There are now literally tens of thousands of directories out there, whether general, niche or hybrids. As we all know any good domain names there were to be had were snapped up years ago so now we are seeing ridiculous names given to directories like fgdfh.com and the like. (not sure if that's one btw just an example). So the questions are, does the name of a directory matter? Will it influence those who use it?, (I don't mean for PR chasers, they'll submit to anything), I mean for the long term where the sustainability of a directory is going to rely heavily on the title name as well as content.
I think the name is important. Its a feature of people that they gravitate towards things that are ,,,, Attractive to them I remember when I first heard the name "Yahoo" , it was an immediate , yes I want to see that Shallow, yes , but it was an instant mental response I guess many will have diferent takes on this, different folks diferent strokes
It matters big time. plus it's your brand, you gotta protect your intellectual property. Think up or buy a decent name, then when u build your stuff in there, watch out for it.
I really think that brandable name is very important and it's hard to remember a directory that uses keyword combinations of "directory", "free", "submission", "dir" and so on because you can't distinguish one from another in a saturated market. When someone has been "exposed" to your name for some time and comes to your site one day, something "rings" in his mind (he knows ur site already, consciounsly or unconsciously -- or whatever the good spelling of these words are) and that's somehow trust points for your domain name. Hope you can understand my point. Hard for me to express myself in english hehehehe.
Sure I understand your point and your English is very good. The one obvious example is dmoz, its a bunch of random letters but for some reason it sticks in your mind. The problem I see is there are way too many directories out there with wierd names that are never going to get remembered, you only have to look at directory lists to see that. It seems to me that many people just pick anything they can to knock up a directory without putting any real thought into the name. I could be wrong though.
or they use domain names that have been parked long time without an use and setting up a directory with a default template is just couple of hours work .. or they buy an expired domain with some traffic/pr and they dont care much about the letters and the order of them in the domain name
Yep, I noticed that, don't you think that this kind of activity is spoiling the directory arena though? There seems to be so many around with nonsense names that it's making a mockery of the directory scene.
Name is always important, especailly in terms of having a name that has its keywords in it that the search engines could rank high. A name also spells out to visitors what your site is about. Good content and a service to go hand in hand could inevitably make a website brand.
cant agree with that, in my opinion keywords in domain name should not be used in commercial sites (maybe just a derivation of the keyword) but only in non-commercial informational sites. dunno how to explain my point so here is an example. if i would want a domain to give information about dedicated servers and monetize it by inserting ads or getting sponsered by a hosting company then I would go for the generic words (dedicated-hosting.com, dedicated-servers.com, whatever) but if i want to sell dedicated servers myself those domains aint good choice .. verio, aplus, rackspace, and so on are the brandable names.
I understand your point biodevem and respect you for it even if I disagree with it. We live in world of commerce and branding together with using keyword linking in a title will always help market your site. Its not about what we like its about what the end user would type in to find us.
so long as its short and pronounceable, it doesnt matter. take BQTM.CON as an example. its short and easy to remember. If its like that, then its easy to promote your brand. the domain sticks in your head and is remebered.
I've gotten to the point where if I see some ridiculous combination of letters for the domain, I don't even bother looking into submitting. I for the most part dismiss these sites as part of the QBC. Yeah, I might miss a few gems; but, I don't waste as much time submitting to sites that disappear fairly quickly. While, it's true it's getting harder and harder to find good domain names, there are still great ideas waiting to be found. Yes, that 4 or 5 letter gobbledy-gook name may be easier to type; but, good luck branding it. I also agree that keyword-filled domains should be for hobby and informational sites. Before the Internet, I can't imagine anyone calling their company "Dedicated Hosting" or "Dedicated Servers". Look at the biggies in the hosting game - GoDaddy, LunarPages, Pair, etc - no keywords in there.
I take it as a mixture of both, name & promotion. What I am trying to say is, if you have a perfect domain name for directory, for the sake of reference lest take it as "QualityWebDirectory.Com" and you just install the script and look for submission sitting here then its not going to work. Not for the owner and not for the submitter in terms of value of that link. Now, if you go with a different name may be just a bunch of letters, lets take an example as Mikey pointed BQTM.Com. If you promote it well and take it as a serious directory with intention to provide the return to submitters for their investment, this is surely going to work for both. So, It's not just the name that is important, its how you deal with it. But yes, i am seeing so many of directories on dropped domains popping up every day. That is just a big No NO to me.
Domain name is just another POSITIVE factor specially in term of easy to remembering it!!! But than on the other hand it should atleast never be a name like a directory i remember Scoutsof987katyx Forget how we'll remember it but atleast a directory domain should be something that can go with a directory, and leave the rest to the PROMOTION of ur directory and than watch the market flowing in! To cut it short a good domain really has a VALUE but it doesn't need to be a very very good domain to succeed, an average domain can work as well Just my thoughts although experts can have something else in there box!
Definately, if you have a good domain name, it makes it a hell of a lot easier to promote, and whilst some people won't agree, it makes a better impact to submittors wanting thier sites to be found in thier directories. I see RGERG.com or something stupid I don't care what you say it isn't going to get remembered as much as say yellow.com simply because yellow is easier to promote as you can associate it with something when marketing it.