State of the Directory 'o' sphere

I thought I'd start a new thread for this as I believe this would benefit both the submitter and the directory owner.

I have been running a directory for over a year now and have faced many challenges but have benefited from the experience this has given me. With the growth of directories (which I think is a good thing) there has been an increase is webmasters trying to cash in on the whole directory phenomena.

Know I have nothing against making money from directories, my concern is that as more directories are created with the sole intent of making money this degrades the whole directory market.

If a submitter has a bad experience with a rogue directory this tends to reflect on all directories. Eventually G may decide directory = spam and then we will all suffer.

So what is the answer, do we need some sort of association or grading. Before anyone asks , no I don't want to create a 'club exclusive' to create barriers to entry. We need something that is democratic and reflects the work webmasters put into their directories.

At the moment there are indicators that point to a good directory such as:

Page Rank
Page Strength
Certain lists of directories to get included in
Age of the directory
Uniqueness of directory

Of course these a just indicators but it is a start.

I have waffled on for long enough, what do you think?

 

Don't worry, google will never decide a well taken care of direcotry is SPAM. All the ones that are SPAM, will be dealt with accordingly. Google is smart, smart smart.

PS.- I blogged about the issue before seeing this post haha. A sign that this is truly getting out of hand

 

I realise the ways of G and have 'experimented' in the past and 'experienced' the all knowing algo.

They may not tackle directories head on but certainly may take a dislike to certain characteristics present in directories given their nature.

Hmmm, not sure why I am being so cryptic.

 

I'm making a ton of money on directories and I don't view most directories I see here as being competition, at all.

I also feel that efforts like "PageStrength" etc, and mostly BS. Link buyers know what they're looking for, and they know where to find it.

 

I've said it before, if a directory is crap - don't submit to it.

The webmaster and directory categories are often the first to be filled up. If those who supoosedly know better would simply 'vote with their feet', alot of these QBCs would fold up their tents and go home.

 

Oh well in the end its the buyers choice where to spend their money, if they spend it in a bad site.. its their problem