Posted @ October 27, 2009  |  No Comments  |  Categorized Under: Directory Related

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 @ January 16, 2009  |  No Comments  |  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.

Posted @ September 2, 2007  |  1 Comment  |  Categorized Under: Other, Directory Related

After the installation of phpLD 3.2 along with a new template for the directory, I started seeing many other directory owners have incorporated the deep links mod into their directory. Apparently, it was a “must have” mod for any paid directory. Many claim that it will drastically increase paid submissions. From what I’ve noticed, it did indeed lure in quite some paid submissions but it wasn’t “mind blowing”, which I can only blame myself for. It is a huge advantage to submitters as it provides them additional backlinks to inner pages and is better for SE indexing. And from looking around webmaster forums, many directory submitters are only looking to submit to paid directories that offers a deep links option. Wouldn’t you like to be one of them?

To download this mod, you can either purchase it from an0n at Digital Point or the phpLD Support Forums. It is quite expensive but very well worth it if you are serious about your directory.

On a low budget (or none at all?)? rakCha offers a free version of the mod. Be sure to look through the entries for other addons.

The downside to rakCha’s free mod is that it does have quite a few bugs in it and you will not receive support as good as what anon will provide. I see some support for the mod carried out in the comments area. You can also try contacting the owner at DP if you have a problem.

An0n’s mod offers 24/7 support and is much more reliable. I believe he also installs the mod on your directory so you save the hassle of fussing over the installation process.

I, for one, am using the rakcha mod. So far, there has been no problems and all the bugs that I’ve encountered have been fixed. I am crossing my fingers that in the future, it will not crash and burn on me.