Mikey opened a thread back in June asking for peoples expectations of their directories this year, I'm not linking to it as there's too much garbage. My replies were to add 1500 links and increase traffic. I've only managed 800 links as I've decided to go back through them all to rewrite descriptions and check the status of the blogs. Since June I'm pleased that my Alexa is now 126070, I've added a custom skin and a few mods including a couple of custom ones. I'm also pleased my blog directory can be found at the top of this page. Disappointed by the lack of submissions but pleased most I do get are good quality. So how's it going for you?
The year has been great. Submissions have been consistent for the most part. Work order has me backed up to the wall. (which is always a good thing) New MODs were made, but only noted and/or released to a select few directory owners. My script has been put on hold, so duval can breathe a few more months. I have some big projects already lined up which has caused the above mentioned. Everything has been pretty good and consistent for me, not just this year, but for the last couple of them.
I'll re-quote that thread on January 1st (if im not too hungover ). It's been mixed for me. I made the directory (fruitydirectory.com), filled it, got it designed and coded it myself. It was going great and then it got penalised in Google. I cleaned it up and changed some stuff around and got re-instated luckily. It took a while for things to pick up though, which I didn't expect. It's almost like after a penalty Google sees you as a new site - so they have no trust. Therefore SERPs are lower and traffic is also low. After a little link building though its been picking up. In fact traffic in the last 30 days has grown by 120% according to analytics which is great. When I can start getting a decent amount of search traffic I'll begin adding more links and articles. In the mean time I need to add more sub-categories. Some other good news is PR related. As much as it doesn't matter to me, I noticed today that all of my main categories have PR4, and several categories deeper have PR3 and PR2. Whilst it's not important, it shows trust I guess, which is nice As for my other niche directory there isn't a lot of news there. It's a cracking niche with a good domain and a stunning design, one of the best IMO. It has some categories but I don't have the budget or time to work on it yet.
Here is a link to that thread. I have hit and surpassed my goals for listings and unique article content. The minor changes I mentioned in that thread have happened and then some. Mod work was done in addition to that and more is currently ongoing with a few things that should go live over the next week or two. Not to mention changing to an improved host.
Well for me it's ok, got to make some extra money out of it. I hope next year will be better because I am now working hard to increase the pr of my directories.
? well close all design work completed but some still to impliment and at least some of stage 1 working but still more to do. currently re visiting category structure and making a few changes. Also put into play a whole new site to be developed and implimented next year based on what i have learnt so far, this will run in development then will swap them over when ready and dump the current site.