| How NOT to run a directory - a submitter's point of view |
How NOT to run a directory - a submitter's point of viewAfter hours and hours of doing directory submission, I believe that everyone is always frustrated with some directories. Well, here is a little writeup for you, the submitter. Please don't take all these too serious. We can always vent our anger right? Just don't curse at the monitor, it's useless.1. If you are running a free directory, make sure it is truly free. Not reciprocal, nor free if "you link back to us" kind of free. Free for inclusion, maybe except for featured listings. 2. If it is an actually directory, don't take a few weeks to clear your pending listings, it is just not right. If you need 8 weeks to review and accept listings (even free ones), you shouldn't be in the directory business in the first place. 3. Don't advertise it as free, but after someone did the submission, say that there is a charge for "review" or whatever. Worse if you claim your directory as a free directory, don't wait till someone attempts to submit, then tell them it is actually paid! I think everyone hates that. And please remove your own directory from free directory lists if you decided to change your business model from free to paid. 4. If your directory title has the word "free" in it and you still charge for inclusion, then you should really brush up on your english. 5. Please don't make me fill in tons of useless information on your submission form. I am pretty sure you don't need my date of birth or whether I have a birthmark on my butt. 6. Ensure your directory is working properly. I hate it when after nearly completing the submission form, I discover the image verification thing is not working (very likely the image itself is missing) or after completing the submission form, there is an error. I have vomitted enough blood already. 7. Image verification is used to weed out spammers, not to permanently damage your submitters' eyes. 8. Don't hide your submit button/icon/link. Please. 9. Don't clutter your entire directory with banners, links or other crappy advertisements. I mean what type of directory comes filled to the brim with flashing banners and with their footer full of links to health supplement sites? And for god's sake, remove that advert from the submission form as well. A neat site also makes navigation a breeze. 10. If you have thousands of categories, please try to arrange them in a properly manner so that submitters can find the appropriate category to submit their listings to. Don't place your "web directory subcategory" under the "burn in hell category" where people will not look for it. 11. I get frustrated if I cannot find any closely related category to submit to. So if you are a general web directory, at least have a decent number of categories available for us to use. Thou art too lazy, use a directory category dump. 12. Tell me straight away which payment system you accept. Don't want to hit the submit button, only to realize that you accept 2CO and nothing else. 13. If your webhost cannot handle your directory and the load, change to another that can. 14. Tell me whether my submission has been successful or not. And don't hide the notice among tons of advertisements to buy Viagra, I don't need it. This article was inspired by kdemonte and his forum post entitled How NOT to run a directory. Gave me something to gripe about on a sad little monday morning. Other articles: Internal Links - How to make full use of them Effective Directory Submission Increasing your Page Rank In Detail OnPage SEO For Web Directory Owners Link Exchanges Techniques Additional Benefits of a High Page Rank (PR) Secondary Article Writing - Link Baiting Sneaky Bastard's Way of Getting Backlinks Tiny Preview and Screenshots for PhpLinkDirectory V3.2.0 Outgoing links - Telling Search Engines what your page is all about A Complete list of Directory Scripts Some tips for the paid directory owner How often does Google cache your Site? A Project. Raising PR - Problems with paid directories and what to do. Our exclusive interview with Paul le Roux of WebWobot Search Engine Good Planning = Good SEO = Results! Article Writing for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Forget keywords meta-tag and think keyword density! |