Do you ever test to see if a directory is in a bad neighbourhood? If you do, just curious how you test it...
Well, Moving forward 11 years @digitalpoint @sarahk ( Dont infract me please for the 11 year bump ) I was just CURIOUS to see what the DIRECTORY guys think now 11 years later Back in the day, ing 2006 when I first joined , Directory links were selling for like $4.00 and guys where making $$$$$ Now 11 years later we have "featured listings" and "memberships" everywhere So - my question is to anyone.... Are link directories still alive and making money? Or are they seen as spam and gone? Anyone have a link directory still going besides thomasnet?
I think they're dead in the water unless you have a really specific niche and it's really, really well curated. I was at an airBnB talk and the lady presenting was talking about the recommendations for various local services that she is asked for. Perfect example of a niche directory and depending on how many properties she manages (in her case >20) there may be value in paid listings. Or a project we had in mind for a very specific tourist destination to promote the local services and follow the fremium model for what was essentially a paid directory.
Thanks for the feedback Yes ! The "Freemium" model - is brilliant indeed AIRBNB is also like why didn't I think of that.
TripAdvisor is really just a directory with lots of value added But most directory owners aren't prepared to put that much effort (programming, marketing, moderating etc) into their sites
That is actually a REALLY good point - TripAdvisor - Travago etc ........ Directorys that are visually pretty and responsive its WEB 3.0 ALL the beauty of 1990 web with cross device compliancy
When was the last time you went to a directory to find a website? Not sure anyone does anymore. Outside of some super vertical niches, I'd say directories are worthless/dead these days.
Are you talking about your personal experiences https://directory.digitalpoint.com/ because I can promise you that you have no idea how many people are coming to our directory to avoid being slapped in face by first 1000 stuffed by SEOs search results they have to spend hours digging in to find info they want, whereas directory offers them maybe 10 but every result exactly what they are want in less than 1 minute. Nice try Shawn, nice try. fastreplies
Yep, talking about personal experiences with my use of directories. As far as me knowing how much traffic a site that I don't have anything to do with, I'd say that's fairly obvious I don't know how many people come to *any* site (or why). But I can say with certainty, that *I* have not used a directory to find a site (or anything else) in the last 15 years, nor do I know anyone who does. Even my grandma who barely knows how to use a computer will use a search engine to find things on the Internet.
Matthew 21:19 Seeing a fig tree by the roadside, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. He told it, "May fruit never come from you again!" And immediately the fig tree dried up. I'm sure you're grasping that outside of group of people you know is around 6 Billions of World Wide inhabitants who are not necessarily share your opinion about usefulness of directories? Hmmm.... I wonder who are the visitors who are visiting out directory by thousands? Well, now you're making us to check IDs to make sure they are not some UFOs dwellers. fastreplies
Yep, there will always be people who find something useful that the majority do not. I'd say it's safe to say that the majority of people do not find a use for directories. If you were to ask 1,000 random people on the street how they find websites on the Internet, I'd be surprised if a single person said they browse directories. I'm sure there is someone out there that does though. But they are losing out on 99.999% of the Internet. Even if I used a very large directory like DMOZ, it would be difficult to ever find what I needed.
Well, on the same side of the medal, if you ask 6 Billions if they know what DigitalPoint is, then only about 700 thousand would know and have opinion if DP is useful or not whereas probably 80% of them would know what Directories are, fact which by theory of possibility would point to at least 10% of people who are using them. fastreplies
True, but you are talking about two unlike things. You are talking about someone knowing what a brand is and someone using something unrelated to that brand. That's like trying to compare someone knowing about Starbucks to someone using an ice cream scooper to eat cereal. People are going to know what an ice cream scooper is, even if they don't use it. As far as 10% of people who know what a directory is, using them... I think that number would be extremely high. If you ask 100 people on the street if they know what a directory is, probably 98 would say "yes", and 0 would say they use them. Let's look at the last 3 things I searched for on the Internet: "rainmaster eagle" "rs232 db9 to Ethernet bridge" "what time does el ranchito close" "pool cleaning service san diego" If there's a directory that could have given me better results than Google, I've yet to see one. The one thing I can think of that directories would be good for would be random exploration. For example if you were bored and wanted to go to a random website to see what was there. But as far as helping me find a relevant site I'm looking for, no.
Based on your own admission you have no facts about directories day to day operation and usefulness while making your conclusions based on nothing but brainstorming about subject you have very little knowledge but for some reason you're trying to convince me, someone who is dealing with directories on a daily bases: no one uses them. So what can I say other than, you're wrong. fastreplies
I'd be really interested to know the flow through the directory sites that you have access to. Is it homepage - check categories - submit (and repeat) homepage - check categories - click on listing My last few directories which I've since abandoned were only being used by people submitting links, regular web users never visited.
All depends on how they got there and what they are looking for. If your directory have nothing to offer but submission option then this is it but if you have to offer more than backlink, then yes, people would gladly browse listing, open More Info pages and of course visit sites. Shawn can say whatever he wants but we can see and track movement around our directory starting with referrer, clicks and exit page and if you ask links owners they would rebut Shawn's opinion because for them directory like AMRAY is additional source of traffic Probably because you were offering nothing but backlinks. Yes, if you buy script, domain, hosting and start "making money enterprise" then you are on your way to the land of oblivion but if you go above and beyond link farm and turn your directory into Portal like Yahoo did, well... AMRAY Web Directory is 15 years old. fastreplies
That's what I was asking. From your traffic stats in Analytics which are you seeing and in what sort of percentages? And you can't honestly be trying to say that directory pages like this are useful? http://www.amray.com/directory/Business_,038_Commerce/Transportation/ There's no categorisation, no sorting to separate long haul from short, domestic to commercial, country by country. No bloody good me finding domestic house movers in the US next to a freight company in the UK.
Okay... {shrug} I never said no one uses them... I just don't know for what legitimate purpose they would be used for, that's all. There's always someone in the world that does anything you can think of. They aren't good for finding sites or answering search queries. I'm just saying it's been a long, long, long time since I used a directory. And I'm fairly certain it's the same for everyone in the world I know. If I were to ask people if they use directories, the most common answer would probably just be, "hahaha". Website directories are pretty similar to the old school printed phone directories (not just in name). Sure, people use them... but these days, why? The last time I flipped through the yellow pages trying to find a phone number is probably right about the last time I used a directory (pre-Google).