Hello DP Members, I bought a domain couple of years ago and I was planning to make it an Article Directory. Unfortunately Did not get much time to work on it and it remain a wordpress blog for almost couple of years. Finally I Made it an Wordpress Article Directory. Site dont have PR yet but in next PR Update it will be at least PR2 or PR3, done enough SEO work and domain is also copule of year old now. Link of my Article Direcotory Site :- http://originalarticles.net/ Site have 2 editors who approve articles in no more than 12 hours time, and we accept Quality Content. Kindly advice me about its look and How can I improve it. Thanks Anki
i dont like how plain it is its jus white n blue theres no real seperation from what is what if you get me it all looks like google ads
I believe it needs to be redesigned. Images are missing all over the place. Why not a category image next to every category name?
looks nice, the simplicity of the design make it easy to read the info and to browse it, feed it with great articles, you will do a great job with it
Hello all thanks for your feedbacks. Yes design is simple and common as many other wp directories, I will be hiring an designer to give it a new look soon. However getting good response about 200 New Authors joined our Directory in last 48 hours. We will be adding more editors to approve articles and review them as fast as they can. Will be working on its design as well. Thanks
Way too many article directories out there already. The design is bland, I would suggest a more eye-catching redesign.
I like the simple design, I think it is easy to find what you are looking for and it will probably be useful for webmasters looking to get some backlinks.
Thanks for all your suggestions, I am planning to hire someone to improve the design of the site and make it more unique and eye catching. However got very good response from users. We have around 1500+ Users in less than 15 days time. We will concentrate more on this site and make it much better place for all people interested in Article Marketing. Thanks Anki
Personally I wouldn't touch the design. Sure maybe add a few eye catching images but that's it. I like that it's fast loading, due to the simplicity of the design, and it's easy to read. I think people coming to read articles on the site will agree with that as well.
Personally, I like the simplicity of the design. My main comment about the visuals is that the ads are too prominent and squeeze the ad text too much on the main page for each article. I'd remove the large square ad from each article, or move it lower down on the page somewhere. It's broader than the article text is to the right of it, which makes the site look a tad spammy. More ads may get you a higher eCPM for each page, but they're going to increase your bounce and exit rates, and make other people less likely to use your site and to link to you. --- Now for the real advice: Article directories are a dime a dozen. If you want my advice on how to make a successful article directory, I'd recommend you read my reviews of article directories. I review EzineArticles (IMHO the best one), Buzzle (what I see as the runner up) and GoArticles (which I think is "just under" acceptable). My reviews communicate what I think works and what doesn't. If you can make a site as good as EzineArticles or Buzzle, you're going to be hugely successful. But I'd particularly emphasize looking at GoArticles. Why? I see that site as basically an ineffective article directory. Any directory that is "worse" or less successful than GoArticles is going to be pretty worthless to serious webmasters. It should be the "low end" of your standards: you want to shoot for a site that will be more effective than GoArticles for article marketing. You need to somehow surpass them in features, editorial integrity, and attractiveness to webmasters. Can you do it? I don't know. But if you don't think you have a shot at doing better than GoArticles, I'd advise you to get out of the market now. like I said, there are tons of article directories and a mediocre one is just going to languish among the masses of failed article directories that appeal only to spammers. Good luck, and if you decide you want to go all out and go for it, don't hestitate to contact me if you're interested in more advice.
It's an article directory; design isn't the most important factor, as long as the article is readable and the site is reasonably clean and professional looking. I think the factor that holds back most article directories is that they have weak editorial oversight and are overrun with spammers. They often start off on the wrong foot, because early on, when they're getting established, the owners want to increase the size of the directory by accepting lots of articles...so they accept low-quality articles and have low standards. And once you start down that road, there's no going back because no legitimate author would ever want to publish in a directory overrun by spammy, low-quality articles or dominated by duplicate content. I know it's not what every article directory owner/admin/designer wants to hear, but it's the truth, and it's why there are only really a handful of successful article directories and dozens of failed or obscure ones.
@Cazort, Even I agree with your words, I have noticed that many people are spamming and thats why we dont approve all articles, we are just approving 200-300 articles a day which we read, we still have over 6000 pending articles. We are also focusing in increasing size of Editor's team as it seems too many articles are coming like 500-600 a day and 2-3 people are not able to manage it.
Hello Folks, Just modified theme a bit, have a second look at it.. there will be more updates in some days. Thanks
Wow, that is a lot of ads! I have to agree with cazort on every point. Most article directories have a short life. What you are really going to be getting is low quality content, rehashed information, and visitors who come to scrape info and will never click on ads. Those scrapers are going to take all the links out of the article even though it is against the Terms of Service. It would take a lot of people power to keep the content quality high enough to attract the people who would stay on the site long enough to read an article and click an ad. I have a low opinion of all the article directory sites, including EZA, on the basis of article quality. Now the backlink quality from the resource box is another story, and that is the only reason I autosubmit to that site, or any article directory..