Human traffic? Ideas for/from teh community

Hi, as most of you know, I have posted some pretty controversial stuff in the directory forum as of late. This one is a little more mellow.

I have been wrestling with the idea of making a directory that will provide direct human traffic to the listings in my directory, not just indirect visitors from higher SERPS.
How does a directory owner go about making a dierctory that human will use?
Not even DMOZ provides good human traffic (partially because there are jsut so many listings)

We as a community need ot explore this venue, and come up with some off the wall marketing techniques to bring humans back.
I had thought's of T-shirts and web videos ads, that brand my directory as the new form of search.
What are you all thinking?
Do you even care about human visitors? (non-submitters)

 

of course... that's what adds value to your submitters! At least to me...

Lance

 

for general directories that's quite a challenge but can be done. It requires a lot of smart promotion.
promote every category (at least, higher level ones) as if you were promoting any other website:
- quality content which can be relevent listings with quality unique descriptions.
- very important: get links to those categories with targetted anchors.

those are just few suggestions...

 

Right on, +rep if I can give it to you again.

Are links the best method of promotion? What about non search engine traffic?

 

yes I agree, but I think wwe need to think outside of the box. Getting links to sub pages is just more link juice passed onto our listigns. I am talking about quality targetted visitors coming straight to our directory, browsing the directory then going to one of our listings for information or to buy a product.
That should be all of our goals, so how do we do it as a community?

 

you should probably start by registering yp.com or similar...
Only niche directories can have returning visitors. and again to apply this for a general directory, you should treat every category as a niche and promote it indepedently. a lot of work...

 

So you are saying that general directories have 0 chance of being a place that people go when they are looking for information?

 

right, unless it is treated as multiple niche directories.

 

I'm really sick of reading these posts about what "we" need to do. If I listened to the group logic at this website, I wouldn't even rank for my own name.

I hate to tell you: there's a vast number of directory owners who never visit Digital Point (for obvious reasons), and are doing plenty of things to get people to their websites.

Why don't you go ahead and experiment with what you think works best. If it does work, you'll be amply rewarded.

 

Thats a good idea, but I still don't think it is going to be successful, I think that we need to market ourselves as the new form of search.

 

Build a resource and you will attract visitors.

Build a directory and you only attract submitters.

 

Because none of them are a credible search source.
Name off the top of your head a directory that people go to to actually find something.
other than Y!Dir and DMOZ

 

when was the last time you used dmoz or yahoo directory to find something?

 

I have used DMOZ several times, though I don't really love the results.
I have never used Y!Dir, but I have heard that it provides good traffic, so people must use it.

 

I have 1 site in dmoz and yahoo directory and another 1 in yahoo directory. I get 1 or 2 referrals from yahoo (a year), none from dmoz.

 

Nice topic, but I am afraid its not a we thing really, its more an individual decision.

However, i wonder, if everyone started doing it, perhaps more people would be motivated to have a look at directories

 

You need to speak to Lacrabra at the phpLynx forum bobby, your singing from the same hymnsheet and we're implimenting many of the ideas he has into the script. Our primary model is based on what you speak of so I have to agree that if there is ever to be evolution of directories and human interaction the way you describe is the way to go.

Rep added.

 

Too bad I decided to custom code my script, I've seen your posts around here and you seem pretty knowledgeable. I guess your script is just as good.

 

Kind words, you ain't seen nothing yet though Bob, I'm doing one now as we speak and its the nuts. Got to get my head around allowing it to be skinned using smartie though, was worse part of my skillset that one. Good luck.