Alright, this one goes out to all the directory owners out there ... I've been submitting a couple of sites to directories a bit, and there are some 'odd' or annoying things I've noticed from a user perspective, so I'm making a list, and might even check it twice, because some are some directories that look really nice, but...
Top Things I Would NOT Do as a Directory Owner:
1.) Make the Captcha (or other 'human check') entry field max length shorter than the number of characters in the Captcha text ... Why? It's really annoying to have to open up FireBug search through your source code and edit it to be able to submit a site ... Somehow I think it probably impedes and limits submission significantly.
2.) Charge for a reciprocal link ... Why? Are you kidding? Do you have to ask? I can submit for free without giving you anything, but if I want to give you a link back, because that's what the is made up of and I want to let you know I did when I submitted that'll be $4.95 please? Really? You definitely just lost a link and made me say WTF out loud...
3.) Link to the Home Page with the text 'Submit Link' ... Yeah, imo it's really silly to have the prominent link on the page containing the word submit take me the opposite direction I want to go if I just clicked through into a category to submit from ... Totally annoying.
4.) Require a reciprocal link from the home page ... The Internet is about links ... If you don't want the ones not from the home page, send 'em my way; I'll take 'em all ... I'd love to know how many of the people who require home page links actually get any links back, maybe I'm missing something, but I know you've missed out on at least a couple of links, and even though the might not be the PR of the home page people can still click them if they are on the site, but not being listed makes it really tough for the visitors to other sites to find yours from there.
Not everything needs to be about PR, sometimes visits and exposure can be good too, and if you think about it, it's probably way tougher for most site owners to add a link to you than it is for you to click 'approve' and they're not getting a link from your home page, so don't go thinking 'but I'm a directory owner and I'm adding them for free, so it's fair', because you're set up to add links easily, and their not, but they're adding you for free too ... Ask for too much and you won't get nearly as much imo.
5.) Cover the submission link with the Google ads if the visitor's screen is not 1500px wide and the browser window is not maximized ... I'm surfing at 1280 and when I can only see 2 chars of the submission link with my window almost maximized, your site design might be just a bit too wide.
6.) Forget to change the reciprocal link from <a href="http:
//somedomain.com">Your Title</a> to what it should be ... Cuts down on the inbound links, even if people want to give you one, because your over-the-counter software checks for the site you put in the field.
7.) Forget to buy the software that sets the category for the visitor, or edit the software so it sets the category for the visitor, or replace the sh***y software that doesn't set the category for the visitor and can't be fixed, especially when there are 3000+ categories and sub-categories ... Yeah, it's annoying to come from a category page and have to go find the category in the little drop down, even for a small directory, but when you make the user scroll 2000+ categories to find theirs, somehow I think it costs you some submissions.
Anyway, just a few of my thoughts as I've been doing some directory submissions, take 'em or leave 'em ... Hope they help someone out a bit.
