Posted @ September 3, 2011  |  Categorized Under: Directory News, Directory Related, Guides

It came to my attention that the search function on the directory was not working. After reports of link owners not being able to find their site via the search bar,I discovered that it was completely broken as no results came up for any keyword or term searched. I found a fix for it and it is now up and running again.

If any other phpld owners have this problem, here is the simple fix.

• At the very end of search.php, find this code:

$pattern = array ( '/(AND[\s])+/', '/(OR[\s])+/', '/\s+/', '/`+/', '`^[^\w\d]`', '`[^`\w\d]$`' );

• Replace it with:

$pattern = array ( '#(AND[\s])+#i', '#(OR[\s])+#i', '#[\s]+#', '#[`]+#', '#^[^\w\d]#i', '#[^`\w\d]$#i' );

Cheers!

Posted @ July 2, 2011  |  Categorized Under: Guides, Other

Having never used Google Adwords before till recently because I was presented with a $100 free coupon upon registering– I decided to give it a go.  The entire process is not exactly clear and could be confusing for rookies when it comes to Adwords.

It came with a lot of confusion that could easily lead to your account being overcharged as many people do not realize how quickly your balance accumulates. Within 10 minutes of my account being active, I’ve accumulated a balance of $6.34 with a $0.19 CPC. I think I refreshed the page just once…

• Choose Manual Payment when signing up. When you sign up to activate your billing information before your campaigns are activated, you’re presented with the Automatic Payment (postpay) or Manual Payment option. Unfortunately this can’t be changed after your account is set up. Automatic Payment will of course, bill you automatically once your account reaches a $50 balance or after 30 days, whichever comes first. That means for those if you using a coupon or voucher, you will be automatically charged from your credit card or bank account after you have used up your coupon– with no notification.  If you chose Manual Payment which is prepay, your campaigns will stop automatically after all your funds have been used up which results in no overcharges other than what you’ve initially put into your account.

• Pause or Delete your campaign in time. If you chose Manual Payment, make sure you keep a close watch on your account. If you do not want to be charged more than your voucher credit or the funds available in your account, make sure to pause or delete the campaign once your balance is close to your threshold. (Do this at least 3 hours before as the results being displayed isn’t in real time and you may actually have a higher balance than what is being shown so there is still a chance on going over.)

• Set an “end date” for your campaign This is especially for those using Adwords vouchers. If you have a $100 voucher and only wish to use the funds from the voucher, an example of what you could do is set your maximum daily spending to $15, and then choose an end date five days from the day you started the campaign. $15 x 5 = $75. Why only $75? Because if you look carefully, it actually states that your daily spending may actually peak 20% above your set daily budget for maximum potential for your ad. So without knowing, your budget is actually higher than what you set it to be which could lead to over charging if you do not monitor your account closely. Setting it at $15 for a $100 coupon should be safe.

Note: There is a $5 sign up fee once your campaign is activated. This will be billed towards your credit card or bank account if you chose Automatic Payment (postpay)… but if you chose Manual Payment (prepaid), it’ll be deducted from your coupon (if you have one). *Not 100% sure on this but it was what I was advised.

Overall, it is safer to do prepaid manual payment unless you’re a long term ongoing advertiser– which is obviously what the Adwords system is set up for.

I’ve heard countless stories on distressed advertisers logging onto their account after months to see accumulating balances of $450 or $600 and more and they have no idea where it came from. Many of these people  created an account using the $100 adwords coupon and did not realize they had to pause or delete their campaign to stop Google from charging your credit card or bank account after your coupon balance has used up.

It’s also not to the advertiser’s benefit that the Automatic Payment option is listed as “recommended” as new users/rookies will of course choose this option and often they’re not looking to use Adwords for a long term run or is only experimenting as a trial experiment.

Make sure you’re well aware of how the program works and what not before creating an account and submitting your billing information!

Posted @ June 23, 2011  |  Categorized Under: Announcements, Directory News

An update on the organization of PDC— many new categories have been added and shifted around. From day one, the categories in the directory were added manually and no bulk category dump was used so the category list can always use improvement for more specificity and variety. If you have any category suggestions, feel free to use the contact us page. I received a listing where the submitter directed me to make a new category for their listing through the description box. Quite informal, but plausible. I removed their comment from the description before listing the submission and approved the listing in the requested new category.

Also, a validation queue is currently being processed. All broken links will be set to inactive. If your site was set to inactive and is now online again, feel free to contact us on this issue. Most of these broken links date back to 2006-2007 so it is our assumption that the site is no longer active. (FYI, Most links from 2006-2007 were during the time period when PDC was listing websites without a listing fee

Cheers!

Posted @ January 25, 2011  |  Categorized Under: Announcements, Directory News

We apologize for any inconvenience caused due to the recent virus that somehow made its way onto the directory. The source of the problem was found due to human error. We did not make the most recent WordPress upgrade to  the directory blog which ultimately caused the security issue. This has been fixed and all is well now. Thank you.

Posted @ December 29, 2009  |  Categorized Under: SEO

You would think that page rank would have a lot to do with the success of a directory. When I was a beginner to the SEO world, everytime I saw “Free PR4 Directory”, I’d submit my network for websites to it like theres no tomorrow. Time passes, you realize 95% of those submissions were mostly useless. It is not that hard to achieve a PR4 website.

For example,  I’ve had websites that I’ve only acquired a few quality backlinks for, and received a PR4. I’ve also had websites where in the old days, I’d go the easy way and pay for the directory submission packages which is consisted of free web directories that is worth not even an ounce of milk (you know most of you have done this one time or another)… and still received a PR4. So which PR4 is worth more? I don’t believe in pagerank.

To be honest with you, I do not know the pagerank of PostDotCom Directory right now. Yes, I’m not lying.  I’ve completely drifted away from pagerank and being obsessed with numbers and backlinks and what not.

It does not in any way, shape, or form affect rank in the search engine. It does not determine the quality of a website, or a directory. While I’m sure when you’re finally deciding to sell your “two month old free PR4 directory”, it’ll generate more interest than a “two month old free pr0 directory”. But it’s up to you.

While this directory is not a PR6 and PR7, but it retains high rankings in many popular terms and has been around for several years and receives constant submissions. So some people out there must be getting the fact that page rank does not rule all.

When’s the next pagerank update?

Sorry, I’m too busy having a life to keep track of it and monitoring my websites 24/7 to see if any changes occurred in datacenter34937487 and running to webmaster forums to participate in another “Nope no change here.” “One site dropped to PR3  and one site is a PR 9!!!” “No update here yet.” thread. ETC.

Cheers.

Posted @ December 9, 2009  |  Categorized Under: Guides, SEO

Whether you are building a website for a home-based business, a medium sized business, or a big, fancy business – the question is: how can you get maximum traffic to your site? Now this is where you need to know how to make full use of the natural traffic sources. Now you might be wondering what ‘natural traffic sources’ means. We explain in this article.

To get maximum mileage, you need to know proper methods to get quality-targeted traffic to your website. You can use natural search engine listings (which have the ability to convert well) – but many people new to the dynamics complain that the competition is too fierce, and the algorithm of the search engines is constantly changing. However, one of the best natural traffic sources is article marketing – which is absolutely free, and the leads can convert up to 10 times better than other sources. You need to be known, liked, and trusted by your visitor, for them to buy your product. So write and submit many article concerning yourself and your business to major directories, put in your website link in the resource box, and when people read and get to know about you, they will automatically be driven to buy your product.

Another natural traffic source that you can explore is pay per click advertising. Using AdWords gives you the ability to be effective in as little as 5 minutes. Basically what you need to do here is think about the keywords that people might use to locate your product, and use the keyword research tools – Wordtracker is a good example. Based on this research, you can find the laser target keywords that would mean high sales for you.

Yes, when it comes to generating traffic on your website, there are certain tips, strategies, tactics and secrets you should know. For instance, another great way to use a natural traffic source is to get featured on Google News, or any other major news website, as they get millions of visitors every day. Yahoo News and MSNBC are also good examples – use them for articles, press releases, etc. to get massive traffic to your site. What you need to do is be published on the sites that are syndicated by Google News. You can also submit your website as a potential news source –but you would need to keep in mind certain editorial guidelines.

Another way to use a natural traffic source is to target your readers with topic-specific articles. Because if you submit everything at one particular place, there’s a good chance your readers might not find what they are looking for. So focus on specific websites that cater to specific tastes – like The Bleacher Report (sports), SeekingAlpha (finance), LifeHack.org (self growth, time management, productivity, technology).

Yes, with just a little effort and dedication, you can pull it off – remember, make use of the natural traffic sources out there to generate traffic to your website at minimum cost. You are sure to reap the benefits!

Posted @ October 27, 2009  |  Categorized Under: Directory Related, Guides

On average, I receive about 100 or more spam emails per day via the contact form posted on postdotcom.com. Like most directory owners that have a job, a life, and a family,  there were not enough hours in the day to be spent slowly sorting through the massive amounts of spam emails everyday. I’ve noticed that spam emails were the majority of emails being received so being the noob that I was, I stopped dealing.

One day,  I received an email in my paypal inbox notifying me of Paypal disputes. Turns out, a buyers link was mistakenly rejected and did not receive a refund. They had contacted me via the main email many times and had no response for weeks. Though they had the benefit of doubt for us to wait, after more than two weeks, a dispute was finally open.

I’m going to be honest here, I was new to the business. I was unprofessional and paid the price for it as I  could have lost a recurring submitter. Filled with miscommunications as I tried to solve the issue and save the directory’s reputation, I knew I would never see the submitter again. Losing business is no fun. When you’re new and the excitement builts up, a small misstep definitely teaches you a lesson.

It eventually adds up as this incidence occurred twice. If I was the buyer and paid for a directory submission and had no response for weeks as to why my link was rejected with no refund, I will probably never return again nor would I recommend others to. In the end, you could be labeled as a scam or fraud. The submitter could have been someone working from an SEO company that would have recurring submissions to your directory, or simply an internet marketer that runs through lists of directories for website submissions daily. Every little thing counts.

For those who run hundreds of directories, make sure you do keep up with your emails. Free or not, it’s a business, and the service you provide must include customer service. For the gurus out there, I know they are on top of it, but here is a simple tip for the newbies. A little goes a long way, because one day, you maybe one of the big guru directories out there and you want a good reputation from beginning to end.

As small as this incident is, it is still a mishap that needs to be corrected. I’ve noticed that many directories take more than a week to respond, and that is an unacceptable wait because you are a company, a service, a business.

Two years later, we are definitely on top of it.

Posted @  |  Categorized Under: Guides, Other

I find many security scripts of great use when developing a directory or for content management. Login Manager 3 is one such, which is quite powerful and if you are a web administrator, then you can manage the website user accounts with much ease. You can create areas that are membership protected, and also prevent any unauthorized access to areas that have been secured.

iLogin is a PHP script that lets you protect parts of your site with password, which visitors can only access if they sign up and give you their details.

RedCMS Login Script lets users register / login / logout, and you can restrict the pages too. This script comes with a few administration controls which lets you change access levels for users. You can even remove users if you want to.

One  script you should watch out for is Simple Authorization PHP Script, which protects web page with password, without using a database. This makes use of PHP and of cookies, for password protection. The great thing about this is that it’s quite simple, both in terms of use and installation. No username is required, just a password – for accessing the page. All you need to do is download the script, configure, and add a line of code to each page which you would like to protect with password.

Also look out for User Management System, a great script that calls for a MySQL database. This lets users register, login, retrieve their password, and even edit their details. This is also easy to work with, and you can customize it as you like. In fact, you can even create areas that are strictly members-only.  For certain niches, look out for PHP Tell A Friend Script – which allows you let visitors recommend your website. You have both email layout and HTML layout, and they are easily customizable. Plus, many security features are added, which prevent spam and abuse.

Posted @ August 11, 2009  |  Categorized Under: Guides, SEO

You might be wondering about pay per click advertising. In this article, we shall tell you all about it. Basically, websites use it as an Internet advertising model. How does it work? Well, the advertisers pay the host only when someone has clicked on the advertisement. Generally, a fixed price is charged rather than a variable cost. When there is a match between a keyword query and an advertiser’s keyword list – then the website will display a PPC advertisement. This is also true if the content site has displayed some content relevant to the keyword. These are termed sponsored ads, or sponsored links.

Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft AdCenter are the best when it comes to pay per click advertising, however you should be aware that sometimes this model can fall victim of click fraud. An automated system should be implemented to guard against harmful or abusive clicks by corrupt web developers or competitors.

In pay per click advertising, a fixed amount is decided upon by the advertiser and the publisher. This is called the flat-rate model. It’s usually use in comparison shopping engines. However, it is possible for ad advertiser to pay more to get greater visibility. Sometimes, the full content of some websites can be paid ads.

Pay per click advertising started in February 1998, when Jeffrey Brewer, of Goto.com, gave the concept of a pay per click search engine to the TED conference, which was being held in California. Thus, the PPC advertising system was created – and Google caught up with search engine advertising in December 1999. In 2000, the AdWords system came into being – and this allowed advertisers to create text ads, which would be placed on the Google search engine.

Pay per click advertising is hot and happening today – it’s the best area of online marketing, and is expected to get much stronger. In fact, paid searches have been known to generate as much as $14 million in a year! Google definitely is the best among these for having a huge share of paid search.

So why is pay per click advertising creating such waves?  Well, the truth is that it’s simple and easy to use, plus as an advertiser have a good amount of control over your ad campaign, and you would also get quality feedback on your performance. That’s why pay per click advertising is something you should definitely look into, even if you are a CEO, you can make your own company’s PPC campaign.

Once you get into PPC advertising, you are sure to quickly pick up, and very soon you will have optimized your performance. Plan out your campaign so that you can generate millions and millions of dollars. Use PPC advertising to reach your target market and generate high quality sales leads.

So make maximum use of your keyword strategy and good visitor analytics to set up a PPC campaign that is guaranteed to work. You are sure to see the many benefits it will have for your business.

Posted @ January 16, 2009  |  Categorized Under: Directory Related

Here’s a quick and general on the surface overview on why you should submit to web directories. Web directories have their usefulness to anyone who runs a website or a blog and wants to gain as much exposure as possible to their site. So you have submitted your site to all of the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and many more, but it doesn?t have to stop there. Whilst many websites draw a lot of traffic from the search engines, unless you have a high enough ranking in their listings your site may or may not be clicked on. Directories allow you to submit your site to categories relevant to your websites niche. This is why Web Directories are important. First of all, web directories are great for link building. Submitting to a quality directory is another quality backlink.

Search engines have a tendency to be automated in most of their responses, very little is handled by another human being. Of course, this works well for search engine companies as they want to be able to deliver you a fast and reliable service with the demand they have to keep up with. However, the link to your site is just thrown into the melting pot with all the other billions of links in their database. What you need is something more geared towards handling that same exposure to your website, hence why it is important to submit to as many Web Directories as possible.

Web Directories work in conjunction with the major search engines as your link will already be stored in their database. So why submit to Web Directories then you ask? A team of moderators and reviewers can appropriately associate your content with certain categories that people might want to be looking in when they are searching for a website. That is the downfall of the search engines; the way that they index your site is in and unorganised fashion. Human beings actually have to verify your link and make it available to viewers on their directory. So now the chances of your website getting views increases because you can rely on the standard search engines and the Web Directories you have submitted to. Depending on whether you are submitting to a paid directory or a free directory will determine the time spent on categorising and optimizing your link.

Generally speaking paid directories will spend far more time making optimizing the link to your website than free directories, but don?t be disillusioned by the word ?paid?, as free directories may boost your chances of potential viewers sufficiently. Many say that submitting to free directories is a waste of time, but don’t forget that that directory may develop and someday the backlink will be extremely beneficial to you.