Who’s Who Directory

Prestige and honor are things everyone likes to have, no matter what walk of life they come from. You can start a Who’s Who directory on the Internet to recognize those individuals who have accomplished much with their careers and in their community. There are many Who’s Who directories already on the Internet. Some focus on individual communities; others focus on people who have high achievements in a particular industry. How does this business generate revenue? It’s simple. When individuals visit your Web site and see the prestige that others have received from being listed on your site, they will be willing to pay to be listed also. If you host an industry-specific Who’s Who directory, you would be surprised how many industry professionals will contact you to be listed on your site. You obviously wouldn’t charge an obscene price for a listing on your site. Most Who’s Who directories charge anywhere from $10 to $100 for a listing. Your Who’s Who listings could include the individuals’ names, their achievements, and where they are from. You could then charge an additional fee to list in-depth biographies on the individuals, photographs, links to personal or business Web sites, and previous awards and recognitions that the individuals have received.

SKILLS NEEDED

Since this type of business requires that your site receive a high number of Web site visitors, knowledge of online marketing techniques would be an asset. If you are targeting individuals in a particular industry, it would be an asset to possess knowledge of the industry and what is involved in being successful in that particular industry.

COST TO START THIS BUSINESS

Initially you will have to pay for the development, design, and hosting of your Web site, computer hardware, computer software, a scanner (to scan your clients’ photographs if they don’t have a digital copy), and a printer. If you currently have some of these items, your initial start-up costs will be considerably lower. If you plan to set up a mailing list for your Who’s Who site, you will have to purchase mailing list software to help you organize and maintain it. Other costs that you will incur are related to the promotion of your Web site. Estimated cost is $3,000 to $10,000 to start.

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES NEEDED TO START

This type of business requires approximately one part-time employee. This business is one that can be worked on in the evenings. You could fulfill all requests during the evenings and communicate with potential clients via e-mail; thus you don’t have to worry about being in an office.

INTERNATIONAL POTENTIAL

This business has strong international potential, particularly if you target the Who’s Who of a specific industry.

E-BUSINESS MODEL/PAYMENT PROCESSING METHOD

E-business level 1 would be most appropriate for this type of business. 

IMPORTANT BUSINESS ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED

If you are trying to keep your Who’s Who directory extremely elite, make sure you don’t let members pay to join who are not remotely qualified to be on the list. If you let just anyone pay to join your directory, your site will become saturated with people who are not worthy of being listed. This could discourage some industry professionals from purchasing listings on your site. Since the success of your Who’s Who directory relies heavily on the number of Web site visitors that you receive, you will have to dedicate a significant amount of time to the online promotion of your site. You should participate in as many different online marketing media as possible to promote your site.

ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUES

• Participating in newsgroups and discussion forums related to your target market would be a great way to generate traffic to your Web site. If you are targeting specific industries, you could participate in newsgroups related to those particular industries. For example, if you were targeting Internet Technology (IT) professionals, you would want to participate in newsgroups related to IT.
• You should develop a newsletter that can be distributed weekly or monthly that will update visitors about new additions to your Web site, specials, and news about your Who’s Who directory.
• You can ask people if they would like to be notified via e-mail whenever a new listing is added to your site. This would be a great way to encourage repeat traffic to your Web site.
• You could have a Featured Listing section on your site, where you choose a particular person who you feel has excelled in his or her field. People will return to your site constantly to see who is the new featured listing. Again, you could ask people if they would like to be notified via e-mail when you make updates to your Featured Listings page. This will remind them to return to your site to see who is listed.
• Develop a sponsored listings campaign to bid on appropriate keyword phrases with the popular search engines.
• Develop as many links as possible from Web sites, directories, and meta indexes related to your target market. There are hundreds of Who’s Who directories and meta-indexes on the Internet that would be appropriate for your site. This would generate targeted exposure for your online business.

ADDITIONAL INCOME

An additional way to generate revenue for your Who’s Who site is to sell annual or quarterly publications of your Who’s Who listings. This would be of interest to many industry professionals who are researching competitors or are simply interested in finding out more about what’s happening in their industry.

ONLINE EXAMPLES

Marquis Who’s Who on the Web https://search.marquiswhoswho.com/executable/login.aspx This is a dynamite Who’s Who directory that includes over 1.3 million leaders and archives.

Who’s Who on the Web https://vl.fmnet.info/whos-who An Internet directory featuring “The Best of the Web” of people involved in various catagories. Basic listings on this site are free.