Who the hell cares whether directory has useful links links in them? huh? It needs to pass me some PR. Even if I have a listing in a PR7 empty directory which looks horrible, but is strong to pass me a PR, its much more preferred then a useful link collection beautiful but useless PR0 directory with no backlinks. Get the concept, who cares what listings you got? Who cares what design it got? your directory needs to be indexed well, has some PR, have good no.of backlinks and must be strong to pass you some PR. Design comes after your directory is strong.
I agree with you as well. A unique template does cost, whether it just be a small fraction of the overall marketing or not, it's still is an expense. And if someone goes through the trouble of fitting a unique design into their budget along side of their marketing campaign, then to me, and imho, says a lot about that directory owner and his/her directory and the higher expectations that one would and should come to expect out of it. I'd still like to get humm's response to the question though, because I'd really like to hear this one, since PR seems to have been placed on such a high pedestal based on his/her post and explaining the ladder of the two from which is chosen will be interesting to read. but yea, it's just my boring .02 here.
I guess the shortest statement i can give is , Businessmen/Webmasters support for Strong directories and Web Designers support for good designs and this debate may never end
maybe the end user who just might be looking for resources. *GASP* omg who'd of thought an actual search in a directory *GASP* Now, moving along, read what you wrote It's a PR0 directory that is NOT useless but instead FULL of USEFUL resources and links, but you're going to call is useless because there is no PR on it? truely pathetic. You don't back up what you post very well. So let us end this discussion on this post.
Now thats a cool reply... I don't need to waste my time here now. Anyone who wants to keep quoting me and waste time can consider this as my reply.
ha! wise words indeed, amitpatel. I am actually on all sides including the scripting/modifications end of things as well Script, Design, Campaign & Own. (i expect to be bald within 5 years now hahaha)
1. For me what I see when I first load a directory is very important. I don't even submit to free directories that have default script template. 2. After that I take a look at pr and sometimes I check backlinks. Let's say design is important to 10% of people(I am sure it is more). I can't understand that someone that invest 5k in promotion don't want to invest 200 in custom design.
A directory link is only useful if it is there for more than a week, month or quarter. A directory owner that has not done anything more than take an out of the box script, add a downloaded set of categories, and slap their name on the top of the page, is more likely to disappear before the link can do me any good than someone who has invested a bit of time and perhaps money to brand their site. If they do so little prep work - why should I assume they are actually going to maintain and promote the site?
I think it's not that you necessarily need to be ultra "simple", but your directory needs to be easy to navigate. There's some directories out there that look very nice, but the submit link is a little font up in the left hand corner and just says "Add", so it sometimes takes 30 seconds to find the submit link. And 30 seconds to just find the submit link is a lot when you're doing 1000 submissions yourself. I think a proper balance needs to be made between style, and the ability to navigate easily and easy see where things are located.
Ok, very interesting discussion... Then what do you think about this VERY SIMPLE directory http://www.webzdirectory.com/ I'll really appreciate any (+ or -) comments Thanks for your opinions...
I would say that a company like IBM or cnet or companys like nortel is not going to waste there time submitting to a directory if the template is a turnkey template why do you ask? it looks bad for them? how does it look bad to them because they have there name there