What turns you off in a web directory?

Discussion in 'Directories' started by humm, Sep 3, 2006.

  1. #1
    Every day a new web directory launched, every webmaster wants his web directory to be sucessful.

    But sometimes some webdirectory owners do some mistakes while launching a web directory, which turns of a submitter. Which are those things?

    According to me, following are the basic things which keeps me off a web directory.

    1. Adsense, big big banners on the day 1 of the launch. - Website slower.. wasting the time of a submitter.

    2. Image verification.. Reduces a lot of time when submitting many websites.

    3. Category problem, now this problem is a most common these days. When you submit to a category, by default after submission the category to when you submitted must come back in the select list.

    But most of the skin designers are ignoring this part. What happens is after submission the list goes back to "Top". Now its big problem when say you need to submit your 10 sites to the section blogs, so you need to everytime open the list, find blog and keep doing the same again and again.

    For those web directory owners who may want to correct this problem, the code is

    Edit submit.php and look for (around line 359):
    unset ($data);
    PHP:
    Add following code right after it:
    $data = array ( 'CATEGORY_ID' => $_REQUEST['CATEGORY_ID'] );
    PHP:
    - Code by boby, I was also facing this problem and hence the above code worked out for me.

    Thats my experience so far and my point of view, I would be glad if other webmasters can shares their ideas and thoughts.
     
    humm, Sep 3, 2006 IP
    irka likes this.
  2. sundaybrew

    sundaybrew Numerati

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    #2
    Once again Humm you have provided us all, with Great useful information,

    I am sure glad you are a member man!

    Thanx for the tips!
     
    sundaybrew, Sep 3, 2006 IP
    maldives likes this.
  3. sebastya

    sebastya Well-Known Member

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    #3
    I wish my directory took off...
     
    sebastya, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  4. maldives

    maldives Prominent Member

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    #4
    Thats cool humm. Thanks for sharing.
     
    maldives, Sep 3, 2006 IP
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  5. pipes

    pipes Prominent Member

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    #5
    What can turn me off are:

    1. Having to create an account and Login.

    2. When you receive an email telling you to read the rules that dont exist at all on the directory, very rare but it does happen.

    3. When a free submission is offered and selected, then it tells you that you have missed the reciprocal.

    4. When you get the payment suprise, when it said nothing of a payment at all.

    With regards to moan 4, i can sympathize with the owners when people take the piss and dont cough up payment when they knew fine well that its expected.

    So i can see it from both sides and i understand that directories, just like anything on the internet are a work in progress, and granted, most webmasters will get problems sorted very quickly.
     
    pipes, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  6. britishguy

    britishguy Prominent Member

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    #6
    humm thanks for the info
     
    britishguy, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  7. daboss

    daboss Guest

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    #7
    how is this so? :confused: unless you're mass submitting using a tool/script - in which case, i'd want to turn on something like image verification... :rolleyes:
     
    daboss, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  8. irka

    irka Well-Known Member

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    #8
    Thanks for bringing the message, thats some cool updates, ive done that on all my directories :)
     
    irka, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  9. humm

    humm बहादुर बच्चा

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    #9
    One submitting 30+ websites.. imagine the time taken buddy. :( not all use tools, I never.

    Thanks for your response till now guys. :)
     
    humm, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  10. daboss

    daboss Guest

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    #10
    most submissions expect the submitter to key in 6 to 7 fields... 1 extra won't take much longer... the extra time taken is negligible when compared to the time taken for the main fields and the other overheads - e.g. waiting time after the submit button is clicked, etc.

    i believe that the people who dislike this are the ones that use tools to submit... ;)
     
    daboss, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  11. Obelia

    Obelia Notable Member

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    #11
    Those dreaded smarty errors, or other coding bugs.

    Another thing that puts me off is really long category lists on the submit page. This is okay for smaller niche directories, but there's a size beyond which this doesn't work. I'd say that once you go beyond having categories 3 levels deep on a directory, it's far less confusing and unwieldy to have the submitter navigate to the correct category.
     
    Obelia, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  12. an0n

    an0n Prominent Member

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    #12
    1. The fact that .01% out of the thousands of these directories that are launched are EXACT duplicates.

    2. There are no 'fun' type looking templates out there. They are all boring, well, because see #1.

    3. When they have submission problems.

    4. Their mod Rewrite isn't working properly.

    5. Smarty errors get old and annoying real fast.

    6. When they DO NOT specify the 'length' of the submission ON the submission page for links such as featured listings.
    One minute you are submiting a featured listing thinking it's a year, and then the next after you click on submit, you see it's for a month.
    Yea, right, like I am really going to submit to a directory paying $10-$15 that offers no extra incentive, is a complete duplicate of the other 1,000. c'mon people.
     
    an0n, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  13. Obelia

    Obelia Notable Member

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    #13
    Is that all? I would have thought it's more than 1 in 10, 000.

    But yeah, I hate that there are so many that look just the same as all the others. Some creativity never goes amiss.
     
    Obelia, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  14. an0n

    an0n Prominent Member

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    #14
    To me it tells a lot about the directory, and is pretty much safe to assume it's nothing but a 'quick few bucks'.

    I hesitate quite often when it comes to submitting too, and it's because of the fact that some people put them up and tear them down and do these retarded 'Re-Launches' of their directories without anything new, other than...you guessed it, a template that a million other people already have and use.

    As far as creativity goes, i'll be trying. nothing more I can do than to just try. My pet peeve is that I am just more interested in providing extras. Maybe i'll find the right balance. :)

    Rob
     
    an0n, Sep 3, 2006 IP
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  15. dencha

    dencha Active Member

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    #15
    sorry to butt in, but i was wondering if phpLD 2.0 offer paypal payments for submitting sites?

    Thanks in advance
     
    dencha, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  16. cormac

    cormac Peon

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    #16
    1: when the image verificiation is impossible to get right and sends you into an fustrating loop. There are some image verifications that are very hard to read.

    2: The page you want to submit to has over 100 links.

    3: The category has links to credit card, loan sites etc when its off topic. Also the directory foot links are going out to these credit sites etc.

    4: Member signup needed.

    5: Once you give your email address you are spammed.

    6: When the owner labels it SEO friendly but its not.

    7: (as pipes said) When you get the payment suprise, when it said nothing of a payment at all.....this is very annoying.

    8: When a reciprocal link is required, why would I link to a directory from a site about bird seed?

    9: Load time of the site, I dont have to sit and stare at my screen waiting for a page to load. My Dial-up days are over.

    Thats about it really. I couldnt really care for the Adsense or the format of the template, its not really an issue for me.
     
    cormac, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  17. an0n

    an0n Prominent Member

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    #17
    the answer to the question you ask is yes, it does support paypal payments.

    but lets try and stay on topic here. if you have any other questions regarding phpld, it'd be best to head on over to their forums and ask there.

    For my directories you'll need to sign up. I won't spam though.
    However, omfg, i know exactly what you're talking about.
    If I ever found out which directory sold my email or is spamming me, i'd ring their f****ing necks personally.
     
    an0n, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  18. dkessaris

    dkessaris Peon

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    #18
    1. I have to agree with the same design thing and add that I hate seeing the exact same category structure. I know that my directory uses just a modified version of the default template, however at least I tried to change it a bit and believe me I spent more time to reach the current point that some people spend to create 2 or three templates. Some people don't even change the logo of the free templates.

    2. A ton of sitewide links

    3. Excessive adsense or even popups

    4. Asking me to add their directory to my directory in order to approve my submission

    5. Registration needed to submit a site

    6. Using a spare domain name. In some cases it's obvious that people just had unused domains and decided to install a directory script to make a quick buck and then sell it.
     
    dkessaris, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  19. an0n

    an0n Prominent Member

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    #19
    siiiigh.. and a perfect example of sheer 'idiocy on a launch'

    onlinedirectoryworld.com
    (cut and paste, because a dir like that does not deserve any hotlinks EVER)

    WTF$%^&* get rid of the friggen adsense and let me see some categories. jesus christ man.
     
    an0n, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  20. jg123

    jg123 Notable Member

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    #20
    Free phpld has a very hard to read image, so it can be a real pain, but atleast it stops 95% of the spam :)

    and tons of adsense is very annoying especially when they try and trick visitors into clicking it.
     
    jg123, Sep 3, 2006 IP