I have done a bit of research based on IP and copyscape and found these sites that are part of the same network. It is much bigger than I could have imagined. cuedirectory.com 67.222.12.198 dirdawn.com 204.197.246.139 cheetahfetch.com 67.222.18.62 directree.org 207.7.94.242 direver.com 209.217.228.21 swiftdirectory.com 67.222.20.5 webleach.com 204.197.247.139 directoryscape.com 67.222.19.62 dirdon.com 208.43.103.2 dirfreak.com 207.7.85.40 web-dir.com 204.197.244.169 gatedir.com 204.197.244.169 dirsuper.com 204.197.244.169 medranks.com 67.222.20.174 netdir.com 207.7.93.254 besthype.com 204.197.244.169 rockydir.com 207.7.83.168 dirsolution.com 204.197.240.251 weblinkslibrary.com 207.7.81.192 webspiderlinks.com 204.197.247.238 dirclue.com 204.197.241.210 dirvilla.com 207.7.84.40 dirrush.com 204.197.255.201 bubblu.com 207.7.91.246 linkskit.com 204.197.244.213 directoryaqua.com 204.197.241.212 adduksites.com 207.7.84.40 hmmlinks.com 204.197.245.213 linkingdir.com 204.197.245.169 antdir.com 204.197.244.169 bwdirectory.org 204.197.240.211 dirbrand.com 204.197.252.188 directoryzone.org 204.197.252.187 webslum.com 204.197.248.83 decentdir.com 204.197.253.187 esubmitlinks.com 67.222.18.247 rabidseek.com 67.222.18.62 clora.net 207.7.93.223 was 67.222.13.242
Directory Farm.. Nice work finding that. A lot of the same sites are listed in each... Interesting setup. Each directory has a different price. I wonder if these are directories that were established and purchased over the years or just created by the current owner. Many of them date back quite a ways 2006 in some cases. They've been around a while.
linksbank.org dironline.org At. universityworldnews.com powerlinksdirectory.com risingdir.com At. apaie.org duddoo.com dirville.com dirbuzz.com ubublu.com slushdir.com At. ptemplates.com argusvision.net slushdir.com At. cssforum.com.pk A bunch of links on right hand corner of getcarspecs.com starting with dircut.com
Dirbull being dodgy should come as no surprise, it has long been flagged as a bad directory masquerading as powerful under the disguise of falsely attained PR (it is using links embedded in sites that are totally unrelated, but high PR, and hides them). Further reading: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1762582 (Sxperm you commented in this thread...) http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1769412 http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1771490 http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2078862 http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2215594
I am starting to feel like Neo in the Matrix. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Yes I commented and forgot about it. I found this directory again through my own parameter searches in Google.com and I thought it was ok. My bad
Sooner or later you're going to realize just as I did that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world? Welcome to the real world of Web Directories, Neo. a quote ftom: The Matrix (1999)
Morpheus: I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it. Tank: So what do you need? Besides a miracle. Neo: Guns. Lots of guns. We can clean up directories, one bunch at a time.
As much as I have been frustrated over the years with low quality directories, I also recognize why such directories exist. I think you have to separate directories based on their overall business plan. I know of some directories that are not really even involved in anything having much to do with SEO, but make $1000 or more per month. They provide a good service in their niche and do things like help connect people and services. Often these directories are not even listed in directory lists, as they are off the beaten path. On the other hand, Google has done a poor job of policing pagerank. There are sites that get reported repeatedly, and yet nothing is done. It's hard for me to blame people for pursuing a profit model like this when google allows such sites to thrive for months or years with no problems. I don't think you can expect there to be much "clean up" work so long as google is not prioritizing the solution. Meanwhile, google has been slowly adding more ads above the fold on their search results pages, and pushing organic results down more and more. My next door neighbor works for adsense, and I mentioned this to him, and his response was, "But the quality of the ads are so much better now!". He was oblivious to the idea that so many people depend on organic results. Fortunately, directories still do help people to achieve better rankings on organic results, especially the small business owner, or the person who just started a website and wants to get some google traffic. But as I first mentioned, there are lots of directories now that are off the SEO map as people are going about creating their own profit models that don't even depend on google anymore, and I do hope we will see this area continue to grow.
Bah, Matrix is so 1990s. What about Inception? Cobb: You create the world of the dream. We bring the subject into that dream and fill it with their subconscious. Ariadne: How could I ever acquire enough detail to make them think that it's reality? Cobb: Well, dreams, they feel real while we're in them right? Its only when we wake up then we realize that something was actually strange. Inception (2010)
Ok lets start: Trinity: "No one has ever done anything like this." Neo: "That's why it's going to work." Agent Smith: "Why isn't this directory working?" Agent Brown: "Perhaps we're asking the wrong questions."
directoryalpha directorybeta directorygamma dirjournal dirbull I am sure they are from same group too
I think it would be useful if you could give us reasons for your suspicions. It is difficult to identify links between sites and we don't want to start a witch hunt.
Assuming the business plan that we are talking about in terms of "low quality" directories is on the same page... There are also varying degrees of quality in the low-to-mediocre range. I try to take a positive viewpoint that a mediocre directory can always be saved. The owner has a large amount of content, much of which needs proper editing/rejecting. But, if they do that, they will create a good directory, because they have the content there already they just need to work through it and weed out the garbage. A truly low quality directory (and the vast majority of directories end up in this basket) simply have no idea how to edit/reject/moderate/review/write listings. The database is just a complete mish mash of spam, illegible characters, long-winded sales pitches, non-existent descriptions, and other assorted junk. There might be one or 2 gems to be found but they are buried under so much garbage no one is ever going to bother to try and find them. These are today's FFA sites. They masquerade as a directory because they use a directory script. Heck that's just software, it doesn't make them any different from a website NOT using a directory script that does exactly the same thing. There are some brilliant directories that do this. Though putting them in the same category as the directories we are talking about isn't wise. I believe that these service based industries are a lot different in scope. The ones I have seen generally do not list websites at all, and in many cases (such as the job ones I have seen) their listings are temporary. They fit more of a classified description. They make money because they put businesses in touch with consumers. Excellent in that regard and highly recommended, but outside the scope of a directory that lists websites (though I am betting there are some exceptions that DO list websites, it just isn't the norm). ... and I think using the term "poor" is being generous. They've done a woeful job. They've hit some industries hard and totally ignored others. They've also let some really bad players continue unhindered despite, as you've pointed out, repeated reports showing them that these people are using underhanded techniques to build pagerank websites so that they can sell that PR. There's a colour ad right now at the top of this forum offering to sell PR links --- why? They are a business. Can't blame them for doing that. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few years you have to pay a yearly subscription to show up in the organic results. Heck they could even turn Google into a bidding directory, where you bid for your keyword placement. Couldn't be any worse than the relevancy they have now. Some of the sites that show up in the top 10 are just terrible. I think these will always exist, and they are generally a much bigger model/scope. They just aren't talked about much because as I stated before, they aren't really interested in listing websites. They are more interested in connecting service-based industries with customers.