how to malke my directory better?

Hello,

I have a paid web directory http://www.clear-mind.be and I want to make it better.

Can you give me some tips?

Thanks

 

Promote it heavily..Purchase links..Stop accepting mfa sites even if you recieve submission just refund payment.
Saad

 

hard to do this when it is a directory with few submissions.

 

At first every directory only have few submissions but if you really want to make strong directory..You will have to spend
Saad

 

graphically there is a lot of white space on the right and bottom areas. add some static or dynamic content there if you want.

other than that looks good to me.

-Tim

 

Lose the adsense and increase submission fee

 

Promote it heavy here and try to get the domain in .com as well. Best of luck.

 

a ".com" domain is a good idea but don't know if will make any difference on the number of submissions.

 

I don't know the reason, but I like .com only.

 

As people may only know .com if you use other extensions your traffic would send to .com.

Also the amount of registration of the .com is the biggest.

 

thanks for all your opinions. I don't know if a increase in fee will make a difference. I think the design is simple and pleasent so I don't think it is a problem.Traffic is the problem... I need more visitors and this is the hard part. I promoted my directory in a lot of free directories because I don't have a very big budget and the traffic is still low, so I need some ideas in this direction.

 

Add sites to categories that will never receive more than 2 submissions, and it means a lots of categories

 

Since you're using .be domain, perhaps it is better to focusing your directory for Belgium.

 

First make it a good resource for visitors. THEN worry about traffic (and money). So indeed - don't accept MFA's. Only accept sites that are going to be a help to your visitors (if and when they do come). Be the kind of site that once found will end up in people's bookmarks. The only way to do that is to have quality content. Do fill subdirectories that are empty with at least three sites that are useful to people.

 

I'll go on a different tangent here.

If you want to make money on the site, I'd keep the submission fee to a minimum (just enough to get rid of mega-spammers), and find other ways to monetize the traffic.

Let's face it. Nobody uses directories to find info unless they are a total idiot, or they are an SEO services provider doing research for potential clients.

Your big method of monetizing traffic seems to be Adsense - that's quick and easy, right? Who is on your site (predominantly - be honest)... it's webmasters!

1) Get rid of the Adsense - most webmasters are too adsense-blind to click enough to cover the "cost" of your marketing efforts to get them to the directory

2) Find affiliate programs that smart webmasters use for their sites - example would be SEO book, Wordtracker, Keyword Country, some Perry Marshall stuff, whatever. Promote the heck out of good products that apply to your true traffic. Then you won't need a high submission fee. Usually just charging $1 is good enough to get rid of the junk submissions.

 

Get it proofread. I found 3 typos on the first 3 pages I looked at. It doesn't inspire me with the confidence to purchase a listing, however cheap.

 

I'd say think "outside the box", but I hate that saying...

If you don't have quality submissions, add some yourself! There is the extremely rare chance a webmaster would ask you to remove their link but that would be 0.000001%.

Get some content on the page besides just your links, too - get a topical RSS feed added below the links - something so the search engines get a better idea of what each page is about

 

Haha. Can I sue you under Domain Name Extension Discrimination Act 2007 ?

 

thanks for the advices... will make some changes