Only few folks among thousands of directories out there in the internet would say 'No' to a paid submission. They might call it as quality measure, no spam, human edition or whatever... Trying to summarize the satisfaction and feeling of a directory owner when they say 'No' under this circumstances. The person feels great that they have did a good job in moderation. They feel as if they are not biased in any form. They feel that they are not greedy for money. They might think that at some point, some one, some where might tell that this directory is a quality directory! Have a great weekend, folks.
What did you accomplish? Is your directory ranking high on Google? or do the "searchers" of your "quality" directory only want to see great results? What benefit did you gain by refusing a paid listing? makes no sense to me.
What did he accomplish? Let's see... He kept his directory from degrading to a spam fest where any jerk with a site can get a listing simply by paying a bit of money. He protects any rankings he has already earned and thereby protects the investment of the website owners who are already participating in his directory. By not linking to bad neighborhoods, he is building a quality directory that even Google will recognize as being a quality site worthy of being indexed and awarded PR. And, he scores a small moral victory against the idiots and spammers. It's such a pleasure to hear of a directory owner around here doing it the right way rather than creating yet another useless directory. Samdar, you might even want to mention on your site that you do not accept every listing and what your policy is regarding the payment - i.e. do you return all (not a good idea in terms of 'paid link sales' and Google's hatred of them) or refund nothing or a percentage to offset your review costs. BTW, as much as they annoy me for wasting my time, I too get a bit of satisfaction out of deleting the submissions from scammers, pill sites and the rest of the dregs of the Internet.
I 100% agree that anyone who has put a lot of time and effort into a directory has the right to refuse any listing that they feel fit. Google does not appreciate your hard work, and very rarely do people link to directory lists, so what is all of your effort and hard work for? To be proud of your "quality" directory list? Google has said FU so what is the point of licking there a**es? Just my opinion anyway. Maybe someone can explain there own opinion and prove me wrong.
If you feel that we all directory owners in DP (You have acted in a similar hatred manner against many other directory owners in DP) are just licking G's ***, why not show what have you got. Why not show how quality sites you are owning and let us comment on what godly things that you have done. Quality is not just coming up in search and not giving what ever benefits YOU want and as if you are the person who defines the word "quality". Quality is something that we manually review every listing that are submitted before adding to the directory. That is what search engines love and have commented in the past. Why Yahoo directory is considered to be one of the best in the industry? Because they do a good job on reviewing it. (It's not my opinion, it's what Google web spam lead has said). Hence review is an important part in maintaining a quality directory. Yes, of course there are other credible facts like traffic, search rankings etc., But manual review is the base for all. If you are not doing hard work and reviewing sites manually, you have odd chances of coming up in search or getting enough traffic. When most people don't review the listings submitted to their directories, few take time, review and put their hard time in reviewing sites which has to be appreciated. At least those folks care about their directory who should not be insulted. I started this thread to share a feeling of a directory owner who is not biased for money. Not necessarily me. I don't have any need to act as a good kid. For this thread, two folks have shown their positive flags. If you don't have that kind of attitude, why not buckle up and keep quite. I am open to constructive criticism, which is really healthy and makes people think. But what you are doing here is really not constructive criticism. It's just the opposite. I am seeing your hatred talks all over the directory forum and I am sick of it. So, either show your so called "quality" directories which you maintain or keep quiet or get the hell out of this forum.
The search engines do see that there are quality websites on a directory. I am always maintaining mine and removing spam.
It seems that every other thread I read people are talking about "quality directories" you may be sick of me doing this, but i am sick of people bad mouthing general low maintained directory owners, and the thing is people are attacking other directory owners without a justifiable cause. I would like to browse this sectoin of digitalpoint from time to time but I can't stand all the insults i am seeing towards other directory owners. I do not care i you are sick of me.
Yep - it gives me great satisfaction to reject paid crap. Mind you I haven't done it since this morning. A refund was given but they should have paid for a waste of my time.
Yes, it is true that if you have a low profile directory, people come on board and slaughter it. That's the nature of public. Not only in this forum, but it's every where. If you have poor product or service people comment, critic and spread the news all over the place. That's what you have did on your signature thread, right? You did not like a service and you started a thread to vent out your frustration. Similarly if people do not like "low quality" directory they vent out their frustration. That's the beauty of social media and online communities. If you are strong enough to take those comments in a positive way and approach it with right attitude, people will respect you over a period of time. If you don't have that kind of attitude, it is better not to show anything public unless you build something solid, unique and useful to end user. The main problem in directory niche is that it is too much crowded and saturated. Every now and then a 16 year old kid, comes online and steals a script and calls it a directory. People are pissed off such behaviors and they have every right to vent out their frustration on similar behaviors.