Make money from listings + new directory concept

Well i was thinking... Directories suck in the way. Think about it. You submit a link and then it just sits there with all other links. Most directories lack content. Not only that as more people add their links your "free submission" slowly moves down the page, then the next page and so on. On top of that, when was the last time you were searching for something on directory? I mean those little directories. My point is that even if directory will give you some PR you hardly ever get any direct traffic.

So i was trying to find my way around it and came up with this little http://www.bumpadir.com/ directory in the different format. Yes, its based on the forum. Why?

1) Add adsense ID to your profile and make money from your submissions (50/50 chance).
2) Content, content and more content. You can write the whole article in your submission if you want. Not just a 150 char. website description. You can also use banners, fonts, colours etc
3) Bumping concept. You are only allowed to make one post per hour. You can use it to simply bump your submission and it will appear on the first spot of the first page again. Now this will also increase traffic (eventually).
4) Your link will not be shown surrounded by others. Search engines will see it on a separate page (thread). On top of that the thread title will appear in url. eg http://www.bumpadir.com/viewtopic.php?good-for-keywords-url
5) Every submission will get spidered
6) Last 10 updated submissions will appear on RSS
7) You can easily return and edit your listing.
8) You can have up to 5 links for deep linking per every submission. (from one domain)

What do you think? Im will still add a few bits.

Feel free to register (no activation email) and submit your websites. If you link back to http://www.bumpadir.com/ you will get a sticky for 2 months. PM me there if you do

 

In my opinion, it's not very good to allow only one post when it includes edits. I submitted a listing, but then wanted to make an edit to it, but I can't for an hour.

 

If you can organize everything then i´ll think it will be a hit. But why are there no subcategories in the categories, its gonna be kind of a mess if you would get lots of threads.

Anyway i like your idea very innovative

 

I think it's brilliant. Great idea.

 

Thanks! Well when it comes to sub categories its already implemented. Im just waiting for a few more submissions so it does not look too empty.

One hour edit however is something i need to fix.

 

Nice idea, good luck with the concept

 

On a casual use it looks and feels like just another forum board to me as a human being. But the important part might be, what do the search engine bots think of it? Will SEs flag it as a blog or forum, discounting the value of links contained within? It might make it to Google's new area for blogs, as it is rumored Google is trying to strip blog content from its regular results. [ http: // searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3548411 ]

Innovation is a process, and it does come a little step at a time. Nothing wrong with building on an idea like forums combined with idea of a directory with the real purpose of a link-farm!

Other Questions:
I wonder how easy it will be to get search engines to crawl your full site if the URLs in your navigation links contain query strings? What is the basis for your assertion that all submissions get spidered?

If a submitter's link is on a separage page a level down, it seems like that makes one less level of PR (or equivelent type page-importance ranking algorithm) that link will get. Isn't PR hard enough to come by?

Do 50% of those with google adsense on their forum/bb/blog make any money from clicks? I dont understand why your style of forum-directory has this 50/50 chance ?

Did you modify phpBB to do this? If so, I cant wait to see your source code published per GPL terms.

Good Luck.

 

When it comes to spidering iv been doing it for years. All my forums get spidered. Have a look at thelocalforum.co.uk. Its the combination of mods i use. On top of that google sitemap works a treat.

Now PR, first of all are you trying to get some traffic for your site or a wider green bar? Even in terms of PR. If have a look at your link in other directories you will probably notice that even if you are on PR2 page you will be sharing it with other 20 or so links.

Take digital point for example. Threads that have been indexed do well on search engines and get a LOT of views.

50/50 chance means that my google ID is in rotation with yours. When someone clicks on adsense you have 50/50 chance to get that click.

No i did not modify my phpbb. Im not a php guru lol. Im not sure if i can post the code here because its not mine.

 

>>Now PR, first of all are you trying to get some traffic for your site or a wider green bar?
Nobody is saying a green bar gives you more traffic.
But I am concerned at those that downplay the weight of a pages importance to a search engine, when its known to be a major factor in how a page ranks for search term results. I thought it was understood better than this, but in sheer repetitive tedium maybe I can explain the rationale. It would go something like this: A higher PR (and some other invisible factors) give you a heighented importance on Google and some equivelent unseen page-ranking system with other search engines to be sure. The higher the importance of the page that links to your site, the higher you rank in search engines. Then ultimately more traffic.
>>If have a look at your link in other directories you will probably notice that even if you are on PR2 page you will be sharing it with other 20 or so links.
I would think the goal is to get your site linked-to from sites higher than PR2. Thats a rather dismal goal. PR4 and higher is what I would think to shoot for.

Is it your intention for the directory to create more links for the search engines to count for the submitters site? Or are the links there for the users of your website to browse to? The users knowing well that your site is intended as a new twist on a link farm?

>>When it comes to spidering iv been doing it for years. All my forums get spidered. Have a look at thelocalforum.co.uk. Its the combination of mods i use. On top of that google sitemap works a treat.
I checked out [ http:// google.com/search?q=site%3Athelocalforum.co.uk ]
And typical of most forums that get indexed, most of your indexed pages show up blank to Google. Check it out. The first page of your indexed results shows some content from your site, then page after page from your indexed pages are strange empty blank-to-google pages. Maybe explain how this helps drive traffic or what I'm missing.

>>No i did not modify my phpbb. Im not a php guru lol. Im not sure if i can post the code here because its not mine.
Just curious, what bb system is your site based on? It sure looks like just a strait out-of-the-box bb system.
And yes, the "50/50" concept you presented is more clear as you explained.

 

Yea, i know how it works. What im trying to say is that the difference in terms of PR you get from this directory will be minimal compared to any other directory. Traffic however should be better. The directory is there because

1) Improve PR via backlinks
2) Improve direct traffic coming from the directory itself (other users coming back to bump their topics)
3) Im encouraging users to write as much about their website as they can. Content is what search engines love. So hopefully after the sandbox and with some PR, threads will have a nice rank.
4)Its one of them constant improvement projects. Eventually it will end up looking more or less like a directory with a better search function. (same concept will remain)

Yea, its just a regular phpbb with a few mods and optimisations.

-edit-

At the end of the day this will not harm your website.

 

Where are you planning to get the unique visitors to this directory site, in order to get the traffic to the submitted sites?
I think I understand your Innovation better now though. Unzip phpBB into a directory on your web server, create a forum topic for each of DMOZ top level categories, and run it like a normal forum with that in mind.
>>At the end of the day this will not harm your website.
And btw, Good luck with your quest to garner half a million bucks from "donations"!??!!

 

well yes and no.

Is that sarcasm? Thanks!

 

>>The directory is there because...
>>1) Improve PR via backlinks
>>3) Im encouraging users to write as much about their website as they can. Content is what search engines love. So hopefully after the sandbox and with some PR, threads will have a nice rank.

If this site indexes like the example you provided, how will the search engines find anyones links or content? Or am I missing something on how your "thelocalforum.co.uk" site is indexed by Google?

 

Oh, well the cache is being updated after a deepcrawl. It was alright the other night.

 

This is now fixed. You can edit listings as many times as you want.

 

All sounds good. Best of luck!

 

Thanks!


Any more submissions?

 

I think it's a very good idea - essentially, you're talking about a classifieds listing forum, and I've seen that done elsewhere - but the general concepts you're using are good and I like the thought you've put into it.

I think you can monetise the project quite well if you wanted to - but as with all things business, you would need to invest in it, and I would also recommend moving away from the SEO benefits to the clickthrough benefits as a business model with more potential promise.

As a business project I would also be put off by your use of phpbb - I simply cannot perceive value in use of phpbb for a serious project due to its history of security problems, and would definitely recommend an alternative, such as buying a vBulletin licence with vBseo, or even a different publishing platform such as Wordpress.

Just a personal 2c.

 

Yea, well the plan is to encourage people to put more content into their listings. I will be working on SEO and eventually it will be getting traffic the way other forums do. Yea, you are right. At the moment i can not risk buying a VB licence for my secondary project but if everything goes well i may well invest some money into it.

Thanks!

 

Its PR3 now just by using co-op. woot!