Web Directory Reviews

Detailed Review For King Bloom Directory

Is it prepared properly to face the next PR update?
Again, we do not focus on PR. My goal is not to manipulate the system in order to obtain higher PR… Our SERP’s related efforts are completely natural. All our back links have been obtained naturally. It is hard enough having a directory with a search engine like Google around… They are penal enough on directories without me adding to that penalization.

What about the template? Is it custom made or using readily available free templates? And do you have any plans in near future for changing the design?
We based ours on the Biz Directory Script. We thought it was a great script lacking in features and sufficient organization.. Things were broken and inefficient too, like the search features, among other things. We completely re-wrote the script from the ground up. The power of the script is in the back end, administration, the automation features and of course our bot that makes sure the directory stays fresh. The design is our own, simply, to the point and nearly devoid of heavy imagery, flash and other unnecessary distractions.

What modifications or some say mods do you have installed?

Well , given our script is custom built, I would say that we have added mods to handle tings like dead sites, dead sites that come back to life, email notifications to users when sites go dead, a pre-approval processing system.
Do you believe that a directory should have a blog?
I’m not really sure.. That is hard to say given I have a blog for my directory… I think it may help in some regards as a place to perhaps share tid bits about the directory, announcements, and or get feedback… At least that was the intention with my blog for KingBloom.

Do you have a link building strategy you want to share?
No.

Is there a promotion strategy you are after?
Sure. We tend to give out freebies to people out of the blue on forums from time to time… Do a bit of advertising here and there, and have contests… It’s kinda neat, the freebies, because the people that least expect it, end up getting one… As an example, someone might say something funny in a thread on a forum I am on, or offer some helpful tip… I’ll just PM them and say, list your site and I will mark it paid, gratis!! People love that stuff!!!

How is traffic? Do you have any specific goals set?
Traffic is great… Not just for us, but for those who list their sites.. We say over 1.3 Million individual page requests in 2005, nearly 1.8 Million in 2006 and are already well on our way to 3 Million for 2007. We hope to be doing over 500,000 page requests per month some time next year!

Where is your traffic coming from?
Yahoo is Number One (but aren’t they always)… Google is number 2 (they are very close), from there forums like Digital Point, SEO Company, Vilesilencer, as well as several directory listing services web sites, and of course DMOZ. (we are listed there).

What about SEO and SERPs? Do you believe in that and as a directory owner do you believe it’s a requirement for any directory?
Of course. Without it, you’re just not getting indexed or noticed.. Without the indexing in SE’s, there is not traffic.. No traffic for you, equals no traffic for your users. Hell, even meta tags are still important in my book!
What keywords are you targeting, if any?
Our keywords are injected into each page dynamically based on the keywords chosen by our users when they list their sites… I guess you could say we and our users are collectively targeting tens of thousands of keywords at any given time depending on the topic/site.

Do you have any kind of stats regarding the traffic your directory sends to the listed sites?
Mainly what our users tell us, which is; they get traffic from KingBloom.

Are there any other strong features you think must be pointed out?
Low prices… Not dirt cheap, but fair…. We try to offer the highest value and traffic for a low price. I think it is important to give people a bit more than what they are paying for… I know this goes against modern convention, but to me, I see the value in paying less to get more! I think our users do to. We have a 95% repeat user rate, meaning, 95% of the people that list with us, continue to list with us… That in and of itself is just incredible in my opinion!

Would you like to share with everyone the stats of your directory? For example, active links, number of categories, and inactive links?
Sure, we have approximately 30,000 PAID listings with over 4000 Categories. We have 0 inactive links thanks to our delisting system that checks sites to see if they are alive. Sites are delisted, but not deleted until they pass several failure thresholds we have set in place. Web sites are continually being listed and delisted, and deleted on a daily basis keeping our directory as fresh as possible.

How many editors does your directory have? If none, do you plan on hiring editors at later stages of your directory development?
We have 3 part time editors and one full time programmer/developer.

How can users get in touch with you?
Users can contact me directly at jer@mia.net or KingBloom at search@kingbloom.com

Would you like to add anything else, that we might have missed?
Nothing I can think of…