Directories are Over - Time for the New Age of Promotion

Yes, it will pretty much eliminate the unserious because it will all boil down to some kind of budget. The budget needs to be of a large size, as the services that count will cost a fair bit eg: advertising, seo and web design costs.

Staying ahead of the rest is the key and cannot be ignored. I would suggest any directory worth anything would be targeted by investors pretty quickly.

Once such a site has backing, then it's easier, but still not the easy ride many hope for - there's no such thing as a license to print money. Money is easy to spend, but damn difficult to make, although you wouldn't think so the way these directories are knocked out. But that's the danger and misinformation of the web - the easy, effort-free champagne lifestyle

So yes, budget plays a major role in starting up. But the idea is always the No.1 thing you must get right - first time!

 

This again, you know my websites are nobody's business, but I posted the urls of 2 of them, so they are in my posts somewhere. It's interesting you brought up the credibility argument, because I don't recognise G directories as a benchmark for being credible - yet others post theirs and yet are accepted here without problem hmmmm.

I happen to doubt the credibility of many directory owners, but I don't go about attacking them. I accept that they own a directory or are thinking of starting one - I never said they don't own anything or ripped them apart for not displaying the url.

 

EK I would love to just take you at face value but can't due to all those previous posts that you mention.

I did see one of the two sites you mention as posting - I think it was a travel directory.

Look at me - i can post sites too - here is one Google.com...

EK the problem I see is this. You seem to try and pass yourself off as someone you are not. Something you are not.

If you are Liam then I have been on computers longer than you have been alive and here you want to come off like the wise old sage passing along wisdom from the ages in between romps with the cushions. lol

I would love to just believe you EK - Sorry I just cant anymore.

 

Exactly my point too, see it does no good for me to post a url here - it won't be believed. But I don't have a problem with that and wish you all the best with your website.

 

I agree with this statement as I am starting a niche directory
from what I am planning is to offer links but also to offer interaction
for owners and buyers to work with each other to better the
market they are in.

 

Good, niche anything is the way to go here. Buyers and owners to interact hmmm, interesting......

 

I know my market Event_King and it is one of just a few not
to have been over exposed. My budget is all that holds me back but
I won't let that beat me.

 

Yes this is good stuff to talk about, more services and on-target content is needed to bring in the traffic. I'm one for expansion as visitors want more to help find information.

But even this expanding gets copied, I see directories that do this and the content is just general news services offered from news feed companies - so it's not even theirs. The other content is articles (been done to death), reviews, images are creeping in to more sites now, but it requires so much more than this to get a website that all important interest.

But this is good and heading in the right sort of direction for directories, but still a long way to go I fear before directories are trusted again. Perhaps a local stance is needed for directories???

 

Directories are not over.At least from my end.

 

Every industry goes through the phases of innovation, expansion, and then eventually consolidation. Web directories are no different. But I don't think you should assume that web directories are dead simply because they are entering the consolidation phase. We're seeing forced consolidation by Google because G doesn't like link selling or SERPs manipulation via links. The web directories that have built their business model on link selling are going to have a tough time and there will also be some collateral damage. However, many directories will survive...without moving to the portal model.

I do want to thank the OP for starting this thread because it will probably mean a few less spam directories started today...since "directories are over".

 

Niche directories are here to stay

 

You sound exactly like my daughter at ages 6 thru 9 --- My advice to you is that if you want to get rich and famous you probably should be in another industry.

 

I see hundreds of directories and portal type sites each year, and their exactly the same, all doing the same thing, so what's so brilliant about that, and as a searcher it doesn't offer anything different or make my life any easier - which ofcourse is what searchers want. We have all this information out there on this web, and the best webmasters can come up with is another G directory.

I'm pretty sure that information can be used/offered in a way, other than the directory model, yes I'm quite sure of that. But it would have to be done to get the interest and attract one type of visitor - yep sure that would work, heck, might be able to charge more cash because the idea is different.

I'm into poker sites myself and poker events (hence my name Event_King), I like playing online and would like to see a poker resource, but haven't found a decent major one that covers everything to do with poker. That's a problem right there.

 

As long as the top search engine returns results like this for a term as "safe" ass (oops) educating I think the directory industry is safe for at least one more day.

 

Porn? as disgusting as it is that Google provides this, but pointing out a rare mistake by a search engine won't purge the fact that users will not cease using engines and switch to a G directory model, at least not that easily.

This is why it's so tough to draw users away, and if the old directory model was that good, people would have changed over years ago. Sorry but I'm not convinced, it's just not that easy a thing to change, as we are asking for a change in behaviour that's perhaps asking for too much.

We have 2 points of view here:

1. Webmasters who want G directories to remain because of the submit fees

2. Webmasters/others who want to improve search

and these two will always clash.......

 

Upon reading this thread, i must agree that directories are not over, i have one non-mainstream and it's getting great traffic...

 

The only traffic to General directories are freebie hunters/spammers, which are directory owners themselves. Once there, the only search they'll do is for more directories to spam.

Others are just checking to ensure their listing hasn't been deleted. The spend for an average directory is low, and I speak from experience as I ran a G directory for 2 years, and did the right thing by quitting. I'm so glad I did that

 

Actually there are still some very good general directories. I've been perusing them recently and have submitted to a couple of them, with one more in the pipeline. The crap directories are apparent from the homepage, once I find a promising directory I dig deeper into it and spend some time there.

 

Okay, so what's 'different' about all these General directories you checked out? What is the unique selling point that will make the Google searcher suddenly switch to a general directory, because as a searcher myself, your mentioned directories need to sell themselves to entice me to use them, so those need to be radically different to every other directory, even more so if it charges fees to advertisers.

 

I agree.. I have run into more than a few very nice directories myself. As as you said, most of them can be identified straight from the homepage.