Running a directory in a niche market is a wonderful way of attracting other website owners in a similar market sector to yours. There are 2 main benefits to having an online directory.
1/ Visitors seeking your products or similar products will be able to use the directory as a point of reference for your industry and with total control of the directory you can benfit from strategic advertising.
2/ You are able to offer webmasters in your market place a listing within your directory in exchange for a link to your website from theirs. If your directory is popular other web site owners will be happy to ‘exchange links’ to appear in it. Sharing or exchanging links with similar websites is proven to improve website exposure.
Web directories can be set up to require very little maintenance and can gradually grow over time to become a recognised resource in a given industry.