Bid Directory Scams

Scam? Yep.

Bid directory owners will never see it as such, but yes, bid directories are nothing but a scam.

What is a bid directory? A bid directory lists sites based on the amount bid, with the highest paying sites listed at the top of the list. The top bidders are also listed in order of bid amount on the front page (where every one can see just how big of an idiot you really are).

This directory model doesn’t list sites based on merit. Quality content? Doesn’t matter. Timely information? Doesn’t matter. All it takes is a little ignorance and willingness to part with your money.

Many bid directories are placed on recently acquired deleted domains with foolbar PageRank. It’s easy to identify the scammers on popular webmaster forums peddling links based on the Google PageRank of an unrelated domain. The domain name itself should be the first indication that someone is looking to profit off of the ignorance of others.

Names such as apricot2008.net, web2006.org or lionsanime.com are a clear signal that these sites were not developed as a bid for position web directory. Checking the domain name at Archive.org will reveal what the sites were prior to being grabbed up before the foolbar PageRank is gone.

Bids are artificially inflated by the bidding directory owners, yet they don’t consider this practice unethical in the least. It’s not uncommon to see new bid directories offering free listings at the minimum fee in order to populate some of the categories to make it appear that someone is actually buying links in their directory.

By offering these “free” listings it now inflates the actual bid price needed to list your site at the top spot.

Another method used to artificially inflate bids is the common practice of bid directory owners “buying” listings on each others directory. I bid $100.00 on your directory, you then bid $100.00 at mine. Enough said?

It’s also not uncommon for bid directory owners to sell links in the sidebar, especially on dropped domains with visible foolbar PageRank; I’m not sure why someone would want to “bid” themselves onto the front page when the directory owner is selling cheap links in the sidebar.

So called link effects are the latest addition to bid directories in an attempt to extract a few more dollars from you; exaggerated claims that boast how you’ll receive an increase in traffic if you add a “star” next to your listing are not uncommon.

What puzzles me most is why someone would want to announce to the world how big of an idiot they really are by wasting enough money to be on the front page of these worthless directories?