I cannot understand why some of you are adding homepage and category newsfeeds on directories. Do you really think somebody actually enters your directory to read the latest news on some domain ? Ok..maybe the answer is: "To increase the content." This reminds me of the category dumps. There was a guy who created that pack and now everyone is using it. Ok. Now you are adding the newsfeeds from yahoo and others to increase the content but out there, are others who also did this thing on their directory. So you like it or not, there are at least a hundred who added yahoo's feeds on the directory. The most fair is to post unique articles on your directory, in my opinion. There might be others who are doing this too, but the content is different and unique. PS: did you saw what Matt Cutts said about Aviva Directory ? He said that Aviva is starting to look more serious and not just like a web directory. Do you see Yahoo newsfeed on their homepage ? or stock and market gadget ? If you are trying to avoid the penalisation by changing the directory's look and content, keep trying. Tell me if I am wrong please & help me understand this tendency. hyper
. yes but a person can only read one. OT (not personal) I think there is to much talk about what people should or should not do, and not only with this topic, I say go out and get the visitors to your site, then come back and tell me who's your daddy.
Each to their own, I have had good success with newsfeeds... one of my inner feeds was picked up and indexed by the search engines and drive over 200 uniques in a single day.... whatever brings traffic
I haven't added newsfeeds because i preferred not to, and because of not being sure or comfortable about duplicate content. Regarding the category dump, thats probably one thing i would always tell any new directory owner is to not use a dump and build your own for each directory. I guess its really hard for one person to resist not doing a few things that someone else has, especially if they have chatted and the one person says that what they did increased traffic, got more submissions or something else. Dont imitate your saying basically, or at least mix it up a little, if your saying dont imitate then i guess that should stretch to not looking to aviva or some other everytime a reference is made to something. Realise that if you read every last word that Mr Cutts puts out and check everyday what is happening with a particular directory that you will infact imitate them and if they are on the right or wrong path its still not a good idea to look to them. I think thats why there are less mods released now, people have caught onto not all grabbing the same mods, mod developers keeping their developments exclusive to themselves, understandably. There will be hundreds of directories that take the quick route though, regardless of duplicate content or the fact that its already done on a ton of others.
Nice post, I agree with you on much of what was written. Just wanted to touch on the mods and say that this isn't why I haven`t released any lately... malcolm1 has been keeping me too damn busy to do any new mods... but he has given me a few days off so I may get chance to create something new! Rep coming your way.
OT: on another note what about forums and blogs adding directories, I am surprised digitalpoint don't have a paid directory
Its serves 2 purposes... 1. Offer "current news" in relevant category 2. Content that is "updated daily" whether its nessesary on home page is the "owners choice" PS... We also have news feeds but have from different resources so its not all the same news coming from 1 place Ex: yahoo google ect ect thx malcolm
@malcolm1: quit bothering silky so he can make some mods ... lol I think it is a good way to drive traffic. I dont know hyper if you see it or not, there are thousand of websites with same type of content using the same type of keyword. Each have value because they rank somewhere in the engine, and people visit the site. For example, phpLD Complete mod list is on more than 10 blogs i can tell and all of them are getting good traffic. Why didn't they each post separate article rather than copying the one because it is getting traffic. I like the idea of news feed more on a portal type website rather than just a plain site. Sites like iguides.com or ones which is not just a directory ... news feeds will suit it, but sites which are just directories shouldn't really have feeds from yahoo and such. (Just my 2 cents) If they so desperately want to show feeds, show feeds of your blog, and recent articles you wrote on the main page. Atleast thats what i did.
Hi SilkySmooth, thanks, i like your mods, especially the split category links mod, and sotd mod is cool, il look forward to any you release in the future. Malcolm, stop hogging all the mod development time
I don't know how others feel about the whole newsfeed thing, but I did it as an innovating step, and was the *first* one to have rss feeds running in any phpld, and on a categorical basis, so it wasn't a matter of adding 'content', it was a matter of innovative thinking and stepping forward. The problem which resides today in directories are people just copying what the next guy has, or begging for someone to make a mod for free to do the same. Now, since this *IS* a thread which directly relates to dump (i do have a gadget on there *Stock Market & Finance* right side), you can either fall behind, or just continue to bitch and moan about someone elses success. The choice is ultimately yours.
Thats exactly what ive noticed... Not only mods but the same identical Titles (that are keyword induced rather then the domains name) and also the (descriptions which are copy paste from one directory to the next) and easily spotted by any search engine... Now lets take a look at "Aviva" and also "TheFreeSite.com" and take notice how that the titles are the domain name and the descriptions are the actual "review" ive noticed that they dont have many mods but in the end its really not about that but the "integrity of the reviewer" Could this be the reason? You guys tell me.... PS.... NO "silky" is busy and cant come out and play at this time... thx malcolm
But doesn't that rob the submitter of the chance to have the title back from that particular directory with their desired keyword or phrase? I guess it could be said that its only one directory but what if you really want a specific title from that listing, and for it not to be your domain name.
Fair enough question.... then maybe the domain name.com - 1 keyword in title and 1-2 keywords max in the descrips as your explaining what that site is about? Do you think submitters as well as vistors searching would have a problem with that? thx malcolm
Oh yeah thats cool as theres a bit of both there, i couldn't complain at that, the domain and a keyword or 2 after it seems fine.
Well thats you as directory owner vs the client/submitter as well as the 3rd wheel the search engine... I myself much like you wouldn't see any problem with it but will the others? thx malcolm