Things to consider when shopping around for a manual directory submission service

I hope this is the right forum for this thread, seeing as it has to do with manual directory submission services.

If you're anything like me, you've probably tried submitting your websites to a whole lot of directories and have come to the conclusion that there are better ways to die than subject yourself to mind-numbing repetitive work such as this. But you've absolutely no doubt of the effectiveness of such an approach to creating a ton of one-way links to your website. So, what's a guy to do if he wants to implement this SEO technique but doesn't have the time nor the brain cells to spare for such a boring endeavor? Fortunately, there's such a thing as manual directory submission services.

Over the years, I've tried a few of these services being offered on several webmaster forums and at numerous sites all over the web. They offered a variety of packages in terms of number of directories submitted to, ranging from a low of 50 to a high of several thousand. Some were good, a few were excellent, while others took my cash and headed for the hills, never to be heard from again.

Armed with such experience, I feel it's just proper for me to jot down a few points to consider when looking for a manual directory submission service to do the dirty work for you. Without further ado, here are the things I think you should take note of:

1) Find out how long has the vendor been offering this service. Sadly, a lot of manual directory submission service providers are here today, gone tomorrow. If he's been around for quite a while, check out his testimonials. Testimonials on forum threads are more reliable than those on websites, so ask if he has offered these services on webmaster forums and, if so, request for the URLs of these threads. If the vendor is just starting to offer this service, ask that he offer a few directory submission service jobs to trusted forum members for free so that a proper evaluation of his performance can be had by the membership.

2) Shop around among the different service providers for the best price/performance ratio. Do not just assume that vendors offering the service at dirt cheap prices will do a lousy job. Take note that what one person considers peanuts may be a small fortune to another; it all depends on the standard of living wherever the service provider is situated. Do not also assume that the more expensive the service, the better the quality of the work. I got burned enough times making this assumption.

3) The vendor should be able to provide this service with a reasonable completion time for the order. Beware of excessively long waiting queues, especially if the work is time-sensitive in nature. Don't just rely on what the service provider tells you about estimated completion times. Check out the testimonials of previous customers to get an idea of how fast similar work gets done by the vendor. Also, be vigilant in protecting your place in the queue. I've had the unpleasant experience of seeing people who placed their orders after me get serviced ahead of me on a number of occasions.

4) Monitor the number of emails you get from the directories confirming their receipt of the submission. If done properly, you should be getting confirmation emails numbering 50% or more of the total number of directories submitted to. Getting less than this could be an indication that the list of directories submitted to has not been recently updated and that many of the directories in the list have switched from free to paid. This may also be an indication that the service being offered is not manual as advertised but automatic, which means that the captchas are not being entered, resulting in the rejection of the submission attempts.

5) Request for a report from the service provider after the order is completed. This report should record the directories and the categories submitted to, as well as whether the submission was completed sucessfully or not. Many vendors submit websites of their customers without taking care to submit to the right categories just to complete work on the order; I find this attitude completely unacceptable.

6) As the service provider what their refund policy is like. The vendor should offer a refund if the work is not completed within a reasonable period and if the work is not satisfactory. Again, check out the testimonials of previous customers to get an idea of how the vendor deals with such issues.

There, I hope I've covered all the bases. If anyone wants to chime in with additional points to consider or critique what I have just written, please feel free to do so.

 

This would also fit under Search Engines - Directories.

You also got to keep in mind that some manual directory submitters that claim to submit manually will actually use automated submitters, which we all know can get your URL banned from the directory itself, because they tend to submit to the wrong categories and also cut off some of the information you submit. You usually only get 1 chance to submit correctly to a directory, which is why sometimes it's better to submit yourself. Submitting to a directory twice can also get your URL banned.

You also have to remember that it's not just the submitter that you have to rely on in getting your website accepted into the directories, it also depends on the overall of your site as directories look for quality websites that meet their requirements in order to be included.

 

1) something like true, that's why go for established

2) no, you may assume ho would do this at least more times than more expensive guy. Also this "Take note that what one person considers peanuts may be a small fortune to another; it all depends on the standard of living wherever the service provider is situated." - complete nonsense, what handle guy with lower cost of living charge more ? If he has brain in his head he will do that, especially if he is good. Just another well promoted myth. Bla bla bla

3) Once again, for 1000 directory submissions reasonable deadline somewhat longer than 1 month to make the process more naturall to search engines. If vendor says he will do that in 24 hours - 1 week - not good. At least 2 week up to 1 month!

4, 5) That's why it takes so much time and need get paid reasonable. To be frank you simply rewrote my previous post about Abhik, lol. Yes, I agree they just take care about completing the jobs, what else you expect from $50-$100 for this job ? In case of manual it's underpaid, in case of auto - lot of money wasted. About the report you will sure need to ask for 1000 (for example) URL of categories of directories that was actually taken submission succesfully. What the deal with not success ? You just don't need it, that's why they need to find good dirs.

6) Reasonable period should be the longer the better, but no more than month. If all goes OK with other customers and not with your site ? Satisfaction here based on e-mails from directories and your site. I simply will cancel all adult, gambling, MFA, affiliate sites, unfinished sites, sites I don't like design so directories will not accept them and something like this. I am loosing some money but it better not to take such customers.

 

Great post Sirius Lee - obviously your experience in ordering these submissions shows

 

Ooops, hope I don't get charged an infraction by the mods.

Good point, thanks for bringing that up.

Forgot to mention that all-too-important point. Right you are, the website being submitted to the directories has to be a quality site. Not even a dedicated manual directory submission service provider can work miracles if your site is sheer crapola, LOL!

Yup, there's nothing like patronizing the tried and tested. But we must also give a chance for newbie vendors to break into the business, so I think offering free test runs to forum members is the best way to develop a good track record.

I beg to disagree on this point. Market forces come into play here, that's why some vendors choose a lower price point in order to gain an advantage over the other players. The smaller profit margins are usually offset by bigger volumes of orders; in cases like these, the vendor usually assembles a team of experienced data encoders to handle the increased volume of orders. The lower standard of living comes into play when compensating team members for services rendered. This is how the Chinese operate; smaller profit margin times huge volume order equals a pretty nice paycheck when all is said and done.

Good point you raised here. However, it all depends on what the vendor and customer agree upon as "reasonable". If the agree upon 24 hours, then 24 hours it is. If a week, then a week it is.

LOL, I'm not claiming any of what I wrote in this thread to be originally mine, haha! I just gathered what seemed like good points for consideration when evaluating manual directory submission services into one post for the benefit of those who are just beginning to get into this.

Again, reasonable period is what both parties agree upon. If both the vendor and customer agree on one week, then one week it is, and the customer has every right to complain if the work drags on for a month or so. If all is okay with other customers but not with you, then you still have every right to complain. It's simply not a "majority wins" type of issue. The transaction is between the vendor and the customer, and the customer has every right to call the vendor to task if the agreed upon service is not done as agreed upon by both parties. Just because practically all the other customers do not complain does not take away the right of a single dissatisfied customer to complain.

Thanks, onedollar! Painful experience usually shows easy, LOL!

Okay, nice to have some spirited discussions going on here.

 

So how much per link would you recommend someone pay in order for someone else to manually submit their website for them to a free directory? $1 - $2/directory maybe?

 

Sirius, you will notice that most established vendors here on DP (and not cheapest) gets most of orders, so you are not right This is forum, lol, not chinese fabric. Even established members there with this services are not leaders of the market to allow such practice with lowballing. So not all things working like they should. DP is not market, it's a marketplace. Also this is not goods, auto service or internet package which can be easily played with price, it's manual work.

About deadline , doing 1000 submissions in 24 hours you are raising flags to Google by doing that. Reasonable period is what needed to get the job done professionaly. As service provider I will never agree to do that in 24 hours or week (in case of 1000+ dirs)

Darren, no, but 10 times lower sounds good. DP is not market, it's a marketplace. Big difference. Google some established services and see what they charges (and gets paid, and I am talking about China and India). Also if you look 2 years ago there were guys on DP who charges $1 for submission per directory (and gets paid, but I would say it's a lot for usual webmaster!). Today there are a lot of kids with pirate software and spam scripts who bring mess to this marketplace. They will do it as hobby and then go away because they can't handle job as needed.

 

I know a country like India always charges cheap, but a country with higher living standards must charge a lot more in order for it to be worth it.

So I guess you think that $0.10/directory is reasonable? Is this the rate you charge your customers?

 

Are you interested in my services ? Yes, I think from 0.1 to 0.2 is reasonable (for DP). Anything below is quite questionable. That of course maybe lower but considering how much dissapointment client gets from such services I assume it's all automatic. I know personally owner of PHPLD and worked with him for 2 years for his link/seo projects. He fighting all the time with auto submitters.

Other may charge more but they also spend on advertisement so in the end it's the same. And if you search for service provider who operates here for something like 1,5 years and more you will see that they charge such rates.

Also I mean 9 out of 10 services in Google search for that dir submission are from India or China. Whois their domains and you will see that.

 

The reason I brought up the Chinese is to describe the mentality behind such pricing strategy. Dunno where the fabric came from.

Granted, the established vendors get a steady stream of orders because of their impeccable track record. But in any market, or marketplace (if this is the term you choose to use), there will always be a segment that will choose to test the waters by trying out first the least expensive options available. Such vendors who opt to price their services lower than the established market leaders have this segment in mind. In practically all areas of industry, both the market leaders with relatively higher prices and proven quality of services and the new players who have yet to prove their worth but offer affordable prices to get the public to try their wares can coexist peacefully with one another because they go for different sets of clients.

There is also a strategy where new players who entice consumers with their cut-rate pricing eventually raise their prices to the level of the market leaders once they have established a track record. This strategy requires the new player to take a loss initially in the hopes that he can capture market share from the big boys and cash in later once the consumer is hooked on his service.

I'm sorry if the nuances of the English language escapes you. When I mentioned 24 hours, that period of time is actually arbitrary; it could be 24 hours, 1 week, hell, even 1 month. The point I was trying to get across is that whatever the vendor and customer agree on as far as schedule is what should be followed to the best of the vendor's ability. I'm aware about not getting too many links established overnight, so personally, I would never ask a vendor to do this for me over a 24 hour period, and I'm sure most webmasters worth their salt know that. I hope you get my point.

Glad we agree on at least one thing, LOL!

God, I'm loving this exchange! Let's keep it going, folks!

 

Not really true.

Just because your submitting the links all at once doesn't mean Google spiders them the second they are submitted.

Alot of these deep directory pages where your link ends up can take days if not weeks for the next "deep crawl" to be indexed.

Plus i've seen alot of "trend" or "gimmic" websites pop-up and get linked to like an epidemic, yet they completely own the SERP's.

Good post too Sirius Lee, i'm sure alot of people considering a directory submission service will get some great info from it.

 

thanxs for such a great post Sirius Lee, i ll keep these things in my mind as i am soon going to start my submission service on DP (though i did nearly 20 sites submissions before)...

 

Sirius Lee, what you are talking about gaining marketshare is OK, but as I said it's will not work on DP. Such strategies don't work for forums. This guy doing that for so long and if they plan to grow they start website and sell from there using funds they gained here from cheap services. But nothing changes it seems. You take DP too seriously, my friend

The main reason that they don't change their strategy and in the end most out of the business. However such strategy have more cons that pros. I am established on one freelancer site at 170 from 170,000 others and growing and my strategy was not work for peanuts. Guys who started there on DP were charging fortune 1 or 2 years ago, now just charge average market price and still doing very very well. Unless you have a really big budget to promote to gain big piece of market that's not work (and this guys don't have it and rely on DP and their threads lost between others). That what I am seeing now with my ISPs in my town.

And type of clients who will order from Search Engine position and from DP are different!

 

Coming to the serious point which SEOLinker raises by saying that when a person charges below 0.10$ per submission it isnt manual and quality all i can say is, this is total Bull Shit.

This kind of low and competitive pricing is offered just to give the end customer a choice and an option.
By the way, SEOLinker if you havent noticed, cheap and Quality Labour can be bought in india in very low prices and hence the link submitters are happy with what a person from another country may find to be CHEAP.

And in my personal opinion, ive seen more indians and other people who provide cheap submission services have more satisfied customers than the more costlier suppliers.

And about the thing about taking a month to do the submissions, that is again at fault as it isnt raising flags to google since the backlinks arent directly approved and the directories take a LONG LONG time to approve links.

I believe in the policy of going with the person who provides CHEAP+QUALITY labour and there is no point in saying that the submissions are really not legitimate just because the prices are low and theyre done in quick time.

Again its upto the end customers to decide whom to vote for and i know what they would go for already

 

No, I'm not interested in your services, but was just wondering what a good rate would be, since I see a variation of costs for manual submissions. I myself, prefer to do submissions to directories for my websites myself, as I can guarantee that the job will be done propertly. Sometimes it's just better to take the the time and effort to do it yourself to get the quality you're looking for, but many people I noticed really don't have the patience and are always looking for a hassle free, quick, and cheap solution.

I've worked with indians before for cheap prices and I can assure you the quality is not so good. The reason why they have more satisfied customers is because people leave feedback on how many "Submitted" e-mails they get in their inbox. You can only tell how good a submitter was by waiting and seeing the results in several months when you can see whether the directories have included your website and how many backlinks you get from the search engines. Only then should you leave some feedback, but people usually don't want to wait that long.

There are some who will do quality work for cheap when first starting out, but as soon as they get the customers, they will jack the prices up.

 

Yess i absolutely agree to this points!!.... it has to be cheap + quality

 

Well good luck in finding one.

 

It has been proved many many times: you get what you paid for.

bear

 

Well, guys, I really don't care what you charge, I am just saying about average market price today. If you associate yourself with word CHEAP that's your choice, quality only second word Every your friend today probably doing this submissions and links So tommorow on DP will appear someone who can do this for $0.03 , next day $0.025. In fact I've already seen them here. You compete only by price, if you researched market well you will know other options But it seems your goals to make little quick bucks. In fact guy charged thread starter $50 and it outcomes in only 150 or so e-mails from 1000 dirs which speaks for itself. I would say that such result can be earned from 300 or so dirs. So in the end he did pay that $0.1-$0.2 per submission, lol

About flags to Google, well of course it will not be like 150 e-mails in that case but 550 that will see you have earned lot of not so quality links overnight.

About customers, go to read highrankings.com forum section and you will see a lot of crap about cheap submissions and people think that it's crap because of price and consider go with expensive option. Or visit SEOchat.com for similar threads. Or Elance or Sitepoint where you'll need to pay, so no "quickbuckers". Customers from DP and from other places are very very different.

I see that you've just registered and next month already provding services for just $7. How many you sold and how many earned ? Let's say 100 (but I doubt, higly doubt ) orders , that's just $700 which is maybe good money depending on your town in India. And you've done 15000 submissions! That's really hell a lot of work for $700, and if you include discounts that will be even far far less. Are you happy with that considering ability that you may earn more ? If so it's surprising for me, but again it's not my business and good luck to you.

About cheap once again, your price will give clear picture of your value to a lot of people. To give you an example see what you comrads charging. You can find them on related keywords in Google. I know for sure they get more money, maybe little little less orders and good room to grow. But there are also some funny guys who said to me he have a team of 53 (!!!) submitters!!! LMAO, some of big companies don't have so much staff.

Sure it's upto customers, simply we are targetting different markets which is really good thing. But taking in account I am also from country which maybe something like 15-20% costly that India I am still earning more and happy.

I am just saying you guys how you can make more doing same quality job (I assume you are doing it good), but it seems you are happy already. Well, all ok then. You simply starting out, making some money and think everything is OK.

 

Thanks, sweetfunny! That was the very intention of the post. It was also intended as feedback for the service providers so that they're able to address the concerns of their clients better.

Good luck with the new enterprise, rufh_s! I believe there's always room in a free market for new players who offer quality work at good prices.

Well, this looks like an issue where we will never see eye to eye. Let's just agree to disagree on this one.

Never been accused of that one before. Well, there's always a first time, LOL!

Well, good for you. I'm glad your chosen strategy is paying off. I hope you continue with your success.