This might get a few people mad, but nothing I can do. I visited and submitted alot web directories, some were around a few weeks, then disappeared, but hey new one appeared. Some directories were around a few month, since you could check their web history. The thing with these were you could submit anything and anywhere, and the the admins just needed sites to submit. Then when the sites disappeared, the admin never took his/her time to check how many of their sites are active still and how many shut down. Is the links under the right category and subcategory or not. I have seen for example: Directory, SEO and Food products under their gaming category, which they were not related at all. To me this is a junk directory, and would be a pointless directory to submit to. So, yesterday May/2/2007 I decided to make my own directory, promising myself that each link will be properly reviews, the category will be reviewed and so will the sub-category. I will visit each website that submitted their link, to look for pop-ups, design, and see how related it is to the category they submitted before just activating it. My question will be what do other admins think of this? How effective this will be? Any Suggestions that I am missing? Thank you all for your kind input.
This is really normal, all quality directories and directory owners, that promote do this, they take 1 by 1 and review, I have an editor for 2 of my directories, who can log into my pp his permissions are only to see if I got the money, then based on that he will approve, or remove. Don't start 30 directories, start with 1 and do a good job. You are already doing a great job by reviewing every listing, thats something most don't do.
Directories are making money so obviously it will get inundated with people interested in making a buck. Lots come and go like any industry I've ever been associated with. Someone wise told me that if everything you do for your directory / blog / site in the best interest of your visitor you can't go wrong. By building a site for your visitors your really building a site for google as it's main job is to give relevant results for searchers. Sounds like your on the right track. Good luck.
I got myself coded a unique admin panel approve links page, where i can check for if site is google banned or new or visit it or just it to see if its working or check if its already in my directory to help facilitate healthy listing's but i guess you need to do that to enable ur directories health.
I agree that integrity will pay off eventually (I hope). This week I received 2 good sites @ £14.95 each to LinkLister but refunded both because they weren't relevant to the UK, I've also removed my gambling categories in 2 directories and trawled through the submissions to refund any paid submissions. I always have a browse through a submitted site before accepting it, common problems are unfinished sites, too many ads, no unique content - they get rejected.
I carefully review submissions and im concentrating on long term, im in no race to get a huge number of sites listed and would rather do the work now in keeping my directories tidy from the beginning, as opposed to filling them with junk, only to have to sort a huge big mess out further down the line. That means im rejecting a hefty number of submissions but feel it is the correct thing to do if im to do things properly.
I think this is your best bet as you are about to get TONS of submissions (if free). Your only choice is to efficiently go through each and every listing with a quickness. Your time must be your highest priority if you are to do it right. Personally, I've hand coded my cpanel so my approval process is streamlined. I view potential links inside an iframe on my admin page and have full access to modify 10 links at a time all on that same page. At first I took 2-5 minutes on each site. Now I only take 1-2 for an approved site and most sites can be spotted as spam in only seconds. It's really quite pimped out with the ability to ban & delete all ip addresses, add spam filters, check for stats, edit, switch category, approve, delete, email, & much more all at the click of the mouse, it happens in an iframe so no reloading. Also, It's separate from the directory script's admin section so it is portable and compatible with any script on the market, all it needs is db access and the table/field names. The point of this rant is that if your directory is free (like mine) you must do everything in your power to cut down on your time invested while still building a quality link profile. Trust me, if you are serious you will end up deleting 80% of the crap that gets submitted. Spend your time more wisely by developing it, adding unique content or advertising it. Your links will eventually thank you.
I just don't think free directories are realistic for the long-term. No one likes to work for free and free directories are a lot of work and it takes a long time to start earning money through featured listings because you need a high page rank and when a customer looks at two radio buttons, one free and the other paid there is an incredibley strong urge to alway click the free one.
i concur with the above, infact I wonder how long people are willing to do this for nothing, plus all the associated hosting & domain costs, Anyway, I think you're right to visit every site and review them
Here is where I differ from most. My directory is not my main source of income so I look to it to be a resource, not a paycheck. By allowing anyone to be listed at no cost, you open the doors for setting the highest of standards. Personally I believe that the outgoing links on your page are as important as the incoming links to your page. For a directory this is of the highest of importance as a few bad links can literally castrate your page's ability to leak it's link juice on other sites. Starting out, your standards should be somewhere in the middle but as your categories start to fill you should raise your standards considerably and then re-evaluate the quality of your links. Link partners will desire to be included on your site and, at this point, you can charge what you want to. How much would a small computer manufacturer pay to have his link at the top of a trusted page that includes dell, emachines, alienware & mac? This is my idea of what a free directory should aspire for. Though, I'm sure I'm pretty alone in this school of thought
"How much would a small computer manufacturer pay to have his link at the top of a trusted page that includes dell, emachines, alienware & mac?" - If it were only that easy. Anyone can put those 'high-end' outgoing links on their directory pages at no cost but I am not sure how that would encourage other people to list. I would be more likely to list if I saw my competitor Joe's Computers paid $5 to list somewhere, I might even pay the $20 to be a featured listing on that page to be above him.
I wouldn't say you're alone. I've no problems with adding Dell, eMachines, Fujitsu, HP, Toshiba and other manufacturers; I see similar listings in other directories as well. But I also think it's great when I happen upon a site such as this one to add to my directory.
You are right about this part, I got submission for over 2000 pages from yesterday till today and I approved around 60 to 100 links only the rest all garbage. Plus, you clearly mention no adult or sexual contents accepted and people still submit adult contents in hopes you approve it or they never read your terms for the site.
I think you'll find that most do not care to read the terms or guidelines; it's easier to just submit. If it's not accepted, they're not out anything but the very minimal time it takes to submit, so no big loss especially if they're automated/semi-automated submissions.
Can't agree with you more Sasa. There are different types of directory owners. Some serious --some just want to get a taste of it and when they don't get it-realizing how hard it is-they leave it. But Paid directories are different. All submissions are manually reviewed and only quality sites are accepted. I am not embarrased to admit that --I submitted my directories to another directory that didn't accept low quality sites. So the owner just politely refunded my Fee and rejected my submissions. So there are different directory owners and except some really high quality free directories like WorldSiteIndex/Abifind --most free directories are as OP said.
I took your advise and did the same thing right now and decided to update my database every 24 hours to check in case sites shut down and so on. Also I just made a seperate section called webmaster resources, so webmasters can discuss anything related to their site and receive feedbacks and also opinions. There also offering free SEO advise and so on for on-page to help them out for better ranking. Trying to figure out a few other good ideas to help the webmasters.