Here is my directory. It's hand made, edited manualy and SEO friendly. What do you think about it ? URL : http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/webdirectory/
This should be under the category of review. I'm not going to kiss your a$$. I'm going to be forward when i say: Your directory is bad. I would recommend getting a free/premium template from AllPhpLd.Com
get rid of the ads thats in the directory. get rid the ads on the left. Get rid of the search engine. Put the ads that where on the left where the search engine was. Dont make the ads pink leave them black and white. And last no one need a welcome when the come to a site. get rid of Welcome to the Crazyleaf FREE Web Directory
heres what i mean: img462.imageshack.us/my.php?image=examplebd4.png ^ thats still bad, you need it to keep it simple. Maybe even get rid of the category list on the left. And move the three navigation buttons on top of the ads.
yawwn .. looks like david is right o_0 .. if you have problems dealing with the correct color scheme, hire someone to do it, or get a template :A:
I don't agree with David entirely, I like the striking pink images, and I think overall it's quite clean-looking. One thing I do notice is that nothing above the fold is actual directory listings, though. However, this is what I do agree with:
I don't think it looks that bad as what david stated above, but that might be because you already made changes.
Nice Directory. submitted 4 sites including my directories. Just one suggestion-- would not it be a little more nice if you reduce the height of the banner just little?
Yah - whats the poop with his directory design? A little too much pink for my taste but it is well executed and follows a nice grid.
I would "compress" everyting that is above the categories so that they show up whitout having to scroll down (I mean not all the cats but at least a few rows of cats)
I rather like it, its nicely design, good attention to detail although if your doing it all by hand i can see it taking up so much of your time when you could achieve the same result and the same SEO friendlyiness (if thats a proper word) using a properly configured directory script such as phpLD. You'd also be able to achieve exactly the same style and look if you really wanted to. Best of luck anyways...
First of all ... I didn't use phpLD because almost all directories useing it look like clones. The directory was ment to be in the exact theme as my main site : crazyleafdesign.com , in a different color scheme. Many of you dislike the pink design and that's ok. It's just a matter of taste. @David ... dude it's hand made ... that means that it's all done by myself, it doesn't use phpLD or other directory CMS. That means that themes are not appliable. The directory project started as a play because I submitted my website in multiple directories for backlinks and didn't like the way all of them looked. The ads : I'm not a big fan of ads on websites. You may notice that on my main website there are none, not even a hit counter or something. I'm not going to lie ... they are there for money. Compared to my web design revenues the ads generate basically nothing. Their purpose is for the website to pay for itself (hosting, domain etc) and it does that, so ... They may be annoying but then again the directory is a side project. I'm sorry if my visitors consider this offending in some way ... As for the reorganization of ads I'll consider that. Thank you for your suggestion.
I take it you havent really seen that many directories run by the phpLD script then? Yes you do get quite a few directories that use the same, this is because they are either using the default (no design) style or they are using a free template (of which there are hundreds now). I definately think its a complete over reaction to say that almost all directories running the phpLD script look like clones as this is completely untrue. In regards to your own directory you could achieve the exact same look using phpLD quite easily and it would be a lot, lot easier to manage. I actually started out originally hand coding my own directory but soon realised that it was a pretty silly thing to do - firstly because scripts could make the process so much easier and secondly because of the number of submissions. If you want to be successful then you need to expect a lot of submissions (im talking 100+ a day) - especially in the infancy of your directory. When you get to that stage you will truely understand the advantages of running a proper script!!! Best of luck.
You are correct ... the work load is quite inhuman. I'm getting 60+ submissions per day. One question ... will I be able to port my existing listings into the CMS ?
i don't see why not... you'd need to put all your links into a excel based file using the correct information and then you should be able to upload the information directly into the database. Ideally though if your directory is quite new and you havent got too many submissions as yet it would be just as easy to submit each directory manually using the CMS control panel.
Well it's kinda new but it has 800 listings, so manual submission, again, via the CMS wouldn't be an option.