Recently I created a Facebook group,  a group in the “just for fun-totally pointless” category. You can see it and join if you like here: 1 Billion People. Anyway, the subject of this post is not my pointless group, it is how to promote a Facebook group.

After I created the group, I invited some of my friends that could be interested in joining, and some of them joined. However, the number of members did not grow in two days any further and I started searching ways to promote my Facebook group.

There are lots of info and tools on how to add friends to your Facebook account, some of them white hat and some of them black hat; however, there are not much things you can do to promote your Facebook group. If you have a big follower base in any platform like your own blog or social websites such as Twitter and MySpace it is easy to promote such things. Else, you need to find other means to promote your online existence, in this case your Facebook group.

I found a website called Facebook Bay, and what it does is simply promote your Facebook group, at least as they claim. When I came across this site, I thought about that there is always a clever person who finds what people need and finds an answer or solution to that. I applaud such people.

So, what does Facebook Bay do? It is a community site with members who have Facebook groups and once you join, it asks to join any one of those groups in return of promoting your group. In this way, when another person joins the site Facebook Bay, they will see your group and join if they like. Although this is not a too bright idea, I guess it may help me promote my group. I cannot tell how strong they are as I am new to the site. I will update this post once I get some people to my group.

I use Namecheap for my domain registrations and I was using it to check domain names after my keyword research. The domain checker on their website was a little slow and since I was checking a lot of domains I needed a faster tool. I know they have a bulk search tool and I use it for bulk checks , however it doesn’t fit to what I exactly needed.

After a simple Google search, I came across this simple but fantastic website that does domain checks almost instantly, Fast Domain Checker. I don’t know who owns that website and I am aware that it is a made for Adsense site, however, it really helps me in my domain research. You can check it if you are also looking for a simple and fast domain name checking tool.

EDIT:

After a little more search I found a better site, Instant Domain Search, that allows you to check three top level domains (.com, .net, .org) almost instantly. Well, this is absolutely better than the tool I mentioned before.

EDIT 2:

I found another site that allows you to bulk domain research really fast and there is no limits on the number of domains you can check at once. You can see the site here: Bulk Domain Check. This will absolutely speed up my keyword-domain research process. At the moment it seems to work right. Though it does not include .net and .org results on the result page, you need to click on to show more details.

EDIT 3: As I refine my search I find better and faster tools that offer bulk domain research. This one shows .com, .net and .org domains on the result page and that was exactly what I needed. Also it does not have a limit on the number of domains per check. I hope it works correctly, anyway I will be checking results with Namecheap time to time. Here is the link: Registrar Stats.

Feedbase

The basic monetization model of an article directory, if it is not paid, is to use Google Adsense ads on it. Most of the ones with paid membership options serve ads as well. I  did a simple research and noticed that there are hundreds of article directories around and most, if not all, might be making some good money with Adsense.

This idea lured me and I started thinking about creating a simple article directory site, where I could post the PLR articles I have collected up to now. Besides, I would be posting my own articles for backlink purposes and other article marketers might be interested in posting their articles on my article directory as well. For that reason, I brainstormed some domain names suitable for an article directory and checked if they were available or not. Luckily, found some good ones ready to register. But before registering the domain name, I checked the available article directory scripts.

Next step was to find a good article directory script. I didn’t want to pay a big amount for a custom created one so that I searched for free scripts in search engines and in forums. I’ve found a number of free article directory scripts and some of them had paid versions too.

What I realized after a few hours of search was that running an article directory as a business model might not be as lucrative as it first seemed to me. In most of the discussions, people told that article directories are not well performing as they were before because of the competition. Many article directory sites are opening and closing every year due to poor strategies. To be successful and make a name as an article directory, and in return make money, unique features should be offered to article writers to post articles on the directory. This idea discouraged me a bit and I realized that I will need to go with a custom build article directory script if I go on with this project.

Anyway, I made a list of article directory scripts and will talk about them briefly below for those of you who want to start an article directory business.

Article Dashboard

Article Dashboard is an article directory itself and it offers the script it uses for free as well. What I learned about this script is that it is no longer reliable and not preferred by serious people as it is open to hacks and attacks. It is really simple in design and although I will not recommend using it, for a first try, you may check how it looks and performs. The download link is here.

Article MS

Article MS is another free article management system, it seems to have a better design than article dashboard. It has different templates you can choose from and a WYSIWYG editor for article submissions. This script can also be tried, you can download it here.

Article Friendly

Article Friendly is a newer and more preferred script amongst others. It has two versions, standard for $25 and pro for $50. Most of the article directories I came across are using this script. I guess it is a good choice for someone who has a little money to invest in it. However, to distinguish from others, this is not exactly what you need.

AJ Articles

Another paid article directory script is AJ Articles, I haven’t seen much directories using this script, since it looks more like a news blog or portal rather than an article directory site. Nevertheless you may check it yourself and decide if you want to go with it.

Those were the article directory scripts that I came across during my search and I hope it helps on your decision. Just not forget that simply creating an article directory and loading it with tons of PLR content is not a wise business model anymore unless you have the time to waste.