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Someone interested in ptromoting their site will apply to be added to our directory, we have a choice to accept or reject his site. If we accept it, it's added to a specific section i.e "Technology".
In return, if we create a great directory, alot of people will use our services. The profit comes when we want to sell advertising space, no pop ups. But it will be in a good way, like if dell is advertising on our site we advertise it in a computer or technology section.
As far as starting, i want to use a free webhost until we buy a domain name. With that, we will get a web hosting package that fits our needs as we grow.
[edited by: skibum at 3:23 am (utc) on Mar. 5, 2004]
[edit reason] please try the commercial exchange for solicitations [/edit]
The only realistic way to go is to find your niche - something like a directory for a very specific market, which is not currently well-served by the larger directories. Rather than trying to beat DMOZ's millions of listings and 250,000 categories, target your audience. Think about paid listings, targeted advertizing or sponsorship, and accompany your directory with editorial content such as articles or newsletters covering the specific industry your directory specialises in.
Finally, a word about free hosting - don't. No site looks serious on a free web host, and when you sign up to such services, you give away the rights to your work - so if you directory turns out to be any good, the free-hosting company can just hoover it up and keep all your hard work for themselves. Even if they don't, you'll lose all your hard-earned backlinks when you move to proper hosting.
<added>and welcome to WebmasterWorld, JMoolah!</added>
Well, to stick out of the crowd, i want to add a forum, chatrooms and maybe even a type of instant messenger taken from AIM. That's what another site had had, an instant messenger like AIM, but it was customized for the site. They also had a directory.
I also want to set up an email service all in the future. So it'spretty much building stuff around the directory, but focusing on the directory.
[edited by: skibum at 3:25 am (utc) on Mar. 5, 2004]
[edit reason] removed URL [/edit]
The questions remain: what will you have that Yahoo doesn't? Why would Dell advertize with you rather than on Yahoo? Why would someone visit your directory rather than Yahoo's? How are you going to market your directory? Where are you going to get your visitors? (If you think that if you build it, they will come, think again. If you think that simply being better is enough, think again.)
You need a good and solid plan if you want the faintest whiff of a chance of it working. If you want to go for a general directory, the chances of success are very small - not because your site won't be better, but because there are too many very big players out there and there's no space left for newcomers. If you target a specific vertical market that you know well, have a good marketing streak in you and are prepared to work very hard to develop your market, you might just have a chance.
The Directory will be the main page, then it has sub domains that links to each of the other things that the website has to offer.
They will also be apart of the directory. I was more looking to Gogle as inspiration, but i wanted a few other things then just a diretory of sites as google has.
Now, please re-read the TOS
[webmasterworld.com...]
Shameless self promotion, however enthusiastic, is frowned upon ;-(
Having said that, good luck with your venture and look out for the directory monsters roaming in the WWWild.
Directory>Games>PS2>Socom 2 *Example* Places like Yahoo get confusing, you always get to low quality sites and always end up not getting to where you wanted to go.
Why would Dell advertize with you rather than on Yahoo?
If we get enough hits and advertyised on some great ezines, Dell might want to advertise some ads on our site. If we have a great computer directory of sites, we gwet alot of hits and are popula, yeah, they will want in on the visitor count.
Companies don't only stick to one place to advertise.
Why would someone visit your directory rather than Yahoo's?
Because will have better quality and easy-to-find sites that actually meet the standards of people, not draw them into a trap. So that goes along well with the filtering system. I will personally go to a site that was sent to me and will filter it on my own. I will even write my thoughts on each site.
How are you going to market your directory?
I'm going to keep it real, i won't put on a persona. If people don't like my site, then i will figure out what i'm doing wrong. Maybe even a suggestions section.
Where are you going to get your visitors?
to stick out of the crowd, i want to add a forum, chatrooms and maybe even a type of instant messenger taken from AIM.
I also want to set up an email service all in the future.
It's going to be alot diferent than Yahoo, i will manuelly edit the site. In the future, i want to offer web hosting, create my own games.
JMoolah, apparently you have great plans for the future, but in your first message you said also:
i want to use a free webhost until we buy a domain name.
So, basically, none of your plans is realized at this moment?...
Secondly, what are you specialist areas? Mine is finance and my buddys is science which makes a good combination. In creating a directory especially in many areas you have to be in the "know", be in games, music, software, finance.....
Which leads into the next question, do you REALLY want to be a general directory? This will be easy to start up, but then you have to revisit them and as your directory grows, can you really manage it? Will it become boring for you?
3rdly, Dont have high expectations, keep small manageable goals, you sound like u think u can do better than yahoo...Well your not just competing with yahoo, you are competing with dmoz, zeal, goguides, skafee, gimpsy, etc. Why would your site beat them?
By the way , people will firstly not even care for a reallly long time about your site, so can u live with that, people wont just rush their.....
Good luck dude
Building your own directory
I started 5 years ago and it is now part of my daily life, like stoner3221 said, I spend 5 - 6 hours every night maintaining the directory which I have built with site submissions, link checking, adding content, etc etc. The list is endless and the work never stops until you stop having an interest in what you have built.
My directory has it's own domain name on my own dedicated servers, I use fully automated software for site submissions but you still have to manually check each and every one, you have databases to maintain, backup all your data daily in case of hard drive failure.
The busier the site becomes the more server resources are used so you have to upgrade to a faster server, then there is the extra bandwidth to pay for the list goes on and on
These are just things off the top of my head there is much more to do to keep it online 24/7 so your visitors are happy
But hey please don't let this put you off, have a go and you will see what I mean. believe me it can be a sole destroying job especially when you will not earn any money for years, took me 4 years to start seeing any return on my time because you will not get anyone to spend money on your site if you do not have any content in the first place.
As for having a forum chat room and email, where are you going to find the time to do all of these things as well as run your directory?
Good luck and keep us posted with how your getting on
ncw164x
ncw164x
Thoughts?
Best Wishes
Mc
ncw164x
But people still advertise on them (including me) because we receive a lot of enquiries directed from there site.
They have thousands of entries all paying at least £50.00 a year!
So i think if i can make a better user friendly site, get to the top of the SE (in time i know!)I should be earning the same or more as these two current portals. i know its a lot of work, but im sure if i put the effort in i will get rewards. Not just from entries, but adsense, banners, advertising space, high PR links etc...
Im sure a good advertising campaign in local papers etc.. offer free entries for a limited time will encourage people to come on board.
We find for our other business which we own advetising on the two above portals for £50.00 each a year is very cheap, we make that money back with one customer. We get a lot more hits from these directories than google, as not every business can be found easily on google.
So JMoolah looks like we are in the same boat, so good luck!
May be it is being done already but none worth taking name. All the major directories viz: Goguides, Joeant, Jayde do not provide good PR across pages. Goguides for the name and fame it has, only has a measly PR of 6. Business.com though provides good PR in most categories, is overcrowded and doubt any good PR being transferred to the listed sites. Only botw.org looks serios in this regard, but they do not address the major customer base - SEO firms, which are better served with some bulk submission offer. Goguides addresses SEOs in this regard but with little to offer in terms of PR.
PR/Link popularity is a factor if anything, only grow in importance. So far, sites did not worry too much about link popularity because of the easy way out provided by link exchange. With that being under a cloud (at least some apprehension about the prospects of link exchange in future), directories will be the MAJOR source for sites to get that essential link popularity which is clean. I feel a spam free, directory which combines typical site listings along with quality content with good PR distribution has more than a chance to be profitable.
Any debates on these will be greatley appreciated ;-)
Best Wishes
Mc
>>SEO firms, which are better served with some bulk submission offer
these are the very guys who would take advantage of your good nature and start to spam your directory, very soon you would not have a directory but a search engine full of spam
>>with little to offer in terms of PR
Directory software can be set up to either give a direct link to a site therefore passing on any PR or to have the link as an id number, this way you can check to see how many visitors you are sending to a site with the direct link you can't track any clicks but also likewise with the link id you do not pass on any PR.
Don't forget it's only SEO/SEM pro's who know about PR the average Joe Public don't understand this side of the web. It is also difficult to maintain the same PR of a category 2 3 or 4 levels deep which is what a directory can be, you will always dilute the PR the lower down you get.
There are directories who insist you link to them before they will add your site, from other comments posted on WebmasterWorld these type of directories don't get many submission because of this stipulation.
Content is what makes a directory more usable (by Joe Public) with easy to use navigation, they are 1,000 of directories on the web but only a few are used to the extent they could make money.
You can get torn between the devil and the deep blue sea on which is the right approach, both ways are correct and you can only go with your own opinion on which way you choose.
ncw164x
When I need a site spidered quickly though. I head straight for Joeant and Skaffe and the like as this has worked for me and that has been the reason I take those two seriously. PR has nothing to do with it for me. IMHO, PR isn't worth the hype that is put on it and doesn't necessarily measure the ROI that each directory can provide.
Good luck to those of you who want to create one more "yet another directory."
Whatever has been said in this thread has already been done. Instead of focusing on the things that will surround your directory, why not try to focus on your directory itself?
Thats what I've seen with those "yet another" directories, they focus too much on things that will surround it, ie. Mail Service, Instant Messenger, Chat and all that, I think they should rather be focusing more on their directory prototype and asking questions while they go: "Can I create a new prototype?" , "Is there any unique system I can add to the directory which is gonna shatter the world?" and stuff like that.
Sid
I agree. I have a directory with over 100K links. Ultra simple, no fluff. It is working out very well and it's popularity is growing rapidly. What's funny is that it is brand new. Not even reflecting PR yet, but the popularity is snowballing.
Simple works. Look at google for an example. Simple is a much needed breath of fresh air.
