Building a Directory

I have used the free script from http://www.biz-directory.org/ one before, did everything I wanted.

 

What? You can't sweettalk your bro into building you one? That's what brothers are for. I've gotten at least 8 cars from mine!

Check out http://www.biz-directory.org/
I've looked at but haven't tried Reciprocal manager (google for that one; don't have the addy)
http://www.onlinemarketingtoday.com/ - Link Management Assistant

 

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=4575

Some good listings from awhile back are there. Seems like CPlinks is a good little app.

Good luck!

 

I just started setting one up, biz directory is pretty straight forward. I'm no coder either.

 

Here is another good directory program I found indexu You can download the free lite version or the full version is $100.

Here is a site that uses this program if you want to see what it looks like. odlp

 

I have setup a few and that biz directory script is really easy to set up. There are pretty good instructions. Just see if your brother will copy it to your server for you and decompress it, you should be fine from there. Hint hint big brother. He must be playing frisbee golf.

 

Out of curiosity, what is the purpose/reason for running a directory? I've thought about it too, but more for something else to do so i can put off grad work lol.

 

Hell if I would have not lost my hard drive recently I could have given you a shitload of programs, too bad for US that this happened, maybe I will look in my bookmarks and find some stuff tomorrow.

I think the members will post every good program though even if I do not VS.

That is all we need is ANOTHER directory VS

PS: sweet talk me FWW, it will get you there baby.....

 

Are directories still a good prospect to earn some $$$ ?

 

Cool.. I was also thinking about this project summer... thanks for bringing this up in this thread! Actually, I was not sure about the free programs / scripts to build one! It must be an interesting thing to do, than setting up something like a blog or gallery site!

 

Thanks Summer, I would have a look at it!

 

When it's filled up, i'll send it to my husband for gift ideas Maybe by then i'll be able to wear them. Tell me, why don't they make good preggo lingerie?

 

Make sure whatever you use is SE friendly. Make sure all your pages can be crawled and and you use static text links with no redirects to those sites you list in your directory. I am sure you have already thought of all this anyway. Try this link if your going to use PHP
http://www.v7n.com/scripts/php/link-indexing/

 

I am also in the process of setting up a directory. I can be handy when it comes to coding , so decided to write the entire thing in PHP.

Vicious, I see that you've found some code to build the directory so I will just tell you a few things that I am adding to mine that I thought might "future proof" the site (might be useful for you too):

1. The directory needs to be search engine friendly (as mentioned by someone else) and Google and other search engines must be able to crawl through all pages and content
2. Try to have some static content on each page, if your pages will be created on the fly. This will be helpful especially if yoy are looking at running Adsense ads on the site.
3. Try to have some functionality (might be built in the script that you downloaded) that ensures that there aren't more than 10-20 external links on each page
4. The directory must be "expandable". You should be able to add more directories and sub-directories as you grow
5. Reciprocal links should be automatically checked on submission (if you are asking for mandatory recips)
6. You will need a reciprocal link checker of some kind to automatically check and display missing reciprocals
7. Finally, some check to keep SPAMmers away. I am building the submission form so that it sends an email to the person submitting the site and users will need to click on a link to confirm their email address. Alternately, you could use the usual "Please enter the text as seen in this image" box on your submission form to keep SPAMmers away.

It might seem that I am doing a bit too much, but I think it's better to tackle these issues while you are operating at a smaller level.

 

The CTR on Travel Directions is approximately 20% of the CTR of my average web site.

Traffic is so-so. MSN has been very good to this web site.

This directory would be less work (and therefore have a better ROI) if it weren't for the Indian spammers.

Overall, I would say that there are better methods of making money on the web than running a directory.

But of course... I had to try it to find out.