18 out of 120+ dirs lists within 1 month

Yes 71% is quite high, but it shows it can be done. Since my tool can track which sites will actually accept submissions, I remove those directories that will never list you..
Some of my other listings have less success (one is 60/139)

 

Yes, it is usually the new ones that are more likely to list your site, but there are exceptions, and knowing which sites will list you is very valuable information.

 

Great post and it does make one think

We have two main directories and 3 full time people approving links. Because of the number of request that come in we do fall behind from time to time.

The main one we focus on is the Geeks On Steroids directory. The people in the office that approve the directories are told to first look at the pr and then the site.

A lot of people have new sites that have just gone online. It is sad to say but a lot of these sites do not get listed. We do not send an email when a site is not listed but because of this post we are now working on that.

We have a long ways to go inorder to be more customer friendly but post like these do help.

Thanks,
Janeth

 

Best-Web-Directories.com ranks sites based on a number of directory ranking criteria. "Link approval time" is one of the biggest factors.

 

Nice list. But the ones with instant approval is very risky and should be the first to be banned/penalized by the SEs IMO. They should not be listed IMHO. And BTW, how do one get qualified for the list?

 

I understand your concern for the "instant approval" directories. At this time I like them but I will be keeping my eye on them in the future. So far, only 1 of the sites that have been banned by Google were instant approvals and this site had a PR7 (most likely falls into the category of gaining links unaturally).

There is no easy way of getting onto my list. I submit some sites to directories (usually PR4 and greater) and monitor the sites that list the sites. I list the best ones. I usually submit some different sites a couple of months later just to make sure they still have their act together. I will be doing some major additions right after the next PR update (any day now)

 

Hmmmn.

I have to agree with subseo on this one. New directories will always have a high approval rate. Take a look at the solicitation forum here. Nearly all the directory owners will say "Ok added all those submitted, any more?" or something similar. They are keen, and their directory is new, and they turnaround every submission within 24 hours.

It's not until they get onto directory lists and better known, that they realise it's not that simple and hundreds of sites submit per day. Then they have to weed out all the scrapers, all the deep-link attempts (if they don't allow them), all the incorrect submissions, and it suddenly becomes a daunting task. The popularity also makes directory owners think... hmmmn im getting 100-200 submissions per day. If I charge $10 per submit and just get 10 a day I'm laughing... so they convert to pay-for-inclusion and your submission goes to the end of the queue.

Having high PR lists of directories, will always bring the acceptance rate down. Look at the Little Directory SilkPHP directory. They let their backlog get to 2300 sites. They dumped the entire backlog. I submitted when it was a PR0 and was approved, its now a PR4, and 2300 submitters got the shaft because its converted to pay 4 inclusion and you have to pay for the privelege of a listing, that probably isn't worth it. However, because it has PR4, and they now have a mailing list of 2000-odd email address, they will probably get a lot of people paying for a listing.

You get in while the PR is low, and that guarantees your acceptance. When the PR improves to 4, 5 or 6, you smile because you are already in that directory. If you are trying to get in when the PR is that high, in my opinion you are too late.

Quite a few directories I have listed, I was getting emails from people saying "They don't list anyone", but they had listed me. Again it was because I got in earlier whilst it was low PR, and new.

It's also true that many of those new/low PR directories will amount to nothing. Some get abandoned, some get converted to pay-4 or reciprocal models and never grow, but thats the gamble you take. Submit to the lot in their infancy. Some will grow and be a worthwhile link (in time), whilst others won't be worth a cracker.

 

Very fruitful post silencer and I agree with you.

 

I agree with the psychology of it silencer, although I can't imagine it is that fruitful. The number of directories that show up in free lists that are either frozen on new "free" submissions or now only take paid submissions is high enough to be extremely annoying.

Part of me thinks new directories take advantage of free directory listings get their name out there and count on the fact that some lists update slow, etc, so they can just flip over to a pay directory and still get traffic from free lists.

Call me cynical. I suggest if your directory is too big to manage adding submissions you narrow its focus or beef up your ability to approve submissions. Figure out how you want to monetize your site ahead of time, be it ad-based, submission based or a combination of both. But please think long and hard before changing in mid-stream and appearing as a potential bait-and-switch.

The lifeblood of any directory is its listings. The reality is normal people rarely use any of these directories. If you actually want to be a usuable and worthwhile directory, then you have to include as many relevant sites as quickly as possible. If you just want to make money from people who might pay you a few bucks for a link, well good luck to you on that as well...

 

True aeiouy,

I do agree with you. It's not cynical, its exactly what happens. I've watched as directory owners have sat on an update from me, and as soon as I've announced it, have switched to pay-for-inclusion. They know that as soon as I update I get a huge spike in traffic, which in turn ends up on their directory. The fact that it happens every update I do doesn't surprise me in the slightest. (see the removed page on my list, its littered with directories that were removed because they have done a shift from free to pay-for or reciprocal-required - most of them did it straight after an update).

I don't blame them, it makes smart business sense to take advantage of your opportunities.

The lure of making money from a directory appeals to them more than providing a damn good free directory.

To the people that have free directories and are thinking of converting I say this:

Look at Kingbloom. They've done it the clever way, still free and highly respected in the community. The reason why is obvious.

 

Maybe the free directories, starting off as a hobby, aren't intended initially to generate revenue. When you get into the stage of needing to employ 2/3 people (and more) to look after directory submissions, there's no way at all they can remain free. I also suspect that if adsense payments are only a few cents a click instead of a few dollars, then that probably doesn't cover the wages overhead either unless the directory starts generating loads of traffic. It's unrealistic to expect "Free" to remain free forever, imho.

What might make a difference would be if people would READ the instructions (sorry for shouting!) - I've got a couple of small directory sites which are targetted quite specifically - one to Highland Games websites and another to Florida web sites (by county). It grieves me to say that 99% of submissions to these directories are waaaaaaaaay off base - and I've got a policy of refusing stuff that doesn't fall into each niche because keeping the focus tight will help the directory in the long run. I'll maybe get adventurous, add an email field to the submission form and have a standard reply formatted for those folks who get it wrong.

.... ok, back off the soap box now and away to bake some shortbread!

Margaret

 

my lowest appraval for 100 directories is 50%.

you need to choose right directories, submit to right categories at right time

 

Agree.

Since this thread I have changed the service and I am now listing over 300 dirs as I could see the value of the ones with low PR as well.

Thanks.

 

I've been checking my two directories every few days. When I first listed them, I checked every few hours

 

I really don't think people should be running large directories without having the time to manage them.

I check my directory very often to accept/reject sites and I get a huge number of submissions daily now.
If it gets to the level I can't manage it, simple solution, either hire someone to help or close temp until I catch up.

Another thing to think about...some directories might not let you know if your site has been rejected, mine doesn't but that's because of the script.
I am working on changing that but I have a lot of other things to do for it also.

 

Hi John,

I see you changed the logo - I know your dir by now
Nice to see the guys behind the scenes.

 

Hey Jim,

Yeah I have changed the complete design and I am working on the features of the directory more now to improve it a lot more.

I also think a lot of directory editors could make the work a lot easier on themselves for reviewing sites by adding a lot more to the admin panel in the submissions reviews section.

I am working on my own admin panel to make it easier for me to see a lot more stats regarding the submitted site right from my admin panel, it will save a lot of time and make it quicker and easier for me to review sites.