Directory Spy

The Cyber Web Link Directory uses what feels like a unique twist to the popular bid-for directories that are popping up all over the place.

The majority of bidding directories allow you to bid for a position in just a very small number of categories. So whoever has the most money will appear at the top. Regardless of the niche of the listing.

Cyber Web Link Directory has taken a normal directory with plenty of categories in it, and added bid-for position functionality to it. This means you can bid to be at the top of a category that is related to your niche. It’s a subtle twist, but it does mean you are more likely to get a good ranking on a relevant page.

I do like it when someone adds useful twists to common functionality. Good luck with the new directory wamchu!

I’ve decided that I need to prune my network of websites a little so that I can focus on my favourite websites. The first of my sites to be sold is my SpyOnMe niche directory. It’s got great potential as a spy and security directory, but I just have not had the time to exploit it.

If you’re interested, you can read the full description of the site, with its statistics and its potential in the Digital Point Forums for the SpyOnMe Directory forsale thread.

Directory Trials is a new directory blog on the scene that is very quickly gaining visitors and popularity. The topics covered by the blog are issues that I come across quite often, and its nice to see such an open and frank discussion about these topics.

Kiviniar has such a conversational writing style that makes his content easy and a pleasure to read. I can see that Directory Trials will easily overtake Directory Spy in popularity and traffic. I can see that Directory Trials would be an opinions based blog, whereas I want Directory Spy to be more of a technical resource (especially with my plans for the near future).

I am already looking forward to future articles from Kiviniar, and I hope that he can continue to find interesting content to blog about on Directory Trials. All the best Kiviniar!

Whilst looking around on the web for phpLD templates, I found that web designers by the name of Futuristic Artists have a large range of phpLD Templates for all major versions including V2.0, V2.1, V3.0 and V3.1.

However, they do not seem to have any templates for V3.2, which I was looking for in the first place. But given their expertise in template design, I would expect they would update any template as long as their was enough call for it.

The template designs themselves are very attractive, and would so easily be a complete finish to any directory, without any tweaks whatsoever. To see what I mean, take a look at their Blue Horizon currently being used at Links Arena.

With a very wide-ranging portfolio, I’d definitely consider them to design a customised template for me. I’ll be adding them to my list of bookmarks!

I’m sure that there are many newcomers to the directory world who wonder what it takes to make a great directory. The Forplex Business Directory certainly do pride themselves on creating a very unique directory completed pimped out with features! The Forplex Business Directory has also managed to get itself listed in DMOZ, which we all know to be exceptionally difficult. (Pete, any tips!?)

I could spend ages talking about the cool features on the directory, but I’ve picked out my favourites just to show you how far you can go to create a high quality directory.

The Directory Owners Index lists the name and usernames of individuals who own and run directories. This is a great way to determine if you can trust a directory based on an individual’s reputation. Once suggestion I make to the directory is to describe the purpose of the page at the top of the page on each of the index.

Forplex is a premium directory, and you can tell by the sheer number of high ranking websites that are already in the directory. Submissions are not cheap, but you are definitely buying quality. If you wish to do a number of website submissions, then you can save some money by purchasing a trade submission service, i.e. bulk discount. I think that this is a particularly good way to get repeat business.

When a website is added, it features a profile page. These profile pages feature a range of information, including traffic information from Alexa. Another nice feature that brightens up the listing to make it more eye-catching is allowing users to upload their website’s logo too. They already get a screenshot of their site for free.

My favourite feature is the daily “Cool Listing of the Day” where a chosen website is featured for the day. It’s a nice touch. Similarly, you can feature your website for certain days on the homepage.

So what makes the Forplex Business Directory so good? It’s all of the extra useful features, in addition to eye-catching design and strong website ranking. So bear that in mind if you’re starting a new directory… make it a directory people want to visit and somewhere they can be proud of to have their website featured.

I came up with a great directory related idea recently that is guaranteed to bring you lots of traffic if you do a great job of it. In a nutshell, the idea is to create a searchable database of phpLD templates, with a demo system and decent screenshots just like the Wordpress Theme Viewer. To my knowledge, such as project does not yet exist!

You could create a profile for each template that exists that includes a download link, the rating/popularity, the number of downloads, the colour scheme, the supported phpLD versions, etc in a similar way in which the Wordpress Theme Viewer works.

You could then click on the template screenshot to see a larger view of it. You might also provide a demo functionality to see it on a live directory.

The reason why I suggest this, is currently themes are promoted in forums such as the Digital Point forums, phpLD specialist forums such as phpLD Hacks or on blogs such as phpLD Themes. Unfortunately, this distributed and haphazard promotion system makes it difficult for users to find a template that suits their needs.

If searchable database of phpLD templates was provided (and I don’t mean a yet another directory here), then designers would be more likely to get their templates used on new directories. Even better for the template sponsors, since they get even more links for their money. With the latest information released by RSS feeds, email updates, etc, a good service would result in lots of traffic too.

So what could you benefit from this? The kudos alone would be substantial, but the monetry benefits would also be worthwhile. You could monetise the project (once it was operational) in the following ways:

• Banner Advertising - a little traditional, but would work for this kind of site.
• Website Sponsors - a large number of decent directories would jump at the chance for this… since the traffic would be completely directory orientated.
• Paid for Templates - charge submission fees for those who charge for their templates.
• Any I’ve forgotten?

Sadly I don’t have the time to exploit this idea myself, but I’d love to hear how you get on with it!

I’ve changed the theme for Directory Spy to make it easier to read and support wide browser windows. This essentially makes it more user friendly!

What do you think? Would love to hear your comments!

I’ve been seeing a lot of activity on the webmaster forums lately, and it appears that Bid For Position directories are the newest craze to hit the webmaster world. The concept is simple, you bid as much as you can afford for the top spot in the directory. The more you pay, the higher your site appears.

This is great for the directory owner, but can prove costly for dedicated website owners. However, a bit of friendly competition never hurt anyone! It’s a vast difference to the other traditional style of directory too.

You can find a list of the Strongest Bid-For-Position directories, which is being updated frequently.

Finally, the moment you have all been waiting for! I have now released the phpLD PR Update Tool V2.00! Here’s what’s new:

• Added phpLD V3.10, V3.20 support
• Added phpLD V2.10, V2.12 support
• Added “Update Complete” message when updating links.
• Added installation check to help ensure mod is installed correctly.
• Added advanced feature to allow change of data center depending on which you prefer to use.

You no longer need to do manual MySQL updates to add the PR tracking now. I have added that to the tool. This was a source of confusion for a number of users.

If you want to blog about this news, please do. However, if you do, could you link to the download page please? And not the download files?

With the recent Google page rank update on 28th April, you’ll now be wanting this tool for your directories too!

A while ago, I started the Category Project to allow people to design their ideal category structure for directories. However, the project was surprisingly under-utilised. Therefore I went ahead and designed my own ideal directory category structure, and released it as one of the Category Dumps.

I’ve seen this Category Dump in almost all new directories, and it features over 700 categories. So thank you to everyone using my category dump!