Of late, I have shifted my attention to Niche Directories (isn't Google webmasters central asks webmasters to submit to relevant directories? ) and I have been working on my new Online Shopping Directory for the last 4 months or so. Most experienced directory owners know- how painful it is to arrange categories as they are most important to offer relevant listings to webmasters and also provide pin-point information to surfers. Hopefully, I have done quite good job with this one. Promotion wise, I believe I have enough websites (directories of my own) myself to give it a sound launching platform. Besides, I have also built some forum links. The directory has PR0 on home-page and has the same on some inner-pages as I was just building it before last PR update and didn't built any links (not even given links from my sites). But I am confident that the next PR update will bring it a decent PR by virtue of my own sites. Anyway, PR should not be that important in case of niche sites -- ISN'T? I am using the free version of phpLD - and using a template by Sabu (vegabond) . The next natural step is to upgrade to 3,2 version and a nice template ( working on it). I also have plans to run few blogs on it to add contents and value on it. But I am like a tortoise - like to go very slow. The purpose of announcing the directory here is not to generate revenue - but to let people know about it. But I would highly appreciate submissions on it as it has only two listings as of now which is very bad. I need lots of listings on categories. I have seriously thought of offering FREE reviews for my DP colleagues - but my past experience prevented me from doing it to counter unsolicited submissions of low quality sites and thus spoil my time reviewing them. So, I've kept my review FEES to the minimum ( $1.99) for this introductory period (48 hrs). It will definitely go back to its original after this period is over. Please Apply for Reviews here. Please remember to read the Review Guidelines before apply for review so that no-misunderstanding crops up. I would also highly appreciate your comments on the directory as a hole and the category structure in particular. I am open to suggestions for adding new categories that you would like to suggest. Thanks. PS: I'll be hardly available on DP/IMs after the first week of January - till 3rd week as I'll be appearing for my 1st year final Bachelor of Education exam which starts from 14th January. And I am yet to touch the books -LOOOL. (Don't worry guys, its just a professional training that I'll be resuming which I discontinued since 2004).
The category structure is impressive and the introductory review fee is quite attractive since everybody knows the directory owner and his commitment towards the industry. All the best to your online shopping directory and best wishes for your forthcoming exam.
Thanks mate for the rave review. To be frank- I have been getting the odd submissions on it from time to time. But - I want this directory to be a resource of high quality sites only that caters to its niche. So I reject most submissions. It does not matter - how long it takes, but I would just let it grow by itself- naturally and won't compromise on quality. It would be OK -even if I have to list only 50 sites per year. By 10 years- it would have 500 sites of high quality. But frankly, I think - most people go for PR. So once it get some decent PR (3/4) I reckon- the growth of this directory will be faster. I can wait.