I personally think bidding directories are going to have a worse time than general non bidding ones where you just pay for a listing and the charge is for them reviewing your listing.
I don't think "paid" directories are really getting hit. There are still some paid directories that continues to be okay and unless ALL strong paid directories are hit, I wouldn't really count them (paid and bidding) out yet. An example would be yahoo's directory which is a paid directory in every sense yet still going strong.. We just have to find out what ticks off Big Brother Google.
Darn and I have to find out why your Paradise Philippines ranks better than mine. Now I have to ask Marc Macalua to rig the votes in my favor. LOL
Go to http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=25 and double click on your thread title,then you can change it. If not,click the report button and ask the MOD'd to change that for you.
Hi Domain Surfer, I agree that you are concerned about the future of the bidding directories & even I am because even i run a bidding directory. Well let me clear one thing as per my knowledge, is that you place your bid on a a bidding directory for the traffic that it can deliver & not the PR juice. Both paid & bidding directories are two different directory models & can co-exist together. So even if Google plans to go ahead & BANS, which I don't think should happen If you have a quality bidding directory. I don't think that It will be affected as Bidding directories enjoy traffic more from Links from other sites & rather than Search engines (please correct me if I am wrong). So let's see & wait a reply from Matt ! on this amazing discussion.
Google has been hinting towards that. It was something like websites selling links will lose their linking power.
Just to clarify one thing... A bidding directory is no different from a normal directory (at least for me). I review all submissions made and refuind the ones that should not be listed. The bidding aspect is only to improve rankings for better exposuire/traffic/etc.
I agree with you Chris on that, I do refund all the Gambling/casino/porn sites & other spam site submitted on my bidding directory. So that the directory is high quality & SPAM free links. The same has also been updated on the TOS of my site. I also agree to your point on the traffic & exposure
bidding directories are more about traffic and exposure! so, in the long run they will be more active than other directories. Just like other directories, bidding directories also makes reviews, and make refunds. there is no big difference, other than the fact that it is sorted by ammount, See it like this: money = higher placement of links = more traffic!
If only people listened to things like this. Problem is, someone could start a paid directory and nobody would submit, so kids with no investment plan etc make a bidding directory instead, and sell $1 links. They don't approve sites and refund anything. This is why people seem to think bid directories are bad.
Just like other directories, there are good and bad; those with quality standards and those without. Bidding directories should not be judged all the same...just as other directories should not be judged all the same.
I have a feeling Big Brother Google is using a game plan. Here it is: Anyway, you get your site ranked very well within Google so you get the feel of the traffic they can send you. Google is offering Analytics for free. They have made it so that you can easily and quickly see all of the keywords that people typed into Google to come to your website and how many pageviews they roughly visited and possibly even if a conversion has taken place or not. You can easily download that data via CSV and other formats so that you can quickly and easily move it around, edit it, etc. A great service that Google offers I think especially as it's also free to use. Now after you have had a feel of their search engines traffic and what keywords/phrase sent you that traffic, they then penalise your website so that you no longer rank for your keywords or phrases. But wait, you still have that list in your Analytics so you know what you use to rank for and how well you use to rank in Google and also how them keywords use to perform for your website. So with some thinking, you then have no choice but decide that the best option would be to get your site ranking where it use to be for them keywords again via their Adwords listings in their search results pages. In other words Google is showing you what their search engine can do to your website, which is a trial. They will then help you to easily store all that information into Analytics is a free service so that you can have easy access to it on a later date and then once the trial is over you have to pay for them rankings via their Adwords program. What do you think?
Hi John, that was really a very nice theory I don't think that Google will ever do that, If they really do that (which i don't think) then every one will just switch to Yahoo & MSN
Didding directory is only a kind of directories. It will be ok if you don't boost it to PR6 or higher.
Hi Mikey, I feel that if a directory is PR6 or PR6+ that is when you come under the Google's microscope... & I think they will ban (or penalize) for selling links & passing on the PR juice & manipulating the search engine results. This is again my theory ... please prove me wrong Amit
Google is not supposed to be human edited. They should treat all sites the same not base it on PR. A directory is supposed to be allowed by google, dependant on its quality. They shouldnt care about the selling of links.