Service and product directories: useful listings and verified enquiries

The result you are working towards

A directory meets people who already have a task and are comparing possible solutions. For a publisher, obtaining a listing is only the beginning. The listing must explain who the product suits, offer an authorised contact route and connect each enquiry with the supplier’s final decision. This guide produces three practical assets: a listing brief, a bounded experiment and a reconciliation register. Its geography remains Russia in every translation. English does not imply availability in the United States or any other market.

Sources were checked on 18 October 2026. Both examples are invented training exercises involving equipment register software and a service that configures it. They are not customer results or live AffiliateCore offers. All USD amounts are independent teaching assumptions, not converted Russian prices, directory quotations or expected returns. Actual publication requires approval of the product, representative and destination by the relevant parties. Nothing here establishes an unrestricted right to insert affiliate links into a third party’s directory.

Recognise the different directory models

Startpack has a software directory organised into categories. Use it to understand the context in which someone compares software. Its existence does not grant editing rights. The Webasyst page is a real product listing; none of its product claims are assigned to our fictional example.

2GIS provides a company product and service showcase. This is useful for distinguishing a supplier’s service from a standalone software listing. Adding company reference information is free and subject to verification. That says nothing about the publisher’s labour costs or guaranteed exposure.

B2B Market documents a supplier and product catalogue for procurement. A supplier order and an affiliate click belong to different processes. Choose one directory model and one customer need for the first experiment. Combining unrelated discovery routes makes later changes in enquiry quality difficult to interpret.

Its catalogue serves admitted buyers; it is not an ordinary publicly accessible affiliate directory.

Establish authority and the destination

Ask the product owner for permission to use its name, logo, approved screenshots and description. Identify who approves changes and who receives enquiries. Writing a comparison article does not automatically make you the developer’s representative. Do not create a fictional company to obtain a link, borrow another business’s address or present duplicate listings as independent suppliers.

The 2GIS rules require verifiable company information and current prices in roubles. The USD teaching budget below does not change the currency of a real Russian listing. For every directory, separately establish the allowed destination: the supplier’s site, an agreed landing page or another expressly accepted route. Silence in a short help article is not permission to insert an affiliate redirect.

If only the supplier may manage the listing, prepare the materials for its authorised account. Keep the genuine company contacts. If the required route is not allowed, stop that placement and consider an independently owned comparison page or a direct programme that permits your source. That alternative also needs the advertiser’s agreement before you spend money.

2GIS restricts arbitrary internal pages and registration-gated websites in its company website field, with branch/dealer exceptions. Supplier consent cannot override those rules. Distinguish that field from the showcase’s product or service URL, which leads to the relevant page on the company website. Neither grants general permission for affiliate redirects. A dealer may use the parent company site when it identifies that dealer’s contacts; branch-specific information is an allowed exception. Links to comparable business directories are prohibited.

Build a listing that answers a real question

Create a product factsheet covering version, supported tasks, limitations, service regions, contacts, price verification date and implementation conditions. Attach evidence to every substantive feature: developer documentation, a reproducible check or written confirmation from the owner. An untested sales suggestion must not become a product claim. Check integrations, migration promises and compatibility with old equipment particularly carefully.

A fictional draft might read: “Equipment register for small repair workshops. Keep a list of devices, responsible staff and maintenance dates. Check import format and user permissions before choosing. Configuration and migration of an existing database require a separate agreement. Prepare an anonymised sample of your data structure to discuss compatibility.” This is a writing exercise, not an existing brand or an item ready to publish as a real product.

Prepare two original images: a list with no personal information and a filter example with a short explanation. Add a suitable/not suitable checklist, clear cost information and the contact process. Never borrow reviews or manufacture badges. Agree applicable partnership disclosure and the directory’s publication requirements before placement; this guide does not provide a universal legal classification of every listing.

A verified software submission entry point: Startpack

The official Startpack submission form requests the service URL, organisation, first and last names and service-domain email; applications undergo review without a guaranteed deadline. This is an owner route for cloud software, not an unrestricted affiliate link form. First check for an existing listing. If none exists, prepare those details and authority evidence; an authorised representative should submit. Preserve the acknowledgement, await the decision and respond to questions without duplicate applications. We did not submit the form.

Existing products have a service sign-in entry point. Obtain authorised access from the owner or deliver the change package to them. The private editor was not inspected: no internal button names or automatic approval are asserted here. If editing rights or the method remain unconfirmed, limit work to preparation and an official clarification request. After an approved change, inspect the public URL: heading, category, description, limitations, price and destination. Compare it with the approved version, date the evidence and correct discrepancies before paid acquisition. Update a new software version within the same listing where editorial rules allow, retaining the change history.

Run a small, inspectable launch

Search for an existing listing before requesting a new one. Agree one category, one service area and one need. The owner confirms the facts; the publisher preserves the approved text; the receiving team confirms its ability to respond. After publication, inspect the page as a visitor. Compare the name, images, price, destination and contact details with the approved version. Save the URL, date and an image without private information.

The official 2GIS product instructions describe manual entry and price list uploads. Choose a method after checking the owner’s access. Our editorial recommendation is to begin with a few inspectable entries, verify the visible result and only then expand. A large upload magnifies mistakes in price units, availability and destination links.

Assign an update owner. Record version, price and service area changes with their effective dates. Saving an edit is not evidence that the public listing has changed: inspect it again. If obsolete information remains visible, pause paid acquisition and use the official support route. Creating replacement duplicates to evade review makes the underlying problem worse.

Define the final accepted enquiry

Teaching diagram: listing → permitted contact or visit → enquiry → supplier review → acceptance or rejection → possible reversal. A listing view, a telephone button click and a completed conversation are separate events. One person may use several routes. Do not add them together as customers or assume every interaction qualifies for payment.

Before launch, agree territory, relevant need, contactability, duplicates and reversal grounds. Both examples use one explicit teaching calendar: T0 is midnight at the start of day one, Moscow time. Eligible incoming visits occur in [T0, T0+14 days). An enquiry qualifies within 7×24 hours after its recorded visit, including exactly seven days. Last-day visitors may therefore enquire before T0+21 days; that upper boundary is excluded. Review closes at T0+28 days, fourteen days after visit recruitment closes. Final reconciliation and reversals are measured at T0+30 days from the start. A contact outside its own seven-day window is outside this cohort. An unresolved item at reconciliation remains pending with zero recognised revenue until a decision; neither calculation contains pending items. These are hypothetical contractual terms, not directory or AffiliateCore deadlines.

A minimal register contains an internal ID, date, listing version, organic/paid/unknown source, status, decision reason, reversal date and remuneration amount. Keep contact details in a separate restricted system. Do not place email addresses or telephone numbers in URLs. When a call’s source cannot be established, retain “unknown”; a customer’s recollection can assist investigation but is not equivalent to technical proof.

Where AffiliateCore may fit

AffiliateCore is our general CPA network for advertisers and publishers. Start by checking a specific offer, directory permission, geography and payable event. You can create a publisher profile once you have described your source. Registration does not establish that equipment software is available, that a directory integration exists or that this source has been approved.

Both calculations below use a hypothetical direct supplier agreement and an external register. They do not establish AffiliateCore support for paid enquiries, demonstrations or ecommerce. Never rename an unsupported action as a different event. If no suitable verified offer exists, retain the preparation work and consider a direct arrangement. Evaluate the network later against the actual available terms, rather than manufacturing a fit.

Example one: a focused software listing

Assume a developer authorises a publisher to prepare one listing in a suitable directory and explicitly accepts the source. A hypothetical direct programme pays 9 USD for each finally accepted workshop enquiry about equipment records. Neither buying a licence nor attending a demonstration defines that event. Acceptance requires a supported region, a relevant need and verified contact; another enquiry from the same workshop within the agreed duplicate window is not paid twice.

The materials are a version factsheet, two anonymised images, an import structure sample, limitations, five useful FAQ answers and the supplier’s enquiry form. Recruitment runs for fourteen days, with no paid promotion. Only the new cohort enters the report. The publisher does not add an unsupported “best” badge or ask people to generate enquiries to test payment. Technical checks create no billable outcome.

Full publisher costs are product checking and copy 36 USD; images 24 USD; technical checking 18 USD; response work and reconciliation 24 USD; tools 6 USD; allocated overhead 12 USD. Total: 120 USD. Labour is costed even when the publisher does it personally. Input taxes and fees are included in these assumptions; tax on the publisher’s income is separate. Directory charges and other incremental costs are assumed to be zero here, which is not a quotation from a real directory.

There are 30 enquiries. Six are rejected: three duplicates, two outside the service area and one without the required need. Initially 24 are accepted; four are later reversed because evidence shows they fail the agreed criteria. The final count is 20, with nothing pending. Revenue is 20 × 9 = 180 USD. Contribution before income tax is 180 − 120 = 60 USD. Cost per final accepted enquiry is 120 / 20 = 6 USD. Reversals are 4 / 24 = 16.67% of initially accepted enquiries.

Break-even requires 14 final results at the unchanged rate. The remaining contribution is 33.33% of revenue. Three additional reversals would leave 17 results and 33 USD before income tax: still positive, but smaller. Repeat a comparable cohort instead of declaring the channel proven. If that second cohort maintains quality and costs no more than 7.2 USD per final result, increase the work volume by 20% without weakening acceptance criteria.

Example two: promoting a configuration service

A second fictional supplier configures the equipment register for repair workshops. Its listing describes the service scope: inspect the existing file, agree the data fields and train one employee. Software purchase and travel outside the city are excluded. A genuine company or authorised representative controls the listing. Buy a paid placement only after receiving the directory’s actual proposal; the budget below is not a 2GIS price.

Prepare a scope sheet, explicit exclusions, two anonymised input examples, questions for estimating complexity and realistic response hours. Preserve a separate baseline organic cohort, but include only demonstrably attributable promoted enquiries in this calculation. Do not allocate unknown sources proportionally to make the report look complete. Without a defensible split, you cannot claim that paid promotion itself has paid back.

The second example assumes a specific authorised mechanism: the directory explicitly permits the paid placement to link to a supplier-owned landing page with a form. This is not the company website field in 2GIS. The supplier server records source_code=P4-P, a pseudonymous click_id and click_at, then links them to enquiry_id and received_at on submission. The organic route uses a different code; a return without a valid preserved link stays unknown. Processing requires the agreed rules and necessary permissions. The register also stores placement version, attribution evidence and review status. The 40 enquiries below are only linked P4-P records within seven days. Unknowns contribute neither count nor revenue; their handling costs are not removed from the full budget. Without this mechanism, do not claim a measured paid cohort. Attribution does not establish incremental sales caused by promotion.

Fourteen-day costs are placement 96 USD; copy and images 36 USD; route checking 24 USD; enquiry handling 48 USD; tools 12 USD; overhead 24 USD. Total: 240 USD. Assumptions include input fees and taxes, personal labour and every listed item; income tax remains separate. The hypothetical agreed rate is 12 USD. There are no free management hours, assumed placement refunds or unexplained discounts.

Forty enquiries arrive. Reject ten duplicates, eight irrelevant requests and four without verified contact. Eighteen are initially accepted; six later reverse. Twelve final results remain and none are pending. Revenue is 12 × 12 = 144 USD. Contribution is 144 − 240 = −96 USD. Final accepted enquiry cost is 240 / 12 = 20 USD. Reversals are 6 / 18 = 33.33%. Break-even needs 20 final enquiries, eight more at the same total cost.

Stop renewing the paid placement. Examine duplicate causes, mismatched needs and the receiving team’s decisions. Correct the promise made by the listing. Failure to reach someone is not, by itself, proof of fraud. A new capped experiment is justified only after changing a specific suspected cause. Keep the original loss in the report; do not hide the paid cohort’s failure behind the organic example’s positive contribution.

Investigate a discrepancy and hand over the work

Before the final decision, manually inspect a small anonymised sample. Suppose enquiry D-014 was initially accepted and then reversed as a duplicate. Preserve the original date, the duplicate reason and a reference to the internal supporting document. Do not delete the row: doing so changes the reversal denominator and obscures the difference between initial and final revenue. If a supplier changes a rule retrospectively, isolate the disputed cases and seek clarification through the agreed process. Do not describe disputed remuneration as guaranteed income.

Consider another situation: a person reads the listing, returns using a saved address and calls. That does not automatically establish a paid placement as the source. Preserve what is demonstrated and label the unknown parts. For the next experiment, a separate permitted contact route might help, but it requires the owner’s and directory’s agreement. Replacing the company’s telephone details without permission is not an attribution method.

The handover pack should contain approved copy, version history, asset permissions, acceptance rules, the decision register and a separate cost sheet. Assign an owner to each document. Specify who updates prices, who corrects the destination and who confirms final status. This keeps an absent team member from turning reconciliation into guesswork.

Research limits: https://www.pulscen.ru/about returned HTTP 503, and https://business.zoon.ru/lk/ returned HTTP 429. No operating instructions for those services are supplied here. Reading Startpack does not establish approval of a particular affiliate arrangement. Confirm editorial terms and the owner’s authority before a real placement.

Stop rules, scaling and an exercise

Stop acquisition immediately when authority is missing, the destination is wrong, the price is obsolete or the supplier cannot deliver. Make economic decisions on a closed cohort using cost, reversals, workload and source reliability. Small samples do not guarantee repeatability. Changing category, copy and contact method together prevents you from identifying which correction helped.

For a repeat test, preserve the original listing, choose one hypothesis and set a spending limit. Compare periods with similar response capacity. Check that statuses have matured and show separately which preparation costs were reused. Scaling also increases the supplier’s workload; confirm response hours and capacity before expanding. Never extrapolate the two best days into a monthly forecast.

Your exercise is to prepare a listing and register without real personal details, reproduce both calculations and replace every teaching assumption with your own agreed terms. Check permissions, product evidence, prices, routing, labour, rejection reasons and the next review date. Sign in to the AffiliateCore publisher account to inspect terms of offers available to you. The guide requires no registration. Do not start a spending test until a suitable offer or direct agreement is confirmed.

Traffic source map for publishers in Russia. Compare directories with other channels and match the source to the task.

2GIS: from a business listing to a paid job. Read the companion advertiser guide on moving from an enquiry to completed, paid work.