I have an idea for a niche directory, but have no clue what I to do in order to actually set up and run the directory. I know I the domain name that I will purchase and I will probably use phplinkdirectory script. But after that I have no clue what I am supposed to do. I don't know where to host it, how to set it up or how to run it. Can anyone give me some guidelines or recommendations on what to do? Thanks everyone in advance.
lol , this section is not for setting up directories , but for submitting in directories in order to get more more traffic + rise in PR .. i think you got it wrong.
have a business plan get the domain get the hosting get the directory script, I recommend www.wsnlinks.com submit to every forum you can find in their "Solicitations" section find sites and add them yourself, don't wait for submissions read these Directory Management articles: Directory Administration and Directory Listings: you can ask but you may not get
Just some more ideas ... - Get a name with preferably A in the beginning to be on top of directory lists. - Offer free for inclusion and make sure you get on the major lists, that alone will generate up to 100 uniques a day. - Get PR to your dir, pay for links if you have to.
What are the major lists to get in? Any suggestions on where to possibly buy links? Any suggestions on where to purchase my domain name and for hosting? I already have thoughts for the name of the directory. Since it is niche subject, I already have a source for sites to start my directory with while i am getting submissions. I am going to offer different levels of submissions with better benefits for the higher level, aka higher priced, submissions.
There are to many free directories available to spend money on a new directory. Just food for thought.
I was simply referring to in the beginning. Later you may be correct but when the directory is first launched IMO it may be hard to get people to pay IMHO.
You are probably right. But i think since it will be a niche directory and the higher submission levels will provide extra value that I think it will be worth the price.
Very nice todo list when starting up a directory, I'm not to sure about point no. 6 "find sites and add them yourself, don't wait for submissions". You mean this to set the quality standard for the category or not to end up with empty categories? I'd suggest starting off with top-level categories, those will be filled up quickly by submissions, then set up categories to deepen the directory when someone submittes a website to a specific topic cateogory. Imo it's a lot of work to submit websites your new directory when having lots of categories. I believe creating a sort of small description to every category page is a good thing to do, so you don't end up with empty pages. I did it at my directory and is't working quite nicely. See also for instance here: http://www.dirspace.com/dir/20.php
Yeah, you're so right. However my business plan is based on ad revenue (currently just adsense but will be moving on later) so having a large number of listings and therefore pages is essential. I've written a thing I call a "link manager" and it scrapes other people's links pages and identifies the sites I don't already have. Those that are new are put into a form so that with a simple edit and click they're already added. I can then, manually, email the site owner and advise them of the link. If you want to get a copy of my link manager there is an oldish version here: http://www.weberdev.com/get_example-4119.html and my discussion on it here: http://sarahk.pcpropertymanager.com/blog/link-manager-for-link-exchangers/31/
I feel somewhat ambivalent about this concept. While I have considered similar approaches to building a directory, I was worried about the reaction of the people I would be scraping. Also, what happens if you end up digging into a site which is hosting a hybrid copy of dmoz? Isn't there the potential to kill the target site and end up having complaints pour into your hosting company. Secondly, couldn't such a scraper end up being viewed as yet another spam harvester with webmasters seeking to block the user agent?
I use a user agent stating the site I'm working on so if they wanted to block me they could. My "link manager" only scrapes one page using a url I've given it so I know exactly what I'll be getting. I manual edit each and every site I add because a) most of the titles are spammy; b) I don't scrape descriptions; and c) most need a category move. So while a webmaster may not approve of my method of finding new sites they can't accuse me of duplicating their content. The pages I tend to visit are "link exchange" pages so the sites I find are sites that have a declared interest in new listings. They're not dmoz clones - and you can see that because they don't have the attribution I have used dmoz to find authority sites and to get guidance on how to subcategorise US States (in particular) but I don't scrape it or use it in such a way as to require attribution. My main point though, was that good directories don't rely on submissions - they go out and find quality sites. How many directories do you know that list the major players in any given field? You can randomly pick any category in any of the directories from Solicitations and Announcements and 90% won't have authority sites. They probably don't even have DigitalPoint even though they use it for self promotion.