Who are you? Name, age, location.

Dan, creator of the original seo friendly directory list at Info Vilesilencer. I am 31, currently residing in Sydney, Australia

What made you start your list.?

I had a huge number of bookmarked directories, search engines and link farms and I saw a niche (being link building and building backlinks at the time) and I decided to categorise this huge pile of jumbled resources into a clean and clearly focussed list. Originally, I did it for my own purposes, but I decided it would be a useful resource for the SEO community and I guess that is the reason why I released it publicly.

How much of your day/week do you spend on your list?

Hard to pinpoint exactly - suffice it to say it is a very time consuming task. What started as a simple hobby quickly snowballed into a major resource when people realised that all the hard work in selecting quality directories had been done for them. The popularity of the list lead me to spend increasing amounts of time on it to maintain the quality. With the advent of the Info Vilesilencer Forum I have a lot more help from contributors, which allows me to spend time more wisely  discussing aspects of the lists and associated factors.

What else do you do?

In addition to maintaining Info Vilesilencer, I also run a multitude of websites as well as dabbling in design work and collaborating in a commercial IRC server which currently has a few radio networks as clients.  The latter is starting to consume more time and resources as we conduct professional celebrity chats for clients which are a lucrative entry point for us and allow our customer base to utilise our software, hardware and bandwith allocations, as some of the chats can get in excess of 1 or 2 hundred users chatting in real-time. Recreation-wise I just returned from a pretty decent camping trip with a mate and we went fly fishing in the scenic Australian bush. It was only 4 days,  but when I take a break I like to get as far away from the internet and computers as possible.

How long has the list been going for?

I released the initial SEO friendly directory list to the public in October, 2004 (though I’ve been building the lists privately for a lot longer than that), and this begun a massive trend of making directories both search engine friendly (mod-rewriting the URLs to improve indexation in the engines) and SEO friendly (ensuring that the one-way backlinks are counted in the major engines). Info Vilesilencer itself has been around since 2002 though I had it on free webhosts before that time from about 1998 when it was more of a webdesign portal.

Were do you see the list going in the future?

The list evolves as the directory community does. When I first started I concentrated mainly on categorising directories as SEO friendly or not. I was also more interested in the free directories only as this appealed to the end user (my initial market). The community has caught on and most directories are SEO friendly now so this aspect of the lists I spend less time on than I previously did.

Currently the listing is more about separating general and niche directories. Paid inclusion directories have also begun to feature more prominently. So the list has evolved to encompass both directory owners and users. The entire community benefits as a result. Recently I announced that I will be capping the general list at 500. This is to try and curb this trend of people putting up directories with the idea of making a quick buck, which ends up in a lot of abandoned directories when they realise that making money via directories isn’t a simple ‘if you build it they will come’ model.

Anything you would like to talk about in your professional career before the list?

Not much to tell that I think anyone would be interested in hearing. I’ve worked a few jobs in my time from lawnmowing straight out of school to wine-waiting  (I used to call it wine-wasting) whilst I was at university studying Chemical Engineering.

I had a brief stint as a programmer with ACNielsen in their retail operations department, where we ‘band-aid’ programmed using pseudo-cobol language. I say ‘band-aid’ because most of the work was patch jobs, since some of the databases had heavy amounts of hardcoding that required adjustments each time reports were run. Because most of the databases had also been through a score of more sets of hands they were all rather messy, and even the databases that were clean-coded to pull global categories from the system often had some lazy programmers hardcode in them generating errors. Best part of that job would’ve been the introduction to brand awareness. Analysing the data trends for newly launched brands and learning how big companies, like Coke, promote their new and existing products differently.

In your opinion what makes a good directory?

Apart from being SEO friendly? I think ‘good directory’ is such a broad term which makes this a very open-ended question. There are directories that are good for different things. A directory like Hotscripts is great for targeted traffic whereas a directory like DMOZ is good for search engine rank, but lousy for traffic. If we think in general terms of owning a directory, I would suggest that to have a “good directory” the owner needs to create a unique resource that offers its user something over and above just a listing in another directory. You need clever design and unique skins to attract an audience; intuitive categorisation of a quality list of sites; efficient spam control to keep the junk out and to process site reviews with speed; experienced editors who understand the changing SEO and webdesign scene; and you need to build a campaign of marketing and promotion to get your directory known in various circles.

Some long-term directory owners think their directories are the only ones, but I see that as sitting on your hands once you’ve had some success  - and if they continue to think like that they are going to let the competition sneak up on them. It’s an ongoing process (the same as SEO). You don’t suddenly have a good directory one day, you have to continually work at it.

In your opinion what makes for a bad directory?

A lot of the time its the owner, and their inability to listen or acknowledge other points of view. Many people have complained about certain directories not being on the Info Vilesilencer list. It doesn’t mean that I  think their directory is bad per se, it just means they don’t meet the strict criteria for inclusion on the directory list. They continue to argue the point though, referring to the age of their directory; its number of listings; how great it is; but they haven’t listened - their directory isn’t on the list because it doesn’t meet the original SEO Friendly criteria. The criteria is designed to include directories that provide SEO benefit for backlinks.

Owners of some of the bigger directories run around the forums whingeing about how great their directory is and badmouthing anyone that has a smaller directory than them. In my opinion if they are feeling threatened by smaller directories then perhaps those smaller directories aren’t as worthless as they’ve made out. Instead of wasting time denouncing the competition their time would be better spent invested in the development and promotion of their own directories.

Any particular choice in directory software?

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked, and up until earlier this year I wouldve pointed you to 1 of 3 (namely EsyndiCat, phpLD and Snowblind). The latter I did offer some advice on during its early development and it was one of the first scripts that provided both search engine friendly URLs coupled with SEO Friendly listings. However, I think after much consideration and with the release of their version 3.06 script, phpLD has shown they are the leader of the bunch in terms of what they can offer you out of the box. Their support forum, and future development is also exceptional.

When I first released the directory list  the most popular script by far was by Biz Directory (now called FreePHPdirectory script) and, whilst they still have a good script (especially their cross-referencing full version model), popularity-wise they have dropped several rungs down the list. PhpLD is by far the most popular on the list with more than 25% of the directories using that particular script. Again, its an ongoing process. Today phpLD is the best, but they will need to continually evolve to maintain their current successful position.

Were do you see directories going in the future?

I think it’s not so much the future as now. Many directories have evolved from merely categorised listings of links to offering additional services such as informative article & news; tagging & social bookmarking; featured content; and some are even fully fledged portals with the directory attached. One directory idea that I am particularly fond of is called Wikidweb. What they have created is a Wikipedia-directory hybrid. Essentially the listings are page-length Wikipedia style editorials (that editors can review and add comment to) and I think this is one of many different directions into which directories are heading.

Niche directories are also gaining popularity finally. Topic relevant links are always going to be more beneficial because they have the ability to drive targeted traffic to your site as well as boost you in the engines, which is basically what everyone is looking to achieve by submitting to directories - a decent combination of traffic and ranking.
How do you see Search engines treating directories now, and in the future?

I think  search engines are forcing the changes I’ve mentioned in the answer to the previous question. Search engines thrive on content, and resources that can offer more detailed, informative and fresh content will be the ones that are treated with most respect by the engines. Again, It’s all an evolving process. Google’s domination of the web allows them to set the bar, and it is up to the internet community to rise to their challenges.

What is your favourite directory.?

Hahaha good question. Rather than picking a favourite directory, that would probably be cliched more than anything else, I will tell you my favourite types of directory. Apart from the wiki-hybrid type mentioned previously, I would say the format run by SEOMA and Octopedia whereby the link anchor is made as part of the description instead of the site title. The link is surrounded by content, and the keywording in that instance becomes more prevalent. Unique, or different ideas like that are what interest me about directories. Thinking beyond the box. Seeing 10-20 directories with the exact same skin, and linking format isn’t exactly exciting.

Anything else that you would like to say?

I would like to reiterate to the people wanting to start a directory, that rather than just buying a script and banging one up, they should take the time to skin their directory and then add unique elements to them (I’ve given enough options above to set them on the right track). Anything that adds unique & useful content to your directory is going to improve its longevity, and possibly generate more revenue through increased visitation. Also when you’ve made your directory come and visit me on the Info Vilesilencer forum and let me know I’m always interested in hearing about new directories and new features.

Cheers,
Dan

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