Help me in building a directory

[semji]

Originally Posted by ndvakil

hi,
My Opinion:
you should allow people to submit their site for free for some period of time. [/b]

Nandini,
I think Nirav is right!
rgds

semji

[Shawn]

My advice is patience. Set up the directory, work on it (pace yourself), and don't expect much from it, money, traffic, exposure etc for a while. Getting a pr 7 is easy, but getting a natural pr 7 is much better than a site who got to be pr7 in 2 months because they bought links. So take it slow; as the others said give the webmasters what they want

You'll start rocking when you can rank for local search terms that appear in your category structure (ie arizona limousines..example transportation-->world-->usa-->arizona--> etc) then people will be much more inclined to pay a fee for inclusion.

But no matter what I wouldnt give anything for free to commercial sites

[arius]

My only advice would be to specialize on a niche.

Unless you have a lot of staff, I can't see you easily being able to handle the volume.

Say you spent 10 minutes reviewing each site before adding it to your directory. In an 8 hour day you could do 48.

Do you have a team of volunteers?

48 sites for a general directory is not as competitive as 48 high quality sites for a specialized area. A specialized directory is more likely to get attention from other sites as well that are looking to recommend an authoriy site.

I hope it goes well.
Afterward you could write a how to book and cash in on that too.

[brickred]

best of luck add me also

[jebby]

As a newbie to the seo thing who doesn't have a lot of $ to spend on it, I look for directories that have a free listing option. Having a longer wait time for free submissions and a short wait time for paid submission could take care of the "you get what you pay for" worries some posters to this thread have, while still keeping cheapos like me from moving on to the next directory. Eventually, these cheapos may be willing to pay for a listing for their other sites if they've had success by listing on your directory before.

[nandini]

Thanks for all your support.. I have nealry completed 60% coding of the script..

Features Currently I have incorporated..

• 1. Multi-level category system
  2. Integrated Search Engine
  3. Thumbnails of each site
  4. A page dedicated to each site
  5. Multi Links under the main links (for eg. Products Page, About Us etc)
  6. Membership Option (You can submit multi sites each week depending on your plan)
  7. Pure HTML static Pages, Search Engine friendly pages.
  8. All Spiderable Links
  9. Powerful Admin control
  10. Cross-references (subjecte to location)
  11. Plain CSS
  12. Yahoo style links directory
  13. Sponsored listings - after a fixed time, sponsored listing will be shifted to regular listing.
  14. Reciprocal Link Checker (But right now.. it will be disabled). Since I won`t be swapping links.
  15. Human Edited.. (No entry of affliate sites, flame sites etc)
  16. Sleek Design... I think we either have Dmoz or Yahoo style or biz-directory.org style.. I am building few templates (nice clean templates.. and will implement any of the following)
  17. PHP/MySQL

These many features have already been installed, but If I have missed out any thing.. please let me know...

I was wondering should I also add rate it, or review features too. Personaly I don`t like them.. but want to know what you people suggest..

[I, Brian]

Sounding good so far.

[stoner3221]

Originally Posted by nandini

Thanks for all your support.. I have nealry completed 60% coding of the script..

Features Currently I have incorporated..

• 1. Multi-level category system
  2. Integrated Search Engine
  3. Thumbnails of each site
  4. A page dedicated to each site
  5. Multi Links under the main links (for eg. Products Page, About Us etc)
  6. Membership Option (You can submit multi sites each week depending on your plan)
  7. Pure HTML static Pages, Search Engine friendly pages.
  8. All Spiderable Links
  9. Powerful Admin control
  10. Cross-references (subjecte to location)
  11. Plain CSS
  12. Yahoo style links directory
  13. Sponsored listings - after a fixed time, sponsored listing will be shifted to regular listing.
  14. Reciprocal Link Checker (But right now.. it will be disabled). Since I won`t be swapping links.
  15. Human Edited.. (No entry of affliate sites, flame sites etc)
  16. Sleek Design... I think we either have Dmoz or Yahoo style or biz-directory.org style.. I am building few templates (nice clean templates.. and will implement any of the following)
  17. PHP/MySQL

These many features have already been installed, but If I have missed out any thing.. please let me know...

I was wondering should I also add rate it, or review features too. Personaly I don`t like them.. but want to know what you people suggest..

Two features that are highly beneficial and will get many more pages indexed in the search engines is a last ten searches and a new submissions page. Set both these pages up to archive in a search engine friendly database. You want to give your submitters every possible opportunity to get as many search engine links from your site possible.

[nandini]

Originally Posted by stoner3221

Two features that are highly beneficial and will get many more pages indexed in the search engines is a last ten searches and a new submissions page. Set both these pages up to archive in a search engine friendly database. You want to give your submitters every possible opportunity to get as many search engine links from your site possible.

I have incorporated New submissions pages,
But I want to ask you if I add last ten searches, some spammers might start searching their kweywords unnecessarily...

I have neartly completed 90% of the script...

Thanks for the nice suggestion, Stoner...

[stoner3221]

I haven’t’ as of yet had a problem with it. Not many spammers understand or know of the concept of search engine optimized directories. You can set it up to IP log on the editor’s side and block it if it happens. You will want to build an IP blocking utility into your script. It really does a number on spammers and reduces the amount of spam cleanups you will have to do. If I hit IP block it removes all pending submissions and anything they have ever submitted. Makes a quick clean up of spam.

Originally Posted by nandini

I have incorporated New submissions pages,
But I want to ask you if I add last ten searches, some spammers might start searching their kweywords unnecessarily...

I have neartly completed 90% of the script...

Thanks for the nice suggestion, Stoner...

[nandini]

Originally Posted by stoner3221

I haven’t’ as of yet had a problem with it. Not many spammers understand or know of the concept of search engine optimized directories. You can set it up to IP log on the editor’s side and block it if it happens. You will want to build an IP blocking utility into your script. It really does a number on spammers and reduces the amount of spam cleanups you will have to do. If I hit IP block it removes all pending submissions and anything they have ever submitted. Makes a quick clean up of spam.

Thats a good point..
I have incorporated IP Banning (but only in case of submissions)... But I don`t think IP banning should be implemented for people who do searches quiet often.

Anyway I will be offering Multi Links under the main links (for eg. Products Page, About Us etc). And one more link more recently added sites, then there will be cross referencing too.

[stoner3221]

You might change your mind after the fist nut does a hundred porn word searches and your site starts coming up in porn searches bringing the porn submissions with them. Your going to meet every kind of nut known to mankind.

Originally Posted by nandini

Thats a good point..
I have incorporated IP Banning (but only in case of submissions)... But I don`t think IP banning should be implemented for people who do searches quiet often.

Anyway I will be offering Multi Links under the main links (for eg. Products Page, About Us etc). And one more link more recently added sites, then there will be cross referencing too.

[nandini]

Originally Posted by stoner3221

You might change your mind after the fist nut does a hundred porn word searches and your site starts coming up in porn searches bringing the porn submissions with them. Your going to meet every kind of nut known to mankind.

Stoner.. Frankly speaking never thought in terms of that regards..
I am still thinking of some other things in which I can provide more value added services....

I am talking with few other web directories with whom I can partnered with. So that with one submission he can be placed in few many directories without doing it manually.

Then I like your concept of having a forum...

[stoner3221]

Along with value added services you need to think of efficiency. Mainly how you’re going to process hundreds of daily submissions in a fast and efficient manor. A good script is a prime key to it as well as effective spam and abuse control tools. Setting your computer system up so you can review the submission on one monitor and edit the submission on another monitor will also save you enormous time opening and closing screens to edit.

The forum is also a time saver. Daily mail can get into the hundreds per week but a forum can frequently answer somebody’s question before they ask it. The internet is filled with directories that are unable to process submissions within a reasonable time. You don’t want to be another. Don’t count on volunteer labor to do it; dealing with volunteer editors in itself is a full time job and highly problematic.

Originally Posted by nandini

Stoner.. Frankly speaking never thought in terms of that regards..
I am still thinking of some other things in which I can provide more value added services....

I am talking with few other web directories with whom I can partnered with. So that with one submission he can be placed in few many directories without doing it manually.

Then I like your concept of having a forum...

[nandini]

Thats some really really good advice.. Stoner..
1. No Volunteer Editors. for me.
2. The script is in house script.. So it will be having all the best features available (If you can suggest me some more features, I will add them too.)
3. I have though of fighting with effective Spam control.. IP banning is one thing which can take care of many problems.. I am also thinking of implementing URL banning too.
4. Yeah forum.. is really a time saver.. I agree 100% on that.
5. I will be hiring professionals editors who will help me doing this job.


Bytheway Stoner I am really impressed by your effort, and the way you brought up your directory to such a height withing 3-4 months, if I correctly remember...

Thanks for all your advices and help...

[stoner3221]

In your script submission page you will want it to compare URL’s for prior submission. Set it up to compare as such:
http://www.anyurl.com
http://anyurl.com
http://www.anyurl.com/
http://anyurl.com/
All the above formats with sub topics as well.

All are common URL formats and spammers will try to get multiple submissions by using all of them as well as a question mark at the end and capital letters. My script will not accept capital letters and changes them to lower case.

You might want to look into free mail as well. It’s a well liked service and brings people back to your site to check the mail and news is another feature that’s used quite a bit.

You might also want to consider going open source when your database is developed. It’s really good for your submitters and will give them even more links.

WoW grew up fast and has suffered a few growing pains with the script. The cross referencing can be a huge resource hog forcing me to move it to an expensive mega server to produce acceptable speed. The money is not a big deal but now I have to learn all the server administration crap “not my cup of tea” I preferred leaving the headaches to John.

We should have a search engine and crawler running soon to work in conjunction with the directory to give directory search as well as search engine results. I’m not going to incorporate the two until we have a few million pages indexed in the search engine database.

[nandini]

Originally Posted by stoner3221

In your script submission page you will want it to compare URL’s for prior submission. Set it up to compare as such:
http://www.anyurl.com
http://anyurl.com
http://www.anyurl.com/
http://anyurl.com/
All the above formats with sub topics as well.

All are common URL formats and spammers will try to get multiple submissions by using all of them as well as a question mark at the end and capital letters. My script will not accept capital letters and changes them to lower case.

I am incorporating that in the script.. Thats a great point.

Originally Posted by stoner3221

You might want to look into free mail as well. It’s a well liked service and brings people back to your site to check the mail and news is another feature that’s used quite a bit.

Free email serives - I agree is a well liked service, but the way big boys are offering space 1GB etc.. I don`t think I am left with any chance.
News suggestion, I can incorporate.... related to webmaster community.. But still I think that would sail me away from the main directory goal...

Originally Posted by stoner3221

You might also want to consider going open source when your database is developed. It’s really good for your submitters and will give them even more links..

Going Open Source.. Could you explain it a bit more.. I am developing a script.. Its nearly finished. But how submitters will be benefited by going open source?

Originally Posted by stoner3221

WoW grew up fast and has suffered a few growing pains with the script. The cross referencing can be a huge resource hog forcing me to move it to an expensive mega server to produce acceptable speed. The money is not a big deal but now I have to learn all the server administration crap “not my cup of tea” I preferred leaving the headaches to John.

We should have a search engine and crawler running soon to work in conjunction with the directory to give directory search as well as search engine results. I’m not going to incorporate the two until we have a few million pages indexed in the search engine database.

I have taken space from high speed servers, but if required I will take space from other mega servers. I thinking of crossreferencing by Subject - Location , and will be offeringg multilinks below main links...
I will be provoding 5-6 links for one submission from the directory.

I don`t intend to build a crawler... but I have already build a integrated search engine. I can incorporate a link check crawler.... but right now no specific plans for that...


But comparing URL is a great advice... Thanks for that... Hoe could have I missed that?

[stoner3221]

Going open source is great for your submitters. Your data can then be used on hundreds of other sites wanting a quality directory resource. It’s good for you as well since all submissions will lead them to your submission services. ODP could use some serious competition in the open source area. You can do it with a dump type system like ODP uses or better yet live updates. Live updates require some very high end hardware support.

[nandini]

Thats great... Open Source
But at this moment I don`t think it would be possible for me to provide that much bandwidth...

But might be in future...