Web Directory Reviews

Detailed Review For Linkspub Web Directory

Linskpub web directory is a paid directory, but first impression is omg “wtf’” where is the directory? It’s filled with banners and ads and what not. And seems at first glance as a spammy site, rather than a resourceful directory,until you scroll down to bottom where you might be able to see categories of the directory. I did ask adnan about the same, but he said they are about to expire and will not add any more banner ads, but recently I seen him selling again some of the banner ads, so not sure what to say here. But such directories I rarely even bother checking out, but for purpose of review, I clicked the submit link, and I was lost instantly, it has way too many images and can be confusing for a noob submitting their website. Submission should be simple and easy with not so much clutter. There are not many categories nor active links that I could spot. Tried the search feature, and results are displayed properly, but the search result page lacks any of the navigation links, and you would have to hit “back” to go back to main site again, this could use some improvement too. Overall other than the nice pagerank and alexa rank I found it rather not so interesting, I delayed this review as was expecting adnan to take care of the excessive advertisements on the site, which I had mentioned to him few months back and did tell him a review like this is in store.However,adnan has put lots of efforts in the directory itself and i admire that, and here is what he had to say in the small interview.

What is your name and age and where are you from?   
My name is Adnan Faridi. I am originally from Pakistan, but we came to the United States a long time ago. Currently I am in Pakistan for a few years.

When was your directory created? And might we dare ask what made you jump into the directory business? Did any directory motivated or inspired you to start your own directory?     
Linkspub was done and released late in 2005. I was inspired by business.com & Linketria.   

Do you remember the first Pagerank your directory received, if so would you mind sharing it with us. What are your plans for the next one?     
The first Pagerank we got was 5 and it still stays at 5.    I guess in a few years it will jump a notch or two.

Is it prepared properly to face the next PR update?     
I think pretty much so.

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?   
The design is totally custom made. We are always changing and improving the design to make it more pleasant for our viewers. I think the WayBackMachine has our original design which we started out with.

What modifications or some say mods do you have installed?   
Actually everything itself is custom made. It’s a unique software application by itself, different then any scripted directory out there.

Do you believe that a directory should have a blog?    

If u have the time to maintain it great.    We have a blog, and I will be getting rid of it. Primarily because it is hard to keep writing posts.   

Do you have a link building strategy you want to share?     
We submitted our directory to alot of directories. I also participate in forums and have Linkspub as my sig link. I put out a wordpress template which people have downloaded and that got us some links.    But alot of our links come from people we don’t know. I think cause Linkspub is kinda different then the rest, that kind of draws some attention to it.    It wasn’t really a link strategy but more like a strategy to be more useful for the sites submitted.

Is there a promotion strategy you are after?    
Yes, I plan to get my site into Yahoo! Directory & Business.com in a few months.

How is traffic? Do you have any specific goals set?   
Right now were getting over 7000 visitors a month. We’re a quantified publisher and you can see our real uniques visitors here http://www.quantcast.com/linkspub.com I’ve got their tracking code only on my homepage, submit page and polls pages. Our actual unique visitors is between 3000 – 4000 p/month, and recurring visitors is over 7000.

Where is your traffic coming from?    
Between 50% – 60% of the users are direct.    Google is the top referer, followed by directorycritic and  addurl (when we were listed on their list). A few moderate referrers which I checked were megrisoft & webdirectories.ws    Then we have these bundle of sites which send us like 1 or 2 visits a day.

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?     
Sure, if you want to get people to your site, anything which gives u traffic matters. Search engines give targetted traffic so they are definitely important.

What keywords are you targeting, if any?     

We want to be on the first few pages for Business Search, cause we just launched a new Business Search feature.

Do you have any kind of stats regarding the traffic your directory sends to the listed sites?     
We surely don’t. Traffic is not only click traffic. Click doesn’t mean much. People look at a site name or url and remember it. At a later time they can type in the url in there browser. That’s also traffic. But there’s no way to record that.

Are there any other strong features you think must be pointed out?   
On Linkspub, sure.    We just launched a tld business search. Users can find sites for terms for any country domain.    For example, the query: mortgage .uk  will find mortgage sites within the .uk extension    similarly     mortgage .uk pest control .au  will find sites within the .uk exention along with pest control sites within the .au extension    We rotate premium & premium featured listings in our polls area    We also make business cards for our submitters which we rotate on our homepage.

Would you like to share with everyone the stats of your directory? For example, active links, number of categories, and inactive links?     
We have like around 160 categories, roughly 2000 listings.

How many editors does your directory have? If none, do you plan on hiring editors at later stages of your directory development?     
At times we have 1, at times we have 2.

How can users get in touch with you?      
There’s a contact us form right on our site. It works 100% and is the best way for users to contact us. Alternatively, they can email us at the email address we have listed, but that’s not a very good method cause we get alot of spam on the email address.

Other Directories Owned :     www.directoryjunction.com    This is a directory list (in progress) and a directory forum.

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