Directory Creation

Hi all, Hope i am in the right area for this question.

I want to experiment in making a Links Diretcory or similar for my site.

Having not done this before, is there an easy free way.

Any ideas or suggestions would be great.

Is there any decent free software to start with

Does it depend on the server i am using or the Site Building proggie


I am using FP2003

Cheers

Salamander

 

Do it yourself, if you want maximum control on the end result. Of course, this would depend on your level of expertise. Even with basic knowledge of HTML, you can easily create a "manually edited" directory. Add categories/listings manually. I prefer this as you can check the sites being added before they are added to your directory.

Or, you could go for one of the free directory creation software. I haven't used any, but I am sure one of the other members will be able to suggest some options. But, do remember that you won't have much control if people can simply visit your site and get an immediate link and will open doors to a lot of spam.

The final option, if you are into programming (or know somebody who is) is to create an automatic directory with a lot of checks, i.e: automatically check the recip link, regularly check recips and remove listings that are not linking to you anymore, ability to ban sites, ability to ban IP addressses, ability to ban keywords, ability to ban email addresses, email address verification, account creation for editing existing listings and more! I am following this exact model for my new site: http://www.linknow.co.nz (still under construction). I'll let you know once I have finished (2-3 weeks from now).

Add: Make sure that the directory pages are crawlable and pass PR, so that your directory benefits the sites that you link to. Otherwise, you are unlikely to get a lot of reciprocals.

 

Hmmm, the idea of creating my own is actually the best probably inasmuch as control is mine....I agree with that.

The only problem is my lazy bone has spread....Tee Hee

Very grateful for your reply and will look into your ideas

Thanks

Salamander

 

See http://www.hotscripts.com/

 

Good idea!
You don't have to program all of it yourself. A lot of scripts (just about all) are available online. All you need to do is compile them into one functional unit!

 

Learn PHP.

 

How much space is required to host a directory, taking into account future listings?

 

You are probably looking at 10 columns per listing (max): url, description, title, email, password, special instructions etc. And, at a byte a character ...... 2-3kb a listing (max) I would presume.

So, even if you got really really big and got 100,000 listings you wouldn't need more than 200-300MB. Of course, if your directory is based on recips this would mean over 100,000 BLs and I doubt if you did get that big, you could always organise your own dedicated server (you would probably have to with the traffic you would get).

Long story short, not much extra space per listing!

 

cheers dfsweb

 

Thanks for all the replies folks.

Good to see the thread raised a couple of other points too.


Must say that, in the nicest possible way, dont really appreciate the

`Learn PHP` kind of answer.

Just seems a bit crass to me. A nicer elaboration would have worked better.

Salamander

 

How about a good free script fpr creating a directory? Do you know of any?