listings.

This worked well until I realised people would add what looked like genuine listing, wait until they were approved and then edit them, which resulted in me having to scrap the self-editing.

I ended up with a system where people added listings for approval, I monitored the approval database, only approved genuine listings and if anybody needed to make edits I would do it for them.

Although quite time consuming this was well worth it as the directory was earning good money.

After being hit my numerous Google updates the earnings got less, it was getting to the stage where I couldn’t really justify all the time I was spending on monitoring, approving, editing so came up with the idea of charging for upgrade options and major edits.

Again, this worked well for a number of years, but people were still inclined to just take out free listings rather than pay for an upgrade.

I toyed with the idea of making it upgraded listings only but wasn’t really comfortable with that, so instead came up with a system of Invitation Only in the hope it would deter all the spammers, those who weren’t prepared to put in any effort to receive a free listing and cut down on all the time required.

My thoughts were, I would rather list 10 new businesses a day where the owners were prepared to put in a bit of effort, rather than list 100 new businesses a day where people just added a listing and thought nothing more of it.

So there you have it – The reason UK Small Business Directory is now invitation only is;

• Far less time consuming for me
• Deters spammers from adding listings
• Deters non UK business from adding listings
• Results in more genuine businesses adding listings
• Rewards those who are prepared to put in a little effort to have a listing
• Is a more personal relationship between me and the businesses listed

If you would like an invitation to add a business listing to UK Small Business Directory visit my Free Online Advertising section.