Starting your directory on the fastlane

[webjunkie]

I have few several weeks been running the PHP link Directory at a domain that had not been in use for a very long time. (The day bought it I Searched every engine I could find to find it listed it was not, so last night I started using a domain I have owned for some time now. it has been working as a information type site for several years but I had quit playing with it long time ago. it has been working of 12 hours now as a directory, here are My current stats for day one:

unique 1365
page views 3952
robot page views 19652 (from Goggle, Yahoo, MSN, and Gigabot mostly
Adsense revenue 8.67 (not to bad for day one)
Total listing after day one 45 (all free but at this point any is good) took me 2 weeks on my other directory to get the first one.

stats from 3 week old site
unique 195
page views 800
robot page views 90 ( Gigabot mostly
Adsense revenue 1.63 (humm the one above looks better)
Total listings I did not add myself 10 (i put in about 490)

Now to the point of all thus seeming meaningless chest beating, but I mention these stats to make a point. Running a Good directory is hard work, Getting the directory is akin to climbing Mount Everest, there are 3 ways to get listing for the most part,
1) Import the DMOZ
Pros: fast and easy and they let you
Cons: Many DMOZ clones get the kiss of death form major search engines Google being most note worthy, plus the DMOZ if full or old obsolete information, I started to look at many of the site listed, some now point to completely different content them what their description says, or have not been updated in several years, this making your directory look old from the get go
2) Add site manually
Pros: You can write your descriptions and make your site very unique from others.
Cons: Time consuming
3) Put it up and pray, maybe place some adds;
Pros: Easy work
Cons to many to mention them all, some of the biggies, with little or no content you get poor search engine listings, and selling listings becomes very hard
So for the point (I hear you all breathing a sigh of relief)

This pertains to new directories more then older ones but before you buy a domain fined the names you like and see if they are already listed in Google and MSN, in many of the time newly deleted domains are. Another method is to buy an existing domain that is for sale, often this can be a bit expensive, but if traffic starts from day one it may be a faster start. But from my little experiment it looks to be a much faster way to get links. This is working our so well I am recoding my sign up page to send the new link requests to my other directory, and to a another Friend that has his own directory(his is about 3 months old and gets 1-2 listings a week, he bought a blacklisted domain, and is having a heck of time getting listed in Google.


Not to sure if this article will help some just starting out I hope it does. Well have 5 more new links in the time it took me to write this, Good Luck getting started

[Optimit]

Some very sound advice. just out of curiosity.What is the domain that you have your directory on now?

Anyway, thanks for the article, and Good Luck!

[Kevuk2k]

Hmm, somethings not quite right here? I looked at your comments, then your site, you have hardly any links, (Not a critisism) and google when I typed in your url and looking in links from your site found the below results.

Results 1 - 10 of about 9,670 from drmac.org

I saw why when I looked at one of your urls and it showed odp.php?

which indicates that at one time you must have been using Dmoz data?

The best way to get a directory going is through sheer hard bloody work. Don't expect people to pay for entry into a directory so obscure you get more traffic in the antartic! Don't ever use Dmoz, you might as well give them money! They ain't independant as they claim, how can they be when they have Content visible to registered users only. Who they think they are trying to kid when they say they are volunteer based non profit. What a crock. :twisted: The owners of dmoz are raking it in and people that parse and use their script ony go to serve dmoz ends, you don't get the traffic, dmoz does!

I have been going for many years now and apart from trying to find a decent script to run the massive database we have we have quite a but of traffic, but it took over 5 years to get that base. Don't be fooled into thinking a directory is sure fire to make you money overnight, anyone who tells you that has not got a clue, even if the call themselves SEO experts! Crap, been there seen it and done it. Hard work, perserverance and investment in time effort and money is the only way to recoup. If you want to make quick money you have more chance of making money selling fresh air on e-bay! Sadly thats a fact! People actually do that :lol:

The message to webjunkie, when he says he is recoding his site to redirect submissions is spot on. The Orange Pages has in the past two weeks recieved over 500 submissions to the directory script on this forum but we dont charge, and remember, we've been going for years. I'm hoping that I can stick to this script and am giving it another week before I defect back to my old style directory which recieved thousands of submissions a week!.

Is there any chance of looking at your web stats on your server? I find it hard to swallow that you got 1365 unique views first day, unless you called over to post in the forums for people to look. You offer free looks and if all these unique views are real then you should have had a better sign up rate than you have?

Don't take any of my comments as anything other than good intentioned comments. I want you to succede but you will only do so by doing it the right way. I've seen so much bad information posted on forums that I might even start a forum for people like you as I have ten years of experience, shares in 8 majors, and own over 16 minors, thats without metasearches. I've escaped out of the sandpit, Thats' the blacklist term webjunkie mentioned, so I can say with confidence that I know what I'm on about! I've also kept up to speed with the data that people calling themselves SEO experts as someof it is quite useful and many of them actually do know some very good tricks, both good and bad!

Good luck though mate, I mean it. :wink:


Kev

[webjunkie]

Kevuk2k the site was not a directory until yesterday moning, it used to be an ISP (which used a dmoz import for its directory) , that was the point i was making in 24 hours I got over 50 submissions, yes all free but it takes time to build content. By finding a domain that is already listed you get traffic from day one. Right now the directory has been up for 24 hours- Active Links 52 (2 I put in) now haw many listing does the average directory normaly get in the 1st 24 hours without importing them? I do not intend to import any DMOZ, that directory is full of outdated sites.

[Kevuk2k]

Content visible to registered users only.

As I said to you, it ain't easy in this game and yes it does take a long time to build a directory. Ours has been going five years and is probably the biggest independant database barring none and we are only waiting for Dmoz to fall a little more before we pounce. If you want some good advice on directories, you'd best forget a mainstream directory as this, to agree with your own words, is very hard, A niche directory on a specific topic would be more conducive to success. We know all about Dmoz and the very poor quality of links they have but they are still going for now. We calculated their content and if you took away the dead links, the subdomains they accept etc, one site has over 250,000 listing alone in dmoz! :shock: They aren't that much bigger than what we have. The only advantage that they have is they conned people early and got good backing from people like Google, this won't always be the case as more and more dirt is dished up on them and the truth of their contents is revealed.

We have more than enough links reviewed and stamped by us to challenge them when the time is right, but its finding the right scripts. You can pay for a million developers but the problem with this is that you never get support on the end product and this is why I personally chose this script, as yes, it is weakish at the moment, but this is short term, and even in the state it is now this script is still miles better that any other I have seen out there bar none!

Whatever path you take I wish you good luck.

Kev

[webjunkie]

our number one item to get hit for is outlook express e
Content visible to registered users only.

You missing what I told you this was pointed to an ISP the day before, with many pages of tech information, the most common this I have seen hit the new site is outlook express error query's, The point is when picking a domain, you can get a nice start up boost by getting one that is still listed in MSN and Google (most of my traffic is coming from MSN right now, Yahoo has sent some, but because I am already listed with the old content, I get a head start over a guy that buys a domain that has been dropped.