Top directories??? - On who's Authority exactly!

So let's take your list apart a bit...

The name and industry served are on most any list out there now.

Blog Comments - are you going to check to see if those blogs are affiliated in some way with the directory and/or directory owner?

Article Comments - same question.

Reviews Done - they can be bought, of little relevance in deciding quality.

Media Coverage - Most of the best sites (non-directory) in my niche have little to no media coverage. This is often a reflection of advertising ability over quality. Taking this out of the directory realm into real world - there's a restaurant that's being touted all the time by my local paper - the food is terrible. There's another restaurant that the locals love - the food's great and the prices are fair; a true southern greasy spoon if ever there was one. Which is the better restaurant? The one who is has a 'friend' at the paper or the one people love and is standing room only at lunchtime?

Est since - while this will eliminate the QBC and flippers, this again doesn't reflect true quality. How many folks will keep laboring at a lost cause? Just because a website has been around a long time does not indicate it is anything special. There are tons of old directories out there with pending queues in the tens of thousands - doubt anyone here would classify them as "quality" or "top".

No. of Employees - totally irrelevant to websites as well as many industries. Because I run my directories myself does that make them any better or worse than one where someone off-shores the work to India or some other low-wage place? There are people who are sole-props making millions and companies with thousands of employees bleeding money - which is the better business model?

Financial Backers - Seems this, like the earlier points is making things a bit of a class thing - because someone doesn't have Angel investors willing to spend millions on a project does not mean it doesn't have merit. The many failed dot-com companies from the 90's had millions in backing and most failed.

Company Info - Google so frowns on interlinking of sites that many directory owners want to hide the fact that one company owns a number of sites. Does the fact that Joe Schmuck, famous whatever in whichever industry owns a directory make it better than your's or mine?

End of Year Profit - Uh, yeah sure, I'm gonna share that info.



So, you start what has the makings of an interesting thread and you seem to quickly turn it into another diatribe that if you don't make millions you have nothing of value. One of the first and now biggest crafting websites I know has been run by the owner alone for years (she finally hired a helper or two this past year), she has no investors, and I'm not sure I've seen any press coverage. Yet, the owner has built one of the largest forums on the Internet. Under most of your criteria you would list her as less than the huge success she really is.

I can't just remember the name right now, but some years ago there was a website that made a huge splash and claimed they would pay people for using their search engine. You couldn't turn on a TV or open a newspaper in the US without seeing one of their ads. They spent millions of dollars on online and offline advertising. They had hundreds of employees and obviously someone with deep pockets backing them. Websites all over the Internet were talking about them. Under you evaluation of things they would be classified as successful. That's all great, but my first sentence was the most important one here - I have no idea who they were.

 

Top, like any other adjective, can be ambiguous at best and misleading at worst.

Funny you should mention such an example...There was a small restaurant chain where I lived in south Texas. The name was something like "Worst Bar-B-Que in Texas". (I know that's not exactly right, but trust me that was in keeping with the name.) The food was great and you had to wait in line to get in. It was a masterful piece of marketing amid all of the other claims by restaurants for being the "Best BBQ in Texas".

 

Wow, a lot of directory...

Thanks for everyone...

This list will help us...

Tq.

 

I agree. Anyone can call themselves what they want, so for conversation we have to set some metrics.

What I am looking for in a directory is one that provides useful information, that attracts visitors, and which directs those visitors to useful places or sites. By this measure, most "top' directories are pretty useless. A top directory, for my purposes, would be something like Yelp or Metromix. Aviva, by these standards is "one of the crapiest things on earth". At least for me.

Rich

 

Ok, fine but besides it's clearly very attractive front page, it's empty, sells listings at $70 a pop, and is the emptiest best resource there is.

Accounting (13)
Aerospace (4)
Agriculture & Forestry (18)
Arts & Entertainment (10)
Automotive (32)
Business Services (9)
Chemicals (17)
Construction (14)
Consumer Goods & Services (3) Only 3 sites listed
Customer Service (5)
Electronics & Electrical (25)
Employment (8)
Energy & Environment (17)
Engineering (11)
Events (13)
Financial Planning (19)
Financial Services (104)
Food and Related Products (26)
Foreign Exchange (9)
Franchising (20)
Furniture (11)
Hardware (8)
Health (15)
Hospitality (8)
Human Resources (33)
Incorporation (11)
Industrial Goods (94)
Industrial Services (27)
Information Technology (17)
International Business & Trade (2)
Inventions (7)
Investing (18)


That's not exactly a resource is it. The only types that go for this are webmasters who noticed it's empty and knew they would easily stand out.

It's an empty directory and the proof is above.

Now the sad thing about this is, it could have been really good, but as usual people see the dollar signs and well-meant good intentions often turn to greed.

 

Well you have me worked out. Congrats

 

Great, someone with some class

 

Look harder then.

 

The guy has probably looked hard Jamie. There are so few decent generals out there.

 

As a resource, Aviva is pretty useless. But what happens is that a company hires an "SEO expert", who convinces the company that it is worthwhile to list themselves in Aviva. Aviva gets a few bucks for doing nothing, and the SEO guy spends some company's budget. Not the worse of scams I ever heard of (S&P and Moody's scammed billions of dollars from unknowing investors who both those worthless CDOs), but pretty useless nonetheless.

Prior to the Internet pretty much everyone relied on the Yellow Pages and other niche industry directories. It was too expensive to create worthless directories. The Internet has changed all that. Now it is possible to create worthless directories for next to nothing. Thank you Google for getting those directories off your own listings.

Rich

 

I can half agree and half disagree.

 

I looked pretty hard. In fact, I look at all of the vendor's sites for "showcase directories" and I checked out all the forums for recommendations of "top directories". So far, I've come up with nothing. I would really appreciate it if you offer up some that you feel are useful. I am more than open to the concept, since I am looking for new ideas for Links.com.

Rich

 

Rich, I think you realize that if someone has a great, new, unique idea...won't share it with you.

Do whatever you think is right with your domain (btw...a great one) be happy with your work and once you finish stand proud and be free to call your directory "the best thing on earth" and not that it would be but because it was your idea, your work and finally you achieved something...

Just my 2 cents...

Dan

 

Hi,

Yes, if someone has a really great unique idea, they certainly wouldn't share it with me. However, a public directory is something that can be readily shared. If fact, it no one knows about it, it probably isn't all that much anyway.

All that I am saying is that I have looked all over the place, in PHPLD, PHPLynx, etc. for successful directories and I have not found a good examples. Wouldn't an owner of such a directory be happy to advertise it and get lots of publicity?

I would love to try my hand at developing a feature and information rich directory on Links.com. However, finding a platform is very difficult (I have bumped into others that are sharing in my problem), and building from scratch is costly. I wouldn't mind investing the money, if I had some way to prove the concept first.

Rich

 

And that's it the chicken or the egg, sometimes you just need to back your own beliefs, planning and gut feel into it and then get down and dirty for the long haul.

As mentioned the climb to the top may be hard but the view worth it.

 

Yes, I have done that many times in my life. Now, it is time to do it with Links.com. Maybe, I'll be successful, ... but then again maybe not.

Rich

 

I wish I had an algorithm as screwed as PR.

 

Come on Rich, decent directories are simply not going to bother with places like these as it offers them no value whatsoever and brings them into what sadly Google claim to be a 'bad neighbourhood'. You've got a decent name in links.com so I can understand your trepidation on not using it to the max, serious rivals aren't going to give you tips though are they.

The phrase there's plenty of room for everyone is foolish. But seeing as your not competition to me I'd seriously consider using your domain for a Golf directory, Golf links is a massive market. The terms Links is synonymous with Golf, you'd make far more of an impact going that route.

 

If you want to go that way...an information rich directory, I would recommend to have a look at Joomla's features. It is a powerful platform and with a bit of imagination I think you can build exactly what you want.

 

The script should be the last concern if you have the idea. any script can be customized to suit your needs by any freelancer.