Recommended Directory Software

I'm a beginner with managing directories. I've got some experience submitting to it. But how should I go about to establish my own directory? Now I recently establised the a domain for a suppliers directory.
1. What is the best directory software to use?
2. How is it managed?
3. How do I go about with payments?

Looking forward to your advice.

 

here is a live link for indexu directory script

i use it for my new scriptsdirectory

www.scriptsdirectory.net

i like the script a lot.

 

Hello,

Best and best, this is a very common question and you are most likely to receive same answer, however most of the users that recommend scripts do not bother to motivate why they think this way. My question would be, are you looking to invest for a directory script? There is a vast range of directory scripts, both free and paid. I would strongly advise you to get a paid directory script as usually offer better security, options and so on.

I am a user of IndexU, which is available at nicecoder.com and I love the script, very flexible and you can easily customize it to suit your needs, however the largest and most widely used directory script is phpLD, being a user of theirs is a good advantage, lots of modifications & styles available so you can find lots of useful modifications. It also comes with a large, and active support forum therefore you may receive good support without having to wait hours.

It is easy to build a directory, the hard part is maintaining it and making it a high standard, qualitive directory, and if you go through some of our recent threads, you may find good tips for newbies that are looking for some good advice. Note, that directories often take much time to maintain, link building and further SE strategies are important; encouraging visitors to use your directory frequently is a very hard task, which you can find further information about here at DP, I believe there's a sticky thread with lots of useful information.

The payment systems are usually integrated with each directory script, making it very simple for you as a directory owner, you have the ability to make it a free or paid directory, paid directories often require much more promotion, but you would have the resources to make it a better directory; as you would have a good budget. Free directories often attract spam, so a good CAPTCHA system is a must; however there are good examples of free, established web directories.

I hope that answers your questions,
Meti

 

Whats your budget , i really like the 3rd one on the list i got going : http://www.directoryblog.h-log.com/which-directory-script-to-use-07-22/ the edirectory one. Its really expensive too.

 

If you can pay for script i would say phpld. $25
Though every one has there own liking and disliking, and i myself like phpld, used quite a few but this one seems to be the best to me.

 

You could take a look at http://www.esyndicat.com/
Both free and paid versions.

 

Thanks for the advice to all the respondents.

... I'm willing to spent R500 on the project. That's South African Rand. and I think this is about $70 / 50 Euros at the moment. I think it is also necessary to specify some features for the directory:

1. Categories: 3 tiers: Main topics (business), topics (manufacturers), subtopics (furniture).
2. Users: 3 groups: Administrator, Registered, Unregistered
3. Functions: Visit Categories, search for keywords, featured items
4. Four submissions: paid premium, paid normal, reciprocal, free
5. Reciprocal links: must be able to define and check on website
6. Payment - credit card OR pay pal - OR transfer with a code (must I explain)
7. Single pages for each submission
8. Reporting on people with backlinks, possibility to downgrade and remove
9. Legal disclaimer.
10. Different templates to choose from / Possibility of template modification
11. Uploading of pictures.
12. Reporting on visitors/referals

I'm also looking at a combination with content management software.

 

phpLD is the best directory script

visit http://www.phplinkdirectory.com/forum for more details

 

What about money bookers and the like.

... If I require a reciprocal link, I would like to track this down. If someone submits in the reciprocal option, the program must be able to check the link.

 

Greetings,
Just found your thread here.. eSyndiCat has most of these features

Yes you can do this

Yes, besides, you can create some kind of moderators and assign levels of access to any functionality of the script. For example create moderators for news or listings and categories only.

Yes

You can configure this yourself in admin panel. Set prices, set reciprocal or free

Sure, you can even configure cron to check if the reciprocal link is valid

Both integrated, 2checkout and paypal

Yes, with seo friendly URLs

Not sure what's that

Lots of templates available

Sure, you can configure this in your admin panel how many pictures you would like to upload

I'm not sure about this one as well

eSyndiCat is a CMS where you can manage the following using admin panel:

pages, polls, news, faqs, banners & ads, google map integration, sitemaps, etc.

It can be used as a standalone application

 

ha3. maybe you would like to read my thread here. after hearing the advice givem i then decided to use phpld.

-cypher.

 

There are plenty of directory scripts out there, it all boils down to what your requirements are.
If you are serious i would recommend you to go for commercially available ones.

You can find some of the best directory scripts here: http://best-php-scripts.com/directory_scripts.htm

 

Thanks I'll have a look at that. Could you perhaps give the link to your directory here and share your experiences with it here?

 

this is the announcement that i made on dp. my directory can be found here: www.needbacklinks.com.

before i decided to use phpld, i was in dilemma. whether to buy phpld or phplb. both seem have good ratings. but after i got advices from dp members (thanks guys! ), i then decided to buy phpld and setup it right away. and there are many mods available for phpld though. thats why i choose it.

so far i am very happy with phpld. i use the paid one and not the free one. i heard from experienced users that they said the free version is lack of features. phpld is not easy to handle at the first time but after you had play around with it for awhile, you can start manage your directory easily.

i am not yet receive any payments from my directory because currently i am running a promotion of free links submission. begin next year, i will start accepting payment for those who want to submit their links. but i have tested the payment system though. i don't see any problems when submitting the payment because the person will be directed to paypal payment page when he click on the pay button. once he arrived to that page, paypal will handle all the process.

thumbs up for phpld.

-cypher.

 

I had a look and your directory looks nice. I added links as well, but it gave me two times the "not authorized" error.

I'd have to look around and getting advice also. Actually I would like to have something that can quickly set up a categorized directory allowing for backlinks and that is SEO friendly itself.

Most content management software will need some practice at first. I'm using dotnetnuke as well, but don't have a directory module for it... perhaps also something to investigate.

Yes, I'm looking for the best payment options as well. Paypal told me that they don't work with South Africa (banks), but a friend told me that they'll accept credit cards instead of bank accounts as well.

 

when and where did you get the erros? can you give me the errors you got? thank you.

how about you get a VMI card to verify and transfer money from paypal to south africa? i am not so sure whether south africa has cirrus bank or not. but i use vmi card to verify paypal and transfer money to malaysia.

-cypher.

 

After I submitted I was getting something like (you are not authorized to see that site).

I also went onto the phpLD forum to enquire more about the product, which I consider to be a candidate.

Thanks, I would have to figure that out. I don't know whether we have Cirrus Bank or not. I however do have overseas bank accounts for transfers.

 

i see. thanks. i will do some testing after this.

-cypher.