I am just a little curious.

If I was to run a business directory, what can I expect to make of income on that ?

Of corse the directory has to be visible on search engines, I have to do a lot of seo work.

Does anybody have experience with this kind of business? :)

you need a USP ..( unique selling point ) what will make your directory different to the 10,000's of other out there...

DaveN

If you can get decent listings for a broad range of categories you could make some money from ads (Adsense, affiliates, paid listings directly from businesses) but if you are starting from scratch it's a long haul to get those rankings.

In the long(er) term, potentially a quality directory with decent traffic levels and a strong brand could charge for listings, but as DaveN says, you really need some USP's to push that - there are thousands of adequate free directories.

You would basically be selling either: link, PR or traffic, or a combination of all 3. Link has to be SEO-friendly, traffic has to be reasonably decent or PR has to be strong (PR7+ homepage, although people would likely pay a minimal amount for a listing in PR6 directory).

Of course you could target a niche market and sell advertising directly to a small group of businesses. People are more likely to use a "London Recruiters" directory (for example) for sourcing business than a larger more generic directory. As such a more niche directory could have a greater perceived value.

There's lots of factors involved and huge amounts of competition. Really depends on the specifics.

MG