Android Site Directory

The Android Site Directory is a nice niche phpLD instance! The domain was registered 2 years ago in January of 2011, and seems to be at least well organized and designed. It is apparent from that design that this is a site about Android and hopefully there are some great links to reinforce that and make the site worth revisiting!

I see there is use of banners at top and bottom and I would estimate the site is getting a trickle of traffic now and a little money too. I see the pagerank is 1, and while pagerank isn't everything, this is an indication more links or marketing could help it do better.

There are many android forums on the net, and I would bet there would be opportunities to post on them with a signature link, and attract some people in the niche, and maybe even start to get some in niche advertising as well.

Good job, and hope you keep taking small steps to improve it over time. Often it can take a few YEARS, but it can be well worth it!

Ellys Directory

Ellys Directory is coming up on its one year anniversary having been registered in January of 2012. The first thing that catches my eye are all the banners, so there is indication the site is well monetized already. And "indication" is important! If I were a potential advertiser wanting banner space, seeing that other sites are using the banner ads makes me wonder what makes Ellys Directory so special! I will leave that up to you to decide but remember that in marketing that creating a feeling of popularity can certainly bring about action in the form of purchases.

I'm not entirely happy with the content of the site. I do understand that people buy link reviews and this is part of the business structure, but I sure would like to see more "indication" that if I click deeper into the site that I will find something worthwhile. As I look at the latest articles and featured links on the homepage I don't feel drawn to click deeper. Not to say that you would want to cut off a method of monetization, but there may be some ways to feature great content in addition to this so the site is stickier and you can start to optimize inner pages for traffic an rankings.

TajBoy has Barkin Good Websites

So as I look at Tajboy and the tag line "Barkin Good Websites" it sounds kind of interesting. I am hoping it will live up to the slogan, so the first thing I have done is click on some categories, and what is nice is there is a description that is interesting to read in most cases. Obviously some extra work was done here, and this should help insure these pages get indexed. Good job!

And kudos to you for making the About Us page. That is smart, and if someone reads it, I think you are more likely to get submissions including paid ones. One area that I am not familiar with but seems big is Ezine Articles, and that sounds good that you are a Platinum author there. I would assume you are building links to your directory that way including to internal pages, so that could be great for people that list with you, and also help you sell other services alongside directory listings.

This is probably just a pet peeve of mine, but I don't like the dark background for the content boxes on the right. I think it would be good to lighten that up a little for better readability, maybe something like you did on the submit page, which is nice and clean and readable.

I think you are off to a fantastic start, and I see potential for growth, and would love to review it again in a few months.

Global Business Directory

The Global Business Directory also uses the Elevation template (like my last review) so it seems to be quite popular!

What I like right off the bat is the category structure. It appears that you started with only top level categories, meaning we don't have a lot of empty categories floating around, and that makes for better distribution of content. What I also saw is some categories may need to be split up a little with sub categories now, as there are many pages. It shouldn't be all that time consuming to create a couple of subcategories, then use the multiple select and move in the phpLD admin interface.

I like the Webmaster Tools over on the left column. You figure a lot of people who submit to directories also use webmaster tools, so hopefully you are getting some click throughs to these sections.

Some categories like Pharmaceuticals may attract some spammy links, so I would make sure you have a good review process. Also, you might want to consider adding some of your own links to these categories and sort by something like pagerank (but don't show it). This will help insure there is quality one click from the homepage, and more questionable links deeper.

So good luck with your directory, and hopefully we'll take a look at it again in a few months!

Directory 4 You

Directory 4 You was created back in 2007 according to the Whois record. They are using the Elevation template which I have always liked.

Now as I go through the categories, I am a little concerned there are too many stub pages, or empty categories that have no links. It might be good to go add some helpful links to empty categories, or remove categories that are not likely to see expansion in the near future. This will help insure there is content throughout the directory.

As I have mentioned on other reviews, I would remove the Free with Reciprocal option, as that can attract low quality links. At the very least, watch your Yahoo inlinks and see what kind of quality you are getting. Too many of the wrong kind can cause harm, especially when reciprocals are involved.

I think this directory is off to a good start, but certainly more content, and some originality would help it toward the next level. It's always nice to have something on the homepage that is interesting that says "this is not your typical directory", and that is something to think about to help attract people deeper into your site.

Good luck with your directory!

Changing the Background Image on a phpLD Template

Something that is quick and easy, but also can bring about a dramatic change to your directory's overall look is the background image. You can take a default template, change the logo and change the background image, and you have something unique. There is a quick tutorial called PHP Background Image over on the phpLD forums that tells you exactly how to change the image. This works on version 2 and up, so basically all phpLD versions. Now, some template designers may have changed their CSS or overall structure, but it should work in most cases.

Good luck!

Blog Directory Script

What has been popular over the last few years are blog directories which do some of the following:

1. Allow you to submit your blog

2. Let people rate and comment on blogs

3. Contain an RSS feed to the latest blog posts.

4. Have a profit model such as charging for blog submission or for featured blog listings.

A nice example of this is Delightful Blogs. It has been a blog directory for several years now and was recently revamped. Check it out!