Experiment Concluded - Pay Directories Win - Page 4

Johan007 · 07-04-2007, 08:06 AM

Sites only listed from Aviva seem to be doing terrible? (I am sure I am wrong but its just an observation)

**John Scott** · 07-04-2007, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Sites only listed from Aviva seem to be doing terrible?

What url you basing this on?

rankland · 07-04-2007, 09:47 AM

Aviva is giving an amazing amount of google links, and the traffic is out of control. these are the reasons you submit to a web directory. If your looking for promotion jeff also puts his money where his mouth is .
Ive been in this forum for a long time, and what i have a problem with is when webmasters dont back up what they say with a fact.

Bernard · 07-22-2007, 09:05 AM

John, there are seemingly thousands of free directories out there. Many of them are not SEO friendly. It would be easy to prepare a test like this and skew the results one way or the other depending upon which free directories are chosen.

I'd be curious how many (or what percent) of the directories you used in the experiment are on Dan's SEO friendly directory list.

maldives · 07-22-2007, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bernard

John, there are seemingly thousands of free directories out there. Many of them are not SEO friendly. It would be easy to prepare a test like this and skew the results one way or the other depending upon which free directories are chosen.

I'd be curious how many (or what percent) of the directories you used in the experiment are on Dan's SEO friendly directory list.

Not surprised you have such a negative thinking about directories.

Bernard · 07-22-2007, 09:32 AM

I don't have any negative thinking about directories. I am a regular at Dan's info.vilesilencer forums and submit to directories all the time. I've edited at many of the more well known directories and owned a few as well.

I do however, have the capacity for critical thinking and I'm not afraid to ask questions or express an opinion.

**John Scott** · 07-22-2007, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bernard

John, there are seemingly thousands of free directories out there. Many of them are not SEO friendly. It would be easy to prepare a test like this and skew the results one way or the other depending upon which free directories are chosen.

I'd be curious how many (or what percent) of the directories you used in the experiment are on Dan's SEO friendly directory list.

All the directories submitted to were SEO friendly.

mauiman · 07-23-2007, 12:16 AM

I have an interesting perspective on this free vs paid revelation:

I bought my general directory here on v7n from a great guy over in Egypt. He couldn't accept PayPal payments so he continnued to offer free listings even after the directory reached PR5.

When I bought the directory a little over 2 months back I was getting about 200 submissions a day. It didn't take me long to figure out that THAT wasn't sustainable so I through it into paid mode. When the dust settled I had over 12,000 links live in the directory and another 3,000+ pending approval!!!

Although an industry friend with a lot of experience advised me to just remove ALL of the listings and start over I found that I just couldn't do it. So instead I've been going through thousands of links and pruning out the junk listings. I've got it down to fewer than 7,000 and there's a lot more work to be done. After the upcoing PR update I'm pulling out the chainsaw and only the healthy portion of the tree will remain.

The point I want to drive home here is that I've seen a tremendous number of submissions that were obviously entered in by robots (human and computer) with no concern over the effect the submission will have on the submitted Website. The problem YOU run into when submitting to free directories is that your link is going to have these links as next door neighbors! No matter how much time you invest in writing a unique title and description the neighborhood is going to be on the wrong side of the tracks.

I don't see how any free directory, including DMOZ, can deliver value for the visitor, submitter, dir owner for very long. The volume of crap submissions flowing in is simply too much to be edited properly by a human.

Bernard · 07-23-2007, 07:56 AM

The crap shouldn't be approved in the first place.

mauiman · 07-23-2007, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bernard

The crap shouldn't be approved in the first place.

True, but it wasn't me doing the approving. I would have removed all of them already, but I wanted to wait til after this coming PR update.

As for free directories in general most are going to be plagued with the same problem because no one in the transaction has any reason to do it right.

It's interesting that I've found a strong correlation between higher PR sites and quality descriptions. This is the main reason I decided against deleting ALL free listings because these sites offer some value to visitors and I don't think it's right to discard something of decent quality that took effort on the part of someone to submit.

The other benefit to having had the free for all is there are a lot of good sites listed in cats that would otherwise NEVER get enough listings to be of any use to a visitor. The fine line between value for visitors and being "uncrowded" for new submissions is thin.

Cornbread · 07-23-2007, 03:35 PM

Mauiman,
It sounds like you have an excellent business model and I happen to agree with you. When you get your directory cleaned up please send me a PM as I would love to get a review for my web site.

I don't see a place in the future for free directories. There is just no way to control the spam. It just takes to many resources to sift through all the spammy submissions.

mauiman · 07-23-2007, 04:07 PM

I greatly appreciate the feedback Cornbread. I didn't want this to come across as a self-serving advertorial, but the experience really has been eye-opening and I hope my post was of use to a few folks.

If you submit a site I'll throw in a free haircut and shave! :-)

Cornbread · 07-23-2007, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mauiman

I greatly appreciate the feedback Cornbread. I didn't want this to come across as a self-serving advertorial, but the experience really has been eye-opening and I hope my post was of use to a few folks.

It was useful, you are living proof that over time paid directories do win. Making someone pay to get listed is about the only way to eliminate the spam. The only other model that I have seen is a certain directory makes you write about a 300 word description. No spammer would take the time to write 300 words, but that technique is a little questionable because most web masters don't have the time to write a description that long, so he might not ever get many listings.