I am trying to add some quality content to my directory, not only links, and i am interesting to see some good examples, people that have done this long ago. People that have done a good job with this. If you want, point me some of your work so i can see where to start and where to end.
I used to own zorg directory. Check it out. Theres templates, games and videos outside of the directory, and also 2 blogs. Inside the directory itself you'll see most of the top level categories and almost all the categories on the right hand side and their sub categories have unique articles. www.zorg-directory.com
You can add a blog to it and bring on the main the latest x blogposts ( see this & this phpLD MOD ) and also good articles in categories/subcategories. + other tweak & stuff that users may find useful Check the Zorg Directory as an example..
See Authority Directory - over 130 unique articles nearly all with 500 words or more. Blog has additional article content. I generally add a new article or blog post 4 to 5 times per week. Also a gallery of art with more content. Not to mention over 2700 links that also have unique descriptions. And you mentioned an end point - I don't think there is an end point to adding content......
i've been concentrating good quality content for my article website. admittedly, some submissions are low quality. also, if you want quality links, how about accepting only quality sites - sites that look great visually and/or pages that validate. my urban clothing website fits that criteria (i think!) also, if i ran a quality directory i would not allow submissions with linked keywords; i would only allow actually company/website names.
One of the most successful directories I have found in the entertainment space is OVGuide. com. It has very good PR and traffic. I'm looking to do something similar, but hopefully better, at Links.com. I'm going to start off (probably) with IndexU, since they have the ability to create a pretty decent home page with good content with new, featured, and editor picks lissings. It also allows me integrate with Wordpress. Similar to OVGuide, it will allow me to highlight most popular, highly rated, collect reviews, etc. It will be human edited, and I am only going to allow high quality content. I'm going to experiment a bit with this and see if I can build traffic, in the way OVGuide did. It's all in the planning stages right now, but hopefully something will be up in a few weeks. It's going to be interesting to see what happens. If it flops, it will not be the first time I've done something that flops. On the other hand, I hope I can grow the site into something significant. Rich
My son also did not like the site design. I prefer slightly sleeker design but keeping the major information blocks. The problem with most directories is there is no audience for the information they are providing. OVGuide has found a niche and is doing absolutely fantastic within that niche. They are obviously using a customized design and software. Rich
One of the best things you can possibly do is a little research on what isn't out there and try to be unique, rather than doing something closely related to what all others are and/or have been doing. I understand your want to see what others have done, but try and make your best effort in creating something unique. Although I know it's not an easy task at hand, it will pay off in the long run.
DMOZ is a right sample but then they update is too slow. I have been try to use that but the outcome is not that nice. But I do admit directory submission is a good way.
I think JReviews is an example of a directory script that permits the display of good content. Unfortunately, there are so many moving parts on this script that I would have to devote my life to learning all of the technologies. However, Joomla experts seem to like it a lot. Rich
thanks for all the information, i allready started to take a look arround those websites, i really want to say that i am impresed with ovguide, its a very nice one, but i cannot ingore an0n's replay, i think he haves a point there. I just want to know where to start. With great respect for your posts, Cristian.