I had an interesting epiphany, because of the huge growth in auto directory submission software 99% of the new free directories are almost guaranteed to fail in the first 6-months. I was a free directory owner around 2 years ago when I first started out so I know how frustrating it can be to get loads and loads of spam submissions everyday. At least back then most of the submitters were humans so I would nab the odd paid featured link. Now with the popularity and sophistication of today’s auto submitters, free directories must be getting absolutely swamped with crap and since barely any humans ever visit there is no chance for ad clicks or paid link sales. My conclusion is that in some ass-backward way these auto submitters may actually help quell the onslaught of crappy directories.
I also strarted out free because thats the way the net should be and I would have liked to see directory masters taking a stand against what is nothing more than links litter. I have got nothing against web masters doing stuff that saves them time but when they start invading my space I get pissed off. Free is crappy? Sad.
Auto submission in it self is not a problem, but semi auto is better auto generation of sites resulting a a very poor user experience is a big problem, IMHO. When auto generated sites are combined with auto submission, then the brown stuff really hits the fan
i get a decent 100-200 uniques per day (week unique) and like 30 returns per day. I cant be sure whether those returns are auto submitters coming bak or users luving the quality/seeing link in email I created 3 new directories abotu a month ago and each of them now has 1000+ links waiting for activattion and i got no time I still see a constant flow of deep and sponsor links coming in (like 10-20 bux a week ) but I watch as many automated submissions come in. I can tell by the submission times so close and the same IP. LIke the other day I had 10 submissions in the same minute from same email and IP :O So these automated submission r really slowing me down I wish there was sumthing beside CAPTCHA to help get rid of the bastards Although they wont stop I am not gonna get rid of the directories As u said I also believe they could quell the 'lower' end directories, but I rekon mainly the directories that people creat hundreds of the same one... spending no time on the directory at all and using sumthing like auto approval.... Anywho... it gets a maybe from me
Why not use captcha? Because Chris hoffman said not to? Come on get real, there are thousand of other web owners
Site Sift!!! GET EMAIL VERIFICATION!!! Google should improve that maths equation thingo to make them pick up spam submissions... dont know how but one of their fizzy haired scientists can come up with something...