To edit or not

Hi Guys,

Perhaps I am cynical, perhaps I care too much or perhaps I simply have too much free time?

Why? Because I am that directory owner that goes through every submission, that passes the basic hurdles (category, no url in listing etc), and edits each and every listing. I spend an hour a day changing "blah blah blah" into "detailed blah, interesting blah, unique blah" etc etc...

I´ll admit that I believe around 10% of my submissions come from the public with the rest being mass submitted from submission services. If the site comes from a submission service and its a good website then I´ll include it, but I´ll still edit it.

Now the big question:

Do you edit listings or not?

I ask as I was plesantly suprised to see that I´ve just passed the 12,000 listings mark and I can guarantee that at least 10,000 of them are unique. Maybe this is why a PR0 general directory still recieves 1400 plus daily unique visitors (no bots). If you do as I do and edit the listings then I must ask:

Why do you edit listings?

Cheers,

Angus

PS: I have deliberatly left the url of the site off this thread as I don´t want it to be considered "self promotion" but instead a genuine question.

 

I edit all submissions descriptions, and the listings I add myself I never copy and paste verbatim from another description, I always make some changes or write my own.

The reason is so that I don't have duplicate content.

 

Edited quality submissions are the backbone of a directory. Anything less is basically a link farm.

 

I edit because they spam keywords, repeat the description because it was too short, write like an advert, use words like best.

Regardless of your visitors though, unless you get a result of some sort for all that its just a thing you clearly like doing.

I always say, high visits with no results = wasted bandwidth

 

There are many reasons why you should be editing submissions and stoner summed it up pretty well. Seems that everyone agrees.

 

Yes, editing is the key differentiation between a good directory and a place to store house links. No harm in self promotion though. What's the directory?

Keep up the good work. Everyone with a directory should strive to do as much!

 

LOL, yes it does have to have an end to it... and at the moment its that crime of crimes, Adsense which brings in maybe $3-6 a day. Wish it was more though

 

I often edit and all listings are accompanied with a picture of my choosing from their site. In my acceptance letter I give website owners the opportunity to request a different picture or amended description.

Though, I must admit the more effort the site owner took with their submission, the more effort I put in my editing.

 

Yes, almost every listing requires editing of some kind...some a lot more than others. I maintain the same writing style for listings too.

 

definitely one of the most important things in running a directory
it also shows very quickly who is serious and who is not

 

I edit the listing only when it's necessary. most listings are fine ..

If I see any kind of Spam in Title or too much keyword repetition I would reject the listing right away even if site is good.

 

I would assume that a neat directory would rise above the average
so keep on doing what you do and you will be rewarded
(+ you are making your content unique this way)

 

Proper human editing certainly gets you the respect of serious directory buffs, but it is obviously time consuming. at least you have the benefit of unique content and a thums up from me!

 

Kudos to you Chris. I've been aware that my descriptions are quite varied and when reading through the new daily listings in Yahoo directory yesterday it really struck me how uniform they were and how much more professional that made the directory. I think it's the way to go.

 

Editing titles and descriptions is a big plus. It goes a long way in preventing all the directories have the same content.