Interview With Threebuckchuck - LinksQuitters Owner

With the success of the Interview With A Directory Owner Who Has 50+ Directories, I’ve decided to have more interviews with directory owners. I like the interviews because they reveal interesting information about directory owners and tips, the ones they used in building, maintaining and promoting their directory.

Today, I have an interview with Threebuckchuck, he is the owner of LinksQuitters Directory. In this interview, he tells his points of view about the directory business and his his directory specifically. I find the tips really interesting and helpful and thus you should read this article.

Q: First of all, introduce yourself to Directory Kit?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s audience. Is there anything unique about you?

My name is Dave Post and I am the owner of the LinksQuitters Directory. I am 47 years old, live in Michigan and work full time for IBM.

On the advise and with the cooperation of my wife Anne, I started building LinksQuitters Directory in November 2006 and I don’t strive to be unique; I strive to be the best at what I do.

Q: What got you into making your own directory?

ODP crashed October 2006 and we needed something to do. My wife likes to edit a lot and she needed a replacement while they were down so I started LinksQuitters.

Q: What do you think is a quality directory?

A: Quality is subjective, depending on the characteristics of the desired results, so a quality directory would be a directory that has a good category structure and good useful links in every category.

A quality directory should have listings of quality sites in every category, with more added daily so it keeps growing. Nice PR, design and mods are a plus, but content is our #1 priority and for a directory, by definition, content means listings.

Q: What was the hardest part in establishing Links Quitters?

It wasn’t hard to find a directory script, but it was a little harder narrowing it down. It was not hard to find a template either since there are a lot of templates to choose from but we decided to use Anon?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Singe template right now but we bought some custom templates and are trying to decide which one we want to use.

Q: Now Links Quitters is a pretty popular directory. How did you promote it at the beginning?

A: I submitted our directory to a number of directories, mostly free, some paid. I did not buy any other type of advertisement. I have my directory link in my forum signature but I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t buy other people?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s signatures. I have also sponsored a couple of templates.

We submitted to other directories that looked like the owners were working on them, skipping the ones with a bunch of empty categories. PR is irrelevant when we submit, we look at the categories and the listings.

Q: What are three things that you dislike about other directories the most?

• Maybe you dislike when people use default template too often? That doesn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t bother me.
• Maybe when they use default category structure? I hate that, it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s lazy and says the directory owner doesn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t value his own directory enough to create categories that fit his listings.
• Maybe you dislike when people create link farms and not directories? Yep, I hate that too.

Q: What are three factors that determine if you will submit your site into a directory or not?

A: First off, design and PR do not determine if I will submit my sites into a directory. I consider whether the directory seems well maintained or if it has a lot of errors and dead sites. I check to see if listings have been added recently and if they?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re in the right categories. Last, I check the submission guidelines and the category that I belong in.

Q: Can you give one advice to beginners in directory business out there?

People should only take on a directory if they really like working on directories because it takes a lot of time to do it right, and doing it wrong is just a waste of time and money.

If you devote a lot of time to your directory, you shouldn’t need a lot of money to begin with. Maybe a little to submit to other directories but I wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t recommend overspending.

Q: How do you see directory business in the next 5 years?

A: I see the directory ?¢‚Ǩ?ìbusiness?¢‚Ǩ¬ù splitting off in two separate directions. Some will be just a part of a larger webmaster resource. Others, like LinksQuitters will stay focused on the directory itself and become more comprehensive, growing day by day. I also think that there will always be directories. Some will be better, most will be forgotten.

Q: Any interesting developments for Links Quitters in the future that you can tell us about?

A: After Google is done messing around with everyone’s site, I am planning to upgrade LinksQuitters to the latest version of the script I use and a new custom template.