American Association Of Web Masters

How Much Is A Category Worth?

How much is a category or keyword really worth? Well there are a lot of factors to consider to calculate what that amount is but the main point I want to make is that THERE IS A VALUE of a category but it is determined by the marketplace and the vendor (i.e. supply and demand). Some segments of the marketplace, because of the nature of their service or business, simply can't place a high value on the keyword or category they operate in.

What Is A Listing In "Little League Baseball" Worth For Example?

Perfect examples of this are the Girl Scouts or the Little League. Both of these are not established for making money like commercial entities are but they certainly still warrant and need the same link services and web promotion.

About Flat Fee Paid Directories

Yahoo is perhaps the most expensive of the flat fee paid directories at $299 per annum but it commands a lot of respect and a lot of traffic. Business.com isn't much cheaper ($199) but is almost on an equal footing. Less expensive directories include Best Of The Web and Uncover The Net.

THE PROBLEM I see with these arrangements is that they don't establish flexible fees for the various categories. Of the innumerable categories to possibly list in only a portion of them are actually "worth" what their fee actually is. The remainder are either overvalued or, in some cases undervalued for their particular category.

BUNGEEBONES FLEXIBLE RATE CATEGORIES

Category prices at BungeeBones vary from permanently free (for non-profits and charities) to temporarily free (for the categories with fewer than twenty listings) to categories with prices established by the affiliate reciprocal webmasters themselves.

WEBMASTERS KNOW WHAT THEIR CATEGORY IS WORTH - Web promotion usually involves using any and every method of website promotion available. Whatever method used (pay per click, flat fee, pay per action, etc) webmasters serious about getting traffic to their site research these various methods and develop an understanding of the value and amount of the traffic each of these methods generate. That is why we let the webmasters of the "legal" category and the "medical" category and the "banking/loans" category (and all the others) set the price for their own category.

WEBMASTERS HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN MAINTAINING PROPER PRICING - Proper pricing of a category is perhaps the single major factor that will determine the population level in it.

If Overpriced - If the webmasters in a category mistakenly over price their category it has the mixed effect of both keeping other webmasters from listing in it (which is good for the webmasters already there) but also increases their own costs (since they too pay the equivalent of 50% of the fee).

If Underpriced - If the webmasters in a category mistakenly under price their category it also has the mixed effect of both encouraging other webmasters to take advantage of the bargain and list in it (which isn't good for the webmasters in it) but it does also decreases their own costs (since they too pay the equivalent of 50% of the fee).

FLEXIBLE CATEGORY PRICING MAKES SENSE

• Since webmasters are usually affiliates also they are, in effect, voting themselves a raise by raising fees

• Webwide competition from pay per click etc keeps a lid on prices for non-affiliate purchasers of paid inclusion

• Pricing ONLY applies to the most popular categories, where webmasters are in competition for prominent placement.

• The decision to compete for a popular category is entirely up to the webmasters and can be avoided by simply choosing a different (and oftentimes more descriptive) category

• Provides strong incentives for proper and prioritized categorizing of websites while also creating more relevant search results