Is it possible to maintain a directory with unique description for all listings?

This was my initial thought process when I started the directory. I have been sticking to this till this point. But I fear how to proceed with this approach. Almost 90% of submission contains contents that were used in some other directories.

Is any one here maintains a directory with pure unique description? If so, please pour out your tips.

 

It is absolutely possible to do, and it is also highly recommended to do this.

By creating unique content, you are building a very valuable resource. If you have the same thing that everyone else has, then you aren't any better than them.

Always edit. ALWAYS!

 

Thanks for stopping by. But the problem is the amount of submissions. As you know a free directory will get anywhere between 100 to 400 submissions a day. With this mass level of submissions, it is going to be humanly impossible to check uniqueness of the description. Is there any way to do this automatically? If you can point any tools that can help on this, that would be great.

 

( But the problem is the amount of submissions )
It's not the number of submissions you have in your directory to succeed, but the quality of those listings.
That's the human edited directory you need to review each link, description and in the most accurate category.
So no place for the automatically approve. what ever the tools will be used.

 

You cannot make the contents unique as the site itself might have the same description as submitted to your site. It should not matter as much as you concern about it.

 

My experience is with a free directory 90 - 95% of the submissions will be spammy and be rejected, so just take a few minutes to rewrite the descriptions of those left.

 

There is no reason why you cannot edit your submitters entries. Things to look for are typically mispellings, capitalization errors, and of course that the description is relevant to the site / content being listed. And its also your prerogative to reject anything that does not meet your guidelines.

 

can copyscape do anything about this?
tho only downside would be having the submission description be the same as in it's original website, but if possible to implement you could theoretically find duplicates, thus maintaining your directory unique...

 

Yes. Lots of submissions.

As suggested, knock out the easy ones first by rejecting the spam.

Then go through, and as I suggested before in another thread, knock out the iffy ones (they are borderline but best be safe than sorry).

Then you are either left with good websites with bad submission information or good websites with good submission information.

In the case of the former, you need to decide whether you want to overlook their spam because their website is actually good, and then go and rewrite/edit the information so that it reads plausibly.

In the case of the latter a few simple tweaks to the description should have it unique. e.g. I would like to have all descriptions reading as 3rd party (using terminology like "they offer" instead of "we sell"), that probably changes a good chunk of descriptions. Most businesses will be promotional, remove that terminology as well. Most businesses will try and list a tonne of products and will generally repeat words (e.g. We sell clothing and running shoes. Includes running shoes, training shoes, cross-trainer shoes, etc...) Now that site might actually be a legit business selling shoes, but their description sux. Maybe list a few of the products and remove the repetitive words. We know they sell shoes, we don't need to be told 6 times. Once should do it.

This is a simple starting point, but once you get into doing even this little amount the rest will follow.

 

Sit down, get comfortable open your approve links page. This should show the title, description and the URL. What I do is:

1. Drop anything that looks like spam such as |Boots|Ugg Boots|boots for men|
2. Check the site, look for unique content, look for multiple pages, drop it if its slow to load or poor.
3. Fix the spelling of qaulity to quality
4. Add a . to the end of the description
5. Set to no follow for all the work I had to do.
6. Approve the link

The 1/1000 I get where I don't have to make corrections and prove to be a decent site I set to do follow.

You can blow through hundreds of links an hour once your used to it while still checking each website.

 

@silencer - Thanks. Well judged suggestion.

Thanks. I am not a big fan of no follow links. The purpose of directories is to give out do-follow links. The only thing I care is the quality of the external website which I link out and title and description in my directory.

 

This is something that is hard for the owner to maintain, but it is good practice for the people submitting to have multiple titles, descriptions, etc.

I always edit my submissions as much as I can to make them look good, as well as clean up spelling errors or bad grammar, if I am feeling nice.

 

The main question is who has the time? -- Who pays for that time.

You can do this for a paid only directory - (the problem is not enough submissions)

if you have time to do on a Free Directory - there must be some kind of trust fund that is supporting you.
(Free Directories do get tons of spam and more spam) until you give up..

I would say you need to balance and use your time wisely..

 

agree with this... doing reject blog everyday but my free blog directory still have 2000 pending links..

i will give fast response that who paid for review.. it's just 5 bucks lol

p/s : that because everyday i will doing review by selected blog only... it's only 10 blog everyday... sometimes not doing this if i in LaZy Mood..

 

One of the reasons why sites don't get reviewed quickly in DMOZ is that it is time consuming to check each suggestion and ensure that descriptions are unique.It must be an near impossible task for directories that have only one editor to even begin to stay on top of this with all the spam,bot submissions. At least at DMOZ we do have good spam filters that keep down a good deal of the rubbish.

But the clue must be the one highlighted earlier, it is better to have a good directory than a large one, so check all the descriptions and limit the size of the directory to the amount of editing you can do.

 

Totally understand the need for ROI, however the content on a directory belongs to the directory owner/editor. If you are just including whatever someone else has submitted verbatim, then they own your content, and you've given them that for free. It costs you when you don't change the info.

Disagree. Though, clearly in terms of ROI a paid directory is going to be more worthwhile. Plus a free directory with great content can always convert to paid. A free directory with bad content can too, but whose going to pay for a listing?

That's assuming a free directory will always remain free - Looking at the bigger picture...

Free directories can monetise using a good advertising model. Also, the best free directories once established often become the best paid directories (because they have great content, people are more likely to submit a paid listing once they convert).

Always good advice

 

Yes, as Dan said free directories can be monetized. They enjoy great amount of traffic. One should capitalize that and convert it into revenue. I am sure this can be one stream of income for a free directory.

 

They are so general though, you can't really target one thing. The amount of traffic it takes its quite a bit...

 

They don't have to be general... they can be as focused as you want.

Scenario: You could have a directory that targets websites revolving around one specific type of beetle if you wanted. Granted you would probably have to be fairly immersed in that field and have other colleague/associate websites to help you out in terms of traffic. A minutely focused directory like that, if it pulled together all the information well, could be a goldmine in terms of data for interested visitors and could make a decent ROI if the owner was able to market it within that particular industry.

It all comes back to people putting up a directory script, waiting for submissions and then calling what they have a directory... it's not.

Directories take work and most of that work involves the owner:
- including submissions off their own bat (seeding the directory with worthwhile content). I'm betting most directory owners don't do this.
- marketing the directory on places other than directory lists and DP (99.99% of directory owners don't do this).
- creating a resource that is worthwhile, not just a mish mash listing of links. Why are the links included? Are they useful to anyone?

The directories that make money do more than put up a directory script an expect an easy ride. This comment is made in nearly every thread of this type on this forum, but people continue to ignore it, thinking that their PR3 directory once announced in the DP forum should be the best directory on the web. No, it's just a piece of software that allows people to submit websites. It's not a directory... yet.

 

They don't have to be general... they can be as focused as you want.

Scenario: You could have a directory that targets websites revolving around one specific type of beetle if you wanted. Granted you would probably have to be fairly immersed in that field and have other colleague/associate websites to help you out in terms of traffic. A minutely focused directory like that, if it pulled together all the information well, could be a goldmine in terms of data for interested visitors and could make a decent ROI if the owner was able to market it within that particular industry.

It all comes back to people putting up a directory script, waiting for submissions and then calling what they have a directory... it's not.

Directories take work and most of that work involves the owner:
- including submissions off their own bat (seeding the directory with worthwhile content). I'm betting most directory owners don't do this.
- marketing the directory on places other than directory lists and DP (99.99% of directory owners don't do this).
- creating a resource that is worthwhile, not just a mish mash listing of links. Why are the links included? Are they useful to anyone?

The directories that make money do more than put up a directory script an expect an easy ride. This comment is made in nearly every thread of this type on this forum, but people continue to ignore it, thinking that their PR3 directory once announced in the DP forum should be the best directory on the web. No, it's just a piece of software that allows people to submit websites. It's not a directory... yet.