Who are you?
Name, age, location.
Francois Panassac, 27 years old, Paris, France

What made you start programming your directory?
I first wanted to own a normal directory without coding anything and I looked for good software running on Windows servers. After a week or two I didn’t find anything that suited my needs.

I then decided to create my own directory for Windows as I was sure many people were in my case. It took me about a month to program. At that time I was working for another company so I worked evenings. Since then I created my own company.

How much of your day/week do you spend on this product?
Now that the software is created I spend about an hour answering question from my customers and creating customized options for them.

What else do you do?
I still work with my former company as a consultant and I create new websites. Most of the time I create customized directories for people.

How long has the directory project been going for?
I started coding the software in July 2005 and started to sell it in January 2006. The longest part was to write a good manual. I plan on releasing a new version at the beginning of next year.

Were do you see directory software going in the future?
I think that there will be different kinds of directories for different types of users. Some will need very sophisticated directories where they can manage advertising, recurring payment, get statistics and so on. Others will just need a simple directory.

This means that some directory software will remain very cheap and have little options whereas other software will add great new features and functionality bringing their prices up.

Anything you would like to talk about in your professional career before starting on the directory software?
I passed a Master in programming in France before going to Ireland for about 5 years. Over there I was doing web programming (with asp and asp.net) and web design (with Photoshop). I was also in charge of wireless networks in few towns.

In your opinion what makes for a good directory?
There are many things that make a good directory: a nice unique design, options that a not available in other directories, traffic that the directory brings to your website, high Page Rank.

In your opinion what makes for a bad directory?
Owners who put no effort into making them different from the others. Spam directories filled with bad content. Outdated directories.

Were do you see directories going in the future?
I see more and more directories being created in the future. It will all depend on how the big 3 search engines are crawling them and how important they think they are.

How do you see Search engines treating directories now, and in the future?
All those directories are only good if the search engines take them into account in their rankings. That way people are interested in submitting their listings in directories to get higher position in search engines. If search engines change their algorithm then only the big directories will remain.

For the moment directories are very well treated by Google and it helps websites to get better Page Rank. I’m not sure this will last forever.

What is your favourite directory?
My favourite would be Uncoverthenet

Anything else that you would like to say?
Yes, you need to be consistent if you want your directory to work. Creating a successful directory takes time and you need to keep your motivation over at least 6 months to get good results. Once you have passed this first step try to build new interest for visitors by adding new features and by promoting your directory.

Francois site is http://www.creascripts.com/

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