Hi, I am new on this Thread (directories) and I am reading here and there to see if I should try to build a directory myself. One question thought I haven't seen: When you start a new directory, is it better to leave it empty or fill it with other real sites? Maybe it could be filled with sites that will be removed after the site get enough real subscribers.
I dont know what would be the best thing to do but i would leave it empty to fill naturally, if it was paid it could be opened for free submissions for a short time to help populate.
When i started out i added a couple of high pr/quality sites to each category. A lot of people will recommend this as it helps your directory to look serious.
Well.. I have no idea if it should be free or paid. I think paid, otherwise I don't see the reason to build another directory. I repeat, I'm a total newbie here so maybe I'm just bullsh*tting.
Well i get submissions to my PR0 paid directories, there will always be people who are prepared to submit to Paid directories with no pr and more recently, a number of webmasters are no longer letting pr alone guide their decisions when submitting to directories. Regarding free directories, well theres no problem with the amount of submission you would receive, how quick you could fill a directory would depend on what you allow into the directory.
--You can offer free submissions for limited time like 24 hours etc.. -- OR free 20 to 30 link submissions -- OR you can manually add authority sites like yahoo, google, orkut, dmoz etc..
That's true, especially if it's paid. Basically if you have too many empty categories it's a sign that no-one is visiting and submitting, which doesn't say much for your efforts at promotion or at attempting to provide a good resource for visitors. Pages without much text are also unlikely to attract much traffic from search engines, and may even be penalised for being duplicate content. So you really need to seed your directory with a few good links to start off with. Just how many links you start off with depends on your approach, but it's a good rule of thumb not to leave any category empty.
If you are serious fill it yourself with sites you feel are great representatives of the respective categories.
Starting with 1 or 2 sites per category is best I think. Empty pages aren't good for users and search engines. Or you could add a short category description to each page instead.
yes don't open it for free submission as you will get spam. A paid dirctory owner / editor should work on adding quality resources in their directory by themself also just to keep the quality of the content. just my 2 cents. Every once in a while i add new listings and fill up empty categories at my paid directory also, so it doesn't seem like a chore and it gets done at the end of the day. Just like my good friend Creed says
Hey ma0, listen to Dubz here. This is great advice. Something I should probably focus on more as well. You can do a combination of both as well--open up for free submissions for a limited time and find quality sites to add.
Why not? If the sites indexed the link gets counted. It might not get spidered as often as Aviva but it will get counted and it will carry the same weight with Google. And if the directory only displays one lonely link there is no chance the spider is not going to find it. Buyers like empty directories. Buyers are looking for value. Directory owners on the otherhand try to talk up the value of their sites and filler is just filler, eye candy and a waste of time. Learn to distinguish the difference. If you are not intending to sell PR and try to bullshit your way to the front, do it right. Find yourself a category that you have a personal interest in and go looking for sites you know are good. Add regularly and that will be enough to give your site purpose. Then let people know you are around and are serious. If you like I will add you to the list I hand out to buyers and I will charge you a small percentage as a handling fee if I get any bulk contributers. If they go direct to you goodluck. At the end of the day every directory is selling exactly the same service as you or I and the serious buyers know this. Dont waste your time chasing the end of the rainbow. It does'nt exist.