Well just trying out an idea of mine for a new directory, and have just finished coding it and launched it on an old domain I had doing nothing. It's fairly basic in apperance at the moment as it's aimed at SEO purposes for the sites in it rather than web users. The idea is each submission gets a full page to itself, with up to 3 outgoing links, and the possibility to embed a logo. With no other outgoing links on that page. The site uses url rewriting throughout so all the pages appear as a static page in the url and the keywords for each submission's page is generated from the submissions title. Be gentle as it's still in Beta Anyhow have a look and submit if you want, heres the address: http://www.contuli.com P.S. It's a family friendly directory, so only appropriate sites please.
I noticed that your society section has the same categories as your shopping section. I wanted to submit in a society category, but the error prevents it. Please check this. Thank you
I think the opportunity for a full page listing is attractive, but I decided not to submit at this time, because with the method you're using I don't think you directory will ever get enough content for Google to index most of the pages. And if the pages aren't indexed, the links won't be counted. For your directory to be a success, you really need to get some content, at least 3 0r 4 listings in every category. A few directory owners have done this by creating the listings themselves, often copying from what's in various DMOZ categories. But to do this properly involves a lot of work, since the DMOZ descriptions are very short, and you would need to expand them yourself. Another way to get content is to allow totally free listings (without a reciprocal). This is what most directory owners do when they first launch their directory. It doesn't involve as much work as the other method, but the drawback is that many of the submissions will be spammy-type sites. Anyway, just thought I would make some suggestions. And good luck with the directory.
hmm, that's a thought, I was hoping that it would build content naturally but I see you've got a point. I'll have a think how to proceed and take it from there. Thanks for the suggestions!