Bay Engine

Quality over Quantity

The quote is one of the most well known sayings that applies to a wide variety of situations. It is especially true when you own and run a directory. There is nothing more nauseating then seeing directories that list spam sites, made for adsense sites, and sites that scrape content. As new directories are made everyday, this simple saying is being abused more and more. If you frequent Digital Point Forums, you may be familiar with the Solicitations & Announcements forums where directory owners can announce and promote their directories. Each day, new directories are announced and webmasters take their time to submit to the newly formed directories. But, is it worth the trouble? Over 50% of the new directories will fail and be gone in just 1 years time in the webmasters attempt to make a quick buck. However, a lot can be done to prevent a dieing directory.

Whether the guidelines are posted in the submit.php page or not, over 80% of submissions are incorrect. The duty of an editor, as mentioned before in a previous post, is to go through listings and make sure they are correct. However, one of the most important things is to actually visit the site. Even if the listing is correct, the site must be visited so that it truely beneficial to the directory.

In my opinion, it is better to have 100 Quality Listings in a directory rather than 1000 Listings that are of unknown quality and correct editorial standards.

Currently, I have a pretty hefty backlog with Inclusio that just peaked at 500 Links.

Well, in order to do it right the first time, I am actively going through each submission (since it is free) and correcting the things wrong with it and then approving the links. It is a pretty grueling task, but it is definitely worth the trouble.

As I said earlier, editing is an obligation and it is a must to make the directory grow.

Editing your directory submissions is the one major and most important component to directories.

There is nothing more disappointing then seeing the following in a directory:

Here are the problems with the listings:

1. A directory owner should not allow keyword anchor text in the Title Area. If the directory becomes popular, there could be hundreds to thousands of “Web Hosting” Title tags. Searching the directory for “Web Hosting” would display thousands of results with the same title tag, making it nearly impossible to distinguish all the sites.
2. Individual pages should not be included in a directory. Directories list the most important page (index) in the directory. If a directory owner decides to list every page, it is no longer a directory, but rather just another search engine.
3. URL’s should never make an appearance in the title tag

The most edited part of a submission is the Title tag, which usually is incorrect on 85% of the submissions that come into Inclusio or Bay Engine. It is essential that those listings are correctly edited, not only for a personal preference, but for the future of the directory.

No. Here’s why:

Directory owners these days usually put together strict guidelines for site inclusion. One of the most common being guidelines that disallow MFA (”Made for Adsense”) sites. These sites are thrown together to generate revenue from Contextual advertising, usually from Google Adsense or Yahoo! Publisher Network. Why should a directory display contextual ad boxes, when they usually deny sites that display their ads sitewide for revenue.

Contextual Advertising is a great way to generate revenue for a website, however, a directory should not focus on revenue, but rather quality sites and quality editors. Of course, in an ideal world.

Personally, I think adsense on directories brings the quality and creativeness down and forces me to believe the directory is in need of other ways of revenue in order to make up for the low amount of submissions, regardless if it’s free or paid.

With time comes revenue, don’t try to make a couple of? cents per day on contextual advertising when the space used can be filled with quality listings.

Directory owners should focus on serving the common good of approving and denying sites, while earning revenue from Featured Listings.

In the end, patience and hard work will bring success. Don’t sell yourself short with Contextual Ads.

As of today, Google has indexed almost every category for Bay Engine.

site:bayengine.com

I think the total right now is 522, with categories being added when needed.

Looking good so far, hopefully all those categories will receive some much needed PR!

If you are a webmaster who specifically buys, sells, trades based on pagerank, you may want to make sure you are getting exactly what you’ve paid for.

I have recently found a tool that automatically checks for 301 and 302 redirects that often allow webmasters to fake their pagerank.

The tool is by SEOLogs and is called Fake PageRank Detection / Pagerank Fraud tool

Check for Fake PR Now

Screenshot:

There are many reasons why webmasters submit to paid directories, some more prevalent to others. I myself have come up with my own specific guidelines when choosing and submitting to paid directories. Here they are:

1. Has the directory owner taken the time to design and customize the directory, rather than using the default theme or a free theme?If the answer is no, my sites will not be submitted. Why? The directory market is becoming more and more saturated with webmasters who want to make a quick buck. That said, many of these webmasters take the time to open, fill categories, and promote their directories, only to sell them off and in some instances, shut them down. Most if not all the directories that are well known, are all custom and time has been dedicated to carefully designing for it’s own brand.
   
   
2. Does the directory have PR? Does the directory carry PR within the Categories and subcategories? Google has created an enormous buzz with the latest PR updates, especially after April’s shocking PR update that showed that sites with little to no backlinks can obtain a PR6 or higher. Since the update, many but not nearly most webmasters have began to realize PR is far from everything. Of course, it is great to get a backlink from a PR6 directory, but the PR may drop to a PR2 at the next update, leaving only disappointment if that’s what you only dwell on. My view is, if the directory has PR, Great!, but I look at more characteristics to determine the quality of my listing.
   
   
3. Does the category most relevant to your website contain many or few links? As a directory owner and a webmaster, this is the most important question I ask myself when I look into submitting to a directory. There are thousands of free directories out there, but with free, comes sacrifice, sacrifice of any exposure depending on the way the links are sorted.For instance, X Directory is a PR4 free directory; however, since X directory is free, the category for “Paid Directories” has over 200 Links with only 25 Links showing on the first page. Those links are sorted by PR. If I were to submit Y Directory with a pagerank of 4, I would be in page 2, 3, or 4 depending on the links already listed. What benefit do I get from this? If you were to survey webmasters and counted the number of those who search after page 1 of a directory category, the numbers would be rather slim. Therefore, the solution is easy and has a similiar but more beneficial sacrifice.By Turning the tables, X Directory is a PR4 paid directory. When submitting Y Directory, I see the “Paid Directories” has only 12 Links. Each Submission costs $24.95 for a lifetime listing. The chances of Y Directory remaining on the first page of “Paid Directories” is far greater than that of the free X Directory, even though you are short $24.95.So, would you rather take the free route or pay for more exposure and get the same result of PR?My question for you:
   
   Are you submitting to a directory because YOU think it’s beneficial, or because everyone else says it’s worthwhile and it’s necessary?It’s your money, so it should be your decision. Think of your own variables and then validate the decision.

AJAX CATEGORY SELECTION MOD for PHP Link Directory

Boby, PHPLD developer and Administrator at the PHP Link Directory Forums, has created a MOD for directory owners who have large databases for their directories. The category selection mod prevents hard loading and prevents large server loading that makes it almost impossible for users to select categorys in the submit pages.

The AJAX Category Selection Mod is based on the powerful javascript framework Prototype, which allows new and effective category selections for those currently running versions of PHP Link Directory.

It’s build into the main template, so you won’t have popups and don’t need to force users to use the category they are coming from.

You can see a live version on our directory:
http://www.bayengine.com/submit.php

All needed files, images, stylesheet, tpl’s, javascripts, documentation are included in the package.
The module can be added to all versions of PHP Link Directory.
Installation time: maximum 10 mins.
Download: http://www.frozenminds.com/phpld-ajax-categories.html

The main libraries used in this module, Prototype and script.aculo.us, are both freely distributable under the terms of the MIT license. In respect to their authors, this module is also free available under the terms of the MIT license.