Would you buy a directory listing you can sell on later?

Every directory listing I have ever bought was a one way transaction. You pay, the listing sits there, and the money is gone.

I have been building something where that is not true, and I want to know if the idea holds up.

RuleTheWorld is a leaderboard of companies. There are 236 countries and one company holds each one. A spot starts at $5.

While you hold it:

- Your logo, name and link sit on the country, on a public page

- The board counts your clicks and shows the number next to your listing

- You rank in your country and in your category, so being first in Marketing costs a fraction of being first overall

When someone outbids you:

- They pay a dollar more than you did and the spot moves to them

- You earn a commission on that sale, and on every sale of that territory after it

So the listing is not a cost you write off. It is a position you can be paid to give up.

I am not going to sell you on SEO. What I can show you is the click count next to every listing, which is more than most directories will tell you.

The honest catch: this only pays if territories keep changing hands. If nobody takes yours, you keep the spot and the clicks and earn nothing more. Anyone buying purely for the resale is buying for the wrong reason.

So: does a listing you can sell on later change whether you would buy one? Or is a directory listing a sunk cost no matter what wrapper you put on it?

ruleworld.co if you want to look.