Month: August 2007

First there was cow tiping, then (thanks for the Pixar movie Cars) there was tracor tiping… Well here is a bulldozer that was tipped!

I’ve started a new web site review blog. My hope and aim is to review new websites and cool things that I find on the web. Enjoy!

According to Wikipedia a web directory is a directory on the World Wide Web that specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links. Web directories often allow site owners to submit their site for inclusion. Editors review submissions for fitness.

Probably the most famous web directories are Yahoo and DMOZ.org and rightly so. But they aren’t the only directories and there is room for more. Yahoo charge $299 for express inclusion in their directory and it is also possible for you to make money from a directory.

There are two types of web directory,  general directories (like mine www.glowdir.com and dirstop.com)  as well as niche directories. A niche directory is one that focuses on specific areas on the web. I have a niche directory for Media, News and PR. So your first decision is what  type of directory do you want, general or niche. If you have a passion or a hobby then I would suggest making a niche directory about that. Your audience is smaller, but it is well known and your competition is smaller. If you want a general directory then you have a lot of competition but your potential customers are all the web users in the world!

What makes a directory popular. If you want to start charing sums like Yahoo for inclusion in your directory you need to have two things: traffic and page rank. The more visitors you have to your web directory the more exposure each included site gets. The higher your page rank the greater the importance put on each link in your directory by the search engines.

So what do you need to do, here is a list:

1. Download a free directory script like PHPLD
2. Get a template to make it look unique
3. Advertise you directory (in forums, in your blog etc) and get link submissions
4. Build back links to your site (that is other sites linking to you)
5. When your popularity rises you can start charging for inclusion.
6. Add Google Adsense adverts to your site to increase revenue.

Good luck!

I have just launched my new weird and odd news site: bonkersnews.com. Its main focus is on odd news and news to make you laugh but you can also find some serious news there as well along with a special section on technology news.

Enjoy!

There is a new web site called the Alternative Open Directory Project which looks like they want to take on DMOZ/ODP.

The site is fairly spartan at the moment but they do say “There have been attempts to create comprehensive human-reviewed directories before, but they have all failed…. The Alternative Open Directory Project will pick up the baton and charge on with a radical new system to handle the size of the Internet and this directory.”

You can read more at the Alternative Open Directory Project site.

Scott McCausland, a Linux Ubuntu user who was jailed in 2006 for two copyright-related charges, has been told by his probation officer that he will need to install Windows on his PC if he wants to use it during his probation period.

read more | digg story

Jurgen, a member of the Hi-Tech Squad has found a good (and at times amusing) list of 10 commandments for new sidux (a flavor of Linux) users. Many of the items are just as applicable to any version of Linux!

read more | digg story

Following the post on the Jap Mac advert there are a few UK ones which seem unique to the UK as I haven’t seen them on the Apple US site.

Art Language

MS Office Posse

Magic

Cool!

For “fun and games” part of the youth meeting last night I ran a competition… Who can build the tallest drinking straw tower. The boys won but I think the girls had a better structure.

Sorry about the poor quality, I took these on my mobile phone.