Update on Holiday Soup Directory

I tried something a little different last year when I started the Holiday Soup Directory. Since many thought it was a neat idea I thought I'd report back how it is going.

How the site was set up.​

• free no recip required

• The directory is in a subdomain of a Holiday and events site.

• Categories are completely abnormal! The idea was to find holidays relating to your site and that would be the category.

• A "CatMap" maps more normal categories to related holidays. (example Real Estate--> Donald Trump's Birthday)

• If accepted, the link is fed via rss feed to a sidebar of a related page in the main Holiday site. example

• The links may also appear in different summary pages on the main site.

• The Main Site Links are a temporary plus, only sticky for 90 days.

So How Did it Work Out?​

There seemed to be a direct correlation between the quality of sites and the owners ability to locate a good category. The english challenged seemed to randomly pick any category. Though admittedly some links simply didn't have a fitting home. In instances where I couldn't see a good Holiday or Event match, I added a new holiday or event. No one took the option of creating a new holiday category themselves. Just a note..I realize this site is a speed bump to someone roboforming directory submissions.

Issues of PageRank and Relevant Linking
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I wondered about duplicate content with the rss content. And would PR pass? (Yes I know PR is meaningless..but it's still something I look at in directories...go figure)

Without going through a detailed analysis. The main page of both the domain and subdomain are pr4. Some pages with directory links developed pagerank in the main site, but things seem to be lagging behind when you drill down in the directory. As the number of submissions increase I'm tending to be more selective. Possibly rankings for the lower directory pages will come as well?

Traffic isn't all that hot, but I've done virtually nothing to promote, other than directory submissions, coop and the signature link here. Seeing about 3,000 visits /month on the main domain and 500 in the directory.

All this is more a curiosity to me than anything. Bottom line is it doesn't seem to have killed the site interlinking the directory like this; may have even helped in some pages. So I'm comfortable with investing more time with it now. Creating new content for the Holiday site ranks highest on the todo list for this site.

 

I submitted a site under Religious. I thought about submitting with a holiday, but the one I wanted: September 8th - The feast of Our Lady's Nativity was not mentioned. I thought about Christmas, as that kinda suits the organization, as that is the day Mary gave birth to Jesus. Oh well.

 

I'm always glad to add another event chrysostom. notice the rss link here

 

When I first came across your Holiday Soup site, I liked the concept a lot and submitted a couple of sites to the appropriate categories. However, I think it may be time for a redesign.

One suggestion I would make is to expand the list to be more soothing for the eyes by listing it into bullet points on the main index page. This can point the submitters in the right direction.

January

• Dress Up Your Pet Day
• Inspire Your Heart with Art Day
• Martin Luther King Day
• New Years Day

This site has a good visual example:
http://pokerworks.com/poker-directory/

 

I agree fatinfo_guy. The bullet list would look much nicer. I'll poke around in the script and see if I can figure it out in the next hour. (Leaving soon for a long weekend of waverunners on Lake Michigan and other fun)

 

OK I put a line break in and it looks a lot cleaner. using bullet made it too wide.

 

submitted one to 'dress your pet day'. It was the best I could find for my site. Hope the soup natzi agrees! Fun directory!