It seems as if everyone and their mother is putting up a directory lately. Nothing against anyone who wants to create a directory but many people are just using a plain vanila template with the default skin and are not doing anything to update them at all. Some don't even bother to make a banner or at least a decent header. Makes me wonder what their motivation is? If I submit I might end up with 100 viagra emails or those urgent assistance emails.
my directory (predir) has a free template, and i guess an 'ok' logo, but i just finished submitting my directory to 700 other directories (throughout this week), so i wouldnt say they are just lazy if they have a default/free template and a bad header/banner.
Many people dont have skills to make their directory stand out, and it is usualy very hard to learn photoshop or smarty for a novice. By the way, its easier to be lazy than hard working, right?
some people just want money doesnt take too long to setup a free phpld script on a meaningless domain sitting in users account.. 5 mins to spam all the webmaster forums. and they may get a paid listing or two and then shutdown/sell then create a new one and then they repeat
Yea, there are a ton of crappy "look a like" directories out there and the number continues to grow. If you have to question a directory, then my suggestion is don't bother submitting to it.
He, putting up a directory without promoting it real good wont do you any good... to have a good directory you cant just put it up....
Yes you are right the directory market is very crowded but a lot of directory owners care and we are a quality one that cares too And for sure no emails
Indeed, it is a very crowded market. When people realise they are not making any money, they don't take the effort to design their directory.
Well the commited directories and good owners usually have custom designs or invest time or money into their directory. And when it starts to last awhile then you know its a valid directory.
Lazy? Yea, being a directory owner is tough work. It's soooo easy to fall into laziness. Your hand starts cramping from all the typing, your eyes start blurring, you rear end is BEGGING you to get up out of that seat, etc.... Just take a look of this pic showing me on a typical day working on my sites:
Being a directory owner myself I feel the directory market is nowdays very crowded and and some may get featured listings and some may shut down but one cannot run a directory only with featured listings he has also to run ads on the pages to get a good amount of revenue one cannot run a directory like dmoz with 73000 editors for free but nowdays i feel the template is not so much important when you start of a directory but it becomes important when you start an another directory you being to feel the importance of the directory
There are many good directory owners out there who do put effort into their sites and the more they do generaly the more they can earn... I just think too many people are after some "easy money." All I can say is if they can't at least replace the "place your text here" place holders, then you don't deserve a dime... in fact you should pay me for having visited the site.
Maintaining directories are really boring IMO..I feel a little bad as I've not got too much paid submissions these days..But I won't give up
Yea,you are right..I know quite a few directory owners who are this kind of people..Such as Chris(alivedirectory.com),Jeff(avivadirectory.com),John(directory.v7n.com),ect. I think every directory owner should be like these kind of persons if they want to be *successful* with their directories..
I disagree with you on this. People are just looking for the 'QBC' effect. Also, as far as learning smarty and or photoshop.. it's a piece of cake. (for the photoshop basics as well, but not for the advance techniques) What I do agree with is that it is easier to be lazy than hard working. Damn I wish i could be lazy. Even if only for 2-3 days.
To answer your question, Yes I have gotten lazy with my directories. I think its mainly due to the approval process. It gets real tiring to see junk site after junk site submitted and having to weed through all of them. I know one of my sites has about 10k waiting approval. But that only takes a month or two to build up that high. For that site though I wait for it to build up to a decent number then go into the database and start doing some querries for mass deletes. Can usually weed out 1/2 the submissions easy searching for keywords and hitting delete.
I have stopped putting up new directories, rather spend and keep spending time on the ones I already have
I agree with you and it is giving good directories a bad name. I have starting keeping track of directories that are storing more than one directory on the same IP and directories with duplicate category structures. To do a search of a directory to see if it has any bad attributes, just enter the domain at my list of 3100 directories.
What bothers me to no end are supposed "free" directories that never approve free submissions..or show any sign of growth. It's easy to see stats for certain directory scripts and I avoid at all costs directories with over 10,000 submissions in que. That tells me that they do not care.