9 Things To Learn From Alive Directory To Make Your Directory More Successful
These is a case study about Alive Directory. Don’t forget to view previous case study about Directory Dump as well. Ones again, I was not paid by Alive Directory owner to review his directory, I am just talking about his directory to help you improving your own.
Let me introduce Alive Directory now,
Powerful human edited web directory of quality, family-friendly, and spam-free sites organized via a comprehensive category structure. Featured and standard listing options are available.
Since Alive Directory is very powerful (PR 6 and currently 1,924,670 backlinks) and well design directory it offers something unique, and it is promoted in different ways. Today, I am going to talk about important tips, which can be seen in Alive Directory and should be helpful to every directory owner out there.
- Improve your directory right before the PR update. Alive Directory changed it design to a new slick, simple and stylish template. It also introduced its own blog today. In my opinion, it’s a good technique to improve your directory right before the PR update so Google will value a directory more and assign it a higher PageRank.
- Images are more noticeable and attractive then text. I have made a small research and found out that Alive Directory mostly uses images and banners instead of plain text in its promotion. So when you promote your own directory try to use banners instead of text since banners are noticed first, right before the text.
- Lighter colors are way better than darker ones. Both, the new directory design and its previous one, have lighter colors in it. Therefore, try to use lighter templates rather than dark ones since they are more readable and user friendly.
- Target the keywords “Web Directory” instead of “Directory”. As you can see Alive Directory has the keywords, “Web Directory” rather than just “Directory” in its title. In my opinion, Alive Directory chose those keywords because “Web Directory” is more oftenly searched on the web and can be easier archived then “Directory”.
- It’s better to say “Resources” or “Listings” instead of “Links”. You can clearly see that Alive Directory tries to use words, “Resources” and “Listings”, instead of “Links”. The words, “Resources and Listing”, sound more professional and add more value to your directory.
- Every backlink counts. Alive Directory is not only promote at highly powerful sites but also promoted at less popular sites. So get as much backlinks as possible and don’t hesitate to promote your directory at low PR sites.
- Promote your directory all the time. The PR update is coming soon and new backlinks will not likely be counted but Alive Directory owner is still promoting his directory as much as he is capable of. So promote your directory before the PR update, when it’s happening and after.
- Promote your directories in your own network. As you can see most of the sites under “Quality Resources” are owned by Alive Directory owner, if not all of them. So why not to advertise your own directories in your network if it’s free?
- Spend a LOT to earn a LOT. Alive Directory proves it, if you want to be successful and earn money you need to promote and spend money first.
Don’t forget to comment and remember that this is not a paid post.
Everything About Distinguishing Your Directory With A Favicon
First of all, I would like to make sure that everyone knows what a favicon is. The best way to do so, is to simply to define what it is and where it can be found.
Favicon is the small icon displayed in your browser next to the URL in the address bar as well as on the bookmarks.
So why should directory owners use favicons? There are two main reasons why favicons distinguish a directory from competitors and thus should be used, which are:
- First of all, favicon highlights your directory’s design. In other words, favicon contributes to directory’s template and creates good atmosphere for a user to be in. Having a favicon also tells users that you are serious about your directory and it’s worth submitting into.
- Secondly, images are always noticed right before text and thus favicon distinguishes your directory from competitors on the bookmarks’ list. In other words, favicon makes your directory stand out from other directories.
Unfortunately, I have noticed that not a lot of directories use favicons out there. To be exact, almost none since I saw only one directory with favicon out of a hundred. In my opinion, the main reason for that is simply because people either do not know how to use them or how to create them. So in this part of the article I will try to illustrate how to create favicons, and how to setup them.
There are two main ways to create a favicon:
- Download and use already existed ones. There are a thousand of ready to use favicons but my favorite are from famfamfam. In fact, I use it for Directory Kit’s favicon as you might have noticed. You can download wonderful collection of free beautiful icons by famfamfam by clicking on the image below.
- Use special favicons generators and creators. You can either use Dynamic Drive’s generator or Real World Graphics’ online icon maker in order to make you own favicon. It’s worth noticing that Dynamic Drive’s tool let’s you create favicon by uploading already existed image and converting it to the right size, while you can use Real World Graphics’ tool to draw a favicon.
Now when you have your favicon made you are ready to setup it. In order to do so you need to follow a number of steps, which are:
- Make sure your favicon is named as “favicon.ico”. If you are using some sorts of tools for creating your favicon then you don’t need to worry about this step since they automatically save files in the right way. However, if you download and use existed ones then you need to rename it to “favicon.ico”.
- Upload it to your server. This step is fairly easy, all you do is upload the file by using your favorite ftp software.
- Add
< link rel="Shortcut Icon" href="http://www.yoursite.com/favicon.ico">(remove spaces before and after “>”)to your codings. The favicon might work without this code but still use it, just to make sure. It’s worth noticing that you should add this code into “header.tpl” file, which is in the templates folder.
To conclude, I would like to see that this post helps directory owners and more and more directories start to use favicons!
How To Choose The Perfect Domain For Your Directory
How many times have you had problems with selecting the perfect name for your directory? Personally for me, the domain name selecting process is extremely painful and time consuming. I can say with confidence in my voice that I spend the most of my time picking the right domain for my directories or sites. Do you do that?
You should always take your time and pick the best domain for yourself since domain name is what people see first before visiting your site. A good domain name should inform a user what your the site is about and attract him or her.
There are generally three ways to come up with a directory name:
- Be creative, create a trendy name. Having a trendy name is a good way to distinguish your directory from competitors. Forplex is a perfect example of a brand directory name. Unfortunately, trendy name is of the hardest domain names to promote at the begging.
- Go keyword based. Having a keyword based domain will bring you traffic from search engines. However remember that keywords should be related to the industry you are in. For example, a good keyword based domain for a directory would be webdirectory.com but not crazytoysfactory.com. Also remember to use one to two keywords not a bunch of them. A good example of keyword based domain is WebLinks.com
- Think metaphorically. First, I have to warn you that this is the hardest way to come up with a domain name. This way evolves thinking of what your site will provide to it’s users and express it in a creative manner. For example, FingerTips.com would be a good domain for a directory since it will provide all information about sites at your finger tips.
Here are some general tips that you should follow when you pick a domain for your directory as well as for a website:
- The Shorter is Better. Always try to have as shorter domain as possible since short domains are easier to remember, easier to tell friends and easier to type into the browser.
- Try not to use hyphens. In my opinion, hyphens tend to confuse users since there are no real successful sites or directories, which have hyphens in its domain name. For example, is it mybestdirectory.com or my-best-directory.com or maybe even my-bestdirectory.com and so on… If the desired domain name is taken, try not to use hyphens but pick another name.
- Try not to use numbers. Numbers also tend to confuse users. For example, is it 7directory.com or sevendirectory.com or maybe even seventhdirectory.com. If you want to register a domain name with numbers then register all possible domains that user might type into the browser when he hears about the site.
- Register expired domain names. It might be a good action to register an expired domain name if it has good Alexa Rank, some backlinks and possibly even PR. You can use SnapNames to find out and register expired domain names.
- Use Thesaurus. Using alternative keywords in a domain is the best way to choose a domain if the preferred ones are already taken. Let’s say you want to have webdirectory.com but it’s taken, another best choice would be to register cyberdirectory.com or onlinedirectory.com.
In conclusion, the best domain name should be simple to remember, short, and easy to spell. I would also like to say that domain choosing process is completely up to you. Follow the tips written above and do what you think is right. Try not to ask for suggestions on forums since the suggested domain names can be easily taken by someone else.
Once again, don’t forget to leave comments.
