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After reading discussions about unpaid submissions and the frustrations of directory owners regarding this, I thought we should all look at this from a different perspective in an attempt to reduce the occurrences of non-paid submissions.

After making some changes in our primary web directory, I noticed a nice improvement, and the number of unpaid submissions has dropped significantly.

1. Not all unpaid submissions are spam. Assume so and it could be your loss.

2. The biggest tip: the easier it is for a submitter to complete the process, the greater the chance of a successful submission. Smaller directories could benefit by not requiring a user to register prior to submitting a site, and also by removing the captcha.

3. Clearly define the pricing/term on the submission form. Nobody likes finding out it’s an annual fee after the fact. I think these accounts for a large number of abandoned submissions. You fill out the submission form thinking it’s a one time fee only to find out otherwise on the payment page. Look at it from the submitter’s perspective.

We’ve also modified our payment pages and PayPal receipts to clearly define the submission fee as well as the term.

4. If your directory was initially a free directory you could be receiving submissions from someone providing a service to others. Rather than ban the domain or penalize the site owner in some way, take a moment to contact the submission company and advise them that your directory now charges a submission fee. If it’s an automated process for them, they’re likely unaware that you’ve made any changes.

5. Consider the fact that errors are inevitable. Internet connections fail, payment processors have glitches, our own hosting can fail us sometimes. Again, take a moment to prepare a standardized email template and send the submitter a link to the payment page. They might have experienced an error during the submission process and gave up (remember about making the submission process easy?).

Sending them a link to the payment page and a courteous email allows them an opportunity to easily complete the submission and payment. I’ve had one submitter immediately follow up with multiple submissions - they had the impression that there was a problem with the directory after encountering an error.

6. Allow a few days before you decide to delete unpaid submissions - we’ve received emails a day or two later from submitters that are interested in their listing, but had a problem during the submission process.

7. Yes, there are a large number of submissions that can be considered as spam or intentional, but let’s not lump all unpaid submissions together.

Do you have any suggestions? I think we can all contribute and add to our overall success as a group; something I’d like to see.

Posted By CReed Your Comments.