Below you will find a comprehensive collection of tips and guidelines for operating a web directory. Some of the information is personal opinion, but it is largely either fact or popular consensus. Most of the tips provided will help you increase sales, and some of them have been said over and over, some are obvious, and others may be useful to everyone with any experience level. The goal of this article is to be a comprehensive collection of tips for web directory owners all together in one place.

1. Disable image validation before announcing your directory. It is recommended that you always keep it disabled. Many submitters that have numerous listings to submit to each directory avoid those that use image validation because the time is better spent submitting to those that don’t use it and the inconvenience. No matter how easy the image validation is (and some are quite bad), it takes more time to submit to directories that use image validation than those that do not. There are better solutions to prevent spam, such as the spam guard MOD. Don’t put up a road block for those who want to send you money.
2. Include an option for featured listings in your directory. This probably seems obvious to most, but it’s surprising how many directories you can run across that do not. Featured listings provide you with increased revenue, and allow submitters the option for better and secure category placement. Some web site owners and promoters will not even submit to a site if listing cannot be achieved on the first category page. Most submitters prefer to be included among the first one or two pages of a category rather than much deeper, of course.
3. Install the deep links MOD for your directory if the script does not provide them. Deep links provide a significant incentive for web site owners and promoters to submit to your directory rather than those that do not offer deep links. More and more people are realizing how important it is to promote the internal pages of web sites. In many cases, a submitter may have no reason to submit as a featured listing except for the option of deep links or more deep links (especially if their listing will be along the first listings in a category based on your sorting method). The fact is, a lot of submitters will choose the featured option exclusively for this reason, which adds significantly to the revenue of a directory as well as the benefit to submitters. It’s a big selling point in itself for directories, and then again for featured listings, which increases revenue that much more.
4. Allow multiple submissions per domain (sub-pages). As long as someone submits a sub-page or sub-folder into an appropriate category for that listing, there does not seem to be any reason to not accept it. The listing should be judged and evaluated the same as any other submission…based on the content of that page or site. Otherwise, you are simply disallowing revenue from submitters for quality listings.
5. Review submissions to ensure quality web sites, proper categorization, and satisfactory descriptions. Nearly all web directories state that they are "human edited". However, the majority do not seem to be in actuality, with submissions simply being accepted "as is" once paid. This is the most prevalent shortcoming among directories. These tasks are crucial for a quality web directory. Many listings are submitted with very poor descriptions, which should at least be cleaned up and/or corrected. Copy-editing descriptions to provide a uniform writing style for listings and unique descriptions can also be very beneficial for web directories. Performing these tasks is certainly one of the most time-consuming aspects of running a web directory, but they are a big part of what separates quality web directories from all the rest.
6. Make your submission page simple. Avoid non-standard options on the submission form unless really required as they can cause confusion, which will in turn lead to decreased sales, etc. The easier it is for people to send you the submission, the more you will get. It’s as simple as that, and adds up over time.
7. Design your submission page wisely. For example, having a submit page that has an excessive height leads to scrolling and inconvenience for submitters. Again, it adds up over time. The easier you make it for individuals to submit, the better.
8. Don’t require signup or registration unless it offers a major benefit for submitters. Very few directories currently have a reason to require this. If a directory were to allow editing of submissions or perhaps allow "uploading" of funds so that a single payment can be made, and then numerous submissions processed from those funds, rather than making a payment for each submission, that would indeed be a reason to provide registration for submitters. Anything else only adds inconvenience for submitters and puts up a roadblock for those who want to send you money (many will not submit at all to directories that require signup).
9. Be sure that your directory template shows an accurate error message when an error occurs during submission. With some directories, the page will simply reload when submitted with no visible error text, leaving the submitter not knowing why the submission failed. Others show an incorrect report or a report that does not make sense. Be sure to test your directory thoroughly. If an error occurs during submission, a lot of the time submitters will not take the time to email and simply move on, which is a submission lost. I have even seen directories that do not have a submit link on the category pages. Some submitters will be savvy enough to navigate back to the homepage and eventually locate the submit link, but others will become frustrated and abort the submission.
10. Stay away from dropped domains. Many times, you will see a thread that says "NEW" PR5 directory, for example. A lot of submitters won’t even read the thread. New and PR5 don’t usually go together. It is considered a way to make the "quick buck" and can damage your reputation and trust among the webmaster community. Dropped domains tend to loose backlinks as the referring sites determine the site no longer has the content being linked to previously. These domain names are sometimes unrelated to the content of the directory also, which makes it that much worse. It is far better to use a brandable domain name that you can build upon and establish a long-term identity and future for your directory. The PR5 may lead to more initial sales (which is why it’s called "quick buck"), but if you are serious about your directory, care for it by building for the future with backlinks that are related to your web site.
11. If your directory accepts featured listings, be sure to set the correct number you want to allow per category. Many times an individual will try to submit to a directory only to receive the response that no more featured listings are allowed. However, when such directory owners are contacted, they’re quick to increase the number as if they did not even realize it was set to a low number. Having the correct number set to begin with will produce better results for you in a number of ways, including increased revenue as well as showing that your directory is being well-managed.
12. If you’re running a bidding directory, don’t offer specials to manipulate bids, such as being credited with double the bid amount. Trust is very important for all directories, but even more so with bid directories. Always operate your directory honestly and never alter bids. Doing so is guaranteed to ruin your directory project.
13. Check the time unit setting in your directory for payments. A lot of directories announced have the payment option set to monthly, which will lead to mostly aborted submission/payment. Be sure it is set to the actual unit you want to use, whether it be permanent or yearly. If you’re getting a lot of aborted submission, this could be why.
14. If your directory is set to yearly billing, be sure to mention this on the submit form. Surprise yearly billings can also lead to aborted submissions. Information on the listing duration should be provided so that it can be considered in conjunction with the directory’s submission fee. One fee may be acceptable for a permanent listing, but not for yearly or some other duration, for example.
15. If you only accept certain types of listings in specific categories (such as top-level categories), be sure to mention this on the submit form. It is always useful for the directory’s guidelines to be available on the submission page, but for this case in particular, having the information visible leads to happier submitters and fewer problems as it lessens the number of people aggravated by moved listings and other related situations.
16. Carefully consider the sorting method your directory uses. There are disadvantages to many of the options. For example, sorting by date ascending will deter people from submitting once your directory becomes more established because of listings being buried pages deep. Sorting by date descending has the opposite effect; people will not want to submit due to buried listings as new submissions are listed. Sorting alphabetically tends to lead to a lot of "bad" listing titles in an effort to achieve top category placement. Sorting by hits is the real wildcard because the directory/webmaster audience can be very skewed. Therefore, the web site owner or promoter has no idea where the listing will end up or how long it will be there, which can lead to fewer submissions. Sorting by PR seems to be the best choice for web directory listings since it encourages promotion for web sites and rewards those who work hard and manage their sites well. It’s not perfect (since PR does not necessarily indicate the value of a site), but it seems to be the best option available for sorting listings by quality.
17. If your directory displays PR for listings or sorts listings by PR, be sure to install a PR update MOD to use when Google updates occur. This will keep the directory’s listing information up-to-date and provide fair/accurate arrangement for directories that use PR for sorting.
18. Maintain an acceptable submission approval time. This is an important element for web directories. It’s part of what makes submitters consider directories when promoting web sites and builds trust and respect/value for a directory. If your directory project is important to you, and you cannot process listings in a timely fashion, consider seeking assistance from editors or paid help. Submitters of paid listings should be able to expect approval within 3-5 business days for a well-maintained directory.
19. Make it easy for people to submit listings. Many web directory submitters use tools to speed the submission process, prevent errors, and better manage submissions. If a web directory presents a button to make payment, and requires all the submission information to be typed into the PayPal notes or emailed, it is a significant inconvenience, especially if the submitter has numerous listings to submit since these tools cannot be utilized. This is a major obstacle for those that can send you 20-40 submissions at a time.
20. Avoid JavaScript category selection. For those that submit numerous web sites, the JavaScript category selection method takes more time for each listing and is therefore less convenient, which tends to lead to fewer sales in the long run. Sometimes the JavaScript category selection can cause browser crashes also, which can lead to even more frustration.
21. If the language of your directory is not your native language or you feel you may need assistance, seek help from someone skilled with writing and grammar. Having bad grammar, typos, and misspellings in a directory gives a bad impression for paying submitters.
22. Check your directory template in multiple resolutions and window sizes. Some directory templates are broken in numerous ways by something as simple as having a Firefox sidebar showing (which is common). Text is often hidden, overlapped by images, etc.
23. Backup your database frequently. This is extremely important. It’s best if you can implement a system for automatic backups, but if not, remember to backup on a regular basis. Problems can occur no matter how careful you are; therefore, having an up-to-date backup is crucial. For example, if your hosting company goes out of business, you need to be able to get your directory back online with the listings intact. A lost database will quickly result in no confidence for your projects and severely cripple future sales. It is also important to keep an offline copy of your directory template files, of course.
24. Finally, slow servers can result in directory errors and lost sales. A server error on when making payment, for example, can lead to aborted payments for fear of being charged twice. An error on submission can result in the listing actually being entered into the directory’s database, but the submitter not being transferred to the page for payment. When the user goes back to try again, it usually is not possible because of the listing already being present in the database. Also be careful when changing a directory’s DNS to minimize downtime.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 12:44 am and is filed under Tips for Directory Owners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.