spaceylacie - 3:50 pm on Oct 13, 2006 (gmt 0)

Hi Webwork. I'm glad to see you are helping to clean up this section of WebmasterWorld. In the past I came here to read but rarely post here because I got tired of the "directories are spam" and "directories are no longer viable" comments. I totally disagree because good directories can offer much more than a search engine can.

I run a niche directory that has been doing very since it started in the late 90s. Human-edited, hand-coded, and each topic has a bit of information before the list of links for more info. Little icons and informative descriptions written by a paid writer tell people what to expect even before they click over to the sites listed. Besides just being a directory we also publish a monthly newletter(around 30,000 subscribers) that keeps up with trends and major events involving the industry. We don't ask for or reward for reciprocal links, the choice to link back is left up to the individual site owner. Many do choose to link back, some right away, and some later on as a thank you for the visitors we send their way. Although we do get great SE rankings for the various categories, we could survive without them(SEs) because of traffic from natural links. I look forward to hearing tips from other directory owners without the extra "noise".