Not sure if you guys saw the web directory that's on the Digg front page today. In just a week it has gained almost 1000 natural links purely by using viral marketing. Anyway I've just written a blog post about how they did it which might help people new to directory marketing. Masterclass in creating and promoting a web directory
The site itself has used a number of tactics to appear trustworthy: * It doesn't look like a web directory * It has a nice logo/header * All the listings are trusted sites we know about * Each listing has a logo * Some listings have deep links to save people time Firstly the point of it not looking like a web directory and appearing more trust worthy is a bit rude, thats like saying that any directory that looks like one is not to be trusted. A nice logo will make you look trust worthy?
I've nothing against directories but some look more trustworthy than others. And yes, a good logo and a good design does make a website look more trustworthy. Web directories struggle to gain natural links and normally don't make the digg front page. This guy has styled his site so it doesn't look like a directory and has done very well because of it.
This is an excellent point. Content = natural backlinks. People dont add content to web directories so gain no natural links and also are no use to an end user. This has to change.
With respect to your points, i feel that the look of something makes nothing any more trust worthy, its whats operating behind the site that really makes a difference. As they say, dont judge a book by its cover, if a site is still a directory but just looks a little different then thats all thats happening, its an image change. Nice for the guy getting some success through digg and styling his site differently, i just dont agree with the look of anything making it appear more trust worthy.
Beautiful work done by the directory there Does it looks like a normal directory? Absolutely good work done by the owner!
Is it still a directory though? when does a directory stop being one and become something else? Does a submit page categorise it as a directory?
Its a web script niche directory, i am guessing. It does look quite different from the standard. And it has a custom script i believe.
I have a number of fundamental issues with describing this as masterclass 1, Like others have pointed out,its a techie, programmers site, of course all the techies will link to it, even if it where a vanilla phpld install , it would very quickly get the kinda links the rest of us can only dream about, I've seen it before 2, These chaps , open source, LAMP chaps, kinda like their stuff free, It is very hard to charge these folk for anything I ' ll impressed if the directory makes any money, there was a similar directory on sale at sitepoint recently, it was making some money of adsense, but,,,
As I said in my post, this guy could quite easily wait 6 months and then start charging $200 for a review to get in his directory. Once a site like this gets thousands of natural links and good Google rankings you can flip it from it's current form to a more commercial one.
Methinks the links would evapourate like the morning mist, shortly after the linkers find out that they're no longer linking to what they thought they were linking to Techies are very particular you know, I should know
Yep, it is substance , not style that is the engine. Visitors to general directories do not look for style 'cos most of them are webmasters. Only end users are attracted to style. But this looks like a niche directory. But then again it is a techie directory so it is amusing why the owner would think techies visitors would prefer style over substance?
I think the design is quite smart. I don't remember their name, but there is a line of techy books that looks quite similar. The books I'm thinking of usually cover the hard core programming and networking topics and were often quite expensive. Did you notice the subcategories are not separate pages? Interesting idea. Not so good for SEO, but maybe easier to use. Although when the directory gets more filled they may have to return to separate pages. I really like the site. I think not 'looking like a directory' is a good thing. If you are creating a site solely for people to get links then looking 'like a directory' is probably a good thing; but if you want to get non-submitting traffic to use your site, making it more attractive can only be a good thing. Style over substance? Why do you say there's no substance here?