The Cyber czars ere supposed to erupt from this corner of the World Wide Web. People were spending thousands of dollars a month on promoting the business, general, and niche web directories. Then suddenly Google, and probably other search engines, wielded their might and changed the entire scenario.

And so came the end of the dreams of people who thought they could retire on earnings from directory listings. But, in the long run, this is a good thing and the best directories will actually emerge stronger, some day. Let us try to understand this.

There are many different perspectives you can develop. You can start by thinking of the directory as a comprehensive online resource. This person will develop unique content, arrange for intuitive navigation, create customized and relevant category structure, offer multiple and well thought out payment options and plans. On the other hand is the fly by night owner who will take a basic script and make a little noise and get paid entries and then just let the site languish.

One factor that incredibly inflated the scope of this business was the fact that directory owners would routinely buy links from each other. So, what you had to do was make a directory, make some noise on some popular webmaster forums, and then have all your competitors rush and buy listings. And once that gravy train reached its station, you start all over again.

As has happened in history again and again, this created a cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy. They somehow start thinking that there is serious merit in buying a listing for four figures in a bid based directory site.

What has clearly died down is the search engine optimization benefit of the listing. With major search engines targeting paid links, it is tough to gain much link benefit. Certainly not four figures worth. But I am unwilling to acknowledge that there is nothing other than link juice to be gained from a listing.

I talk to a lot of webmasters and many of them are happy with the actual organic traffic they get from listings. For tiny sites this might not amount to much. But when you are a serious webmaster, this makes all the difference. Then come to think of it, these sites that are sending me traffic account for less than 1% of the total number of similar sites that have listed me, one way or another.

There, you now know the secret. The secret is that only the best of directories will survive. But that one will certainly survive. And is that not what we want?

Think of new streams of income and you have a good business model. That means that some of them might actually see submissions as a way to enhance the editorial and content quality of their sites. Though people who have got burnt will not like to hear this, but all of this probably a good thing.