Interview with Bruce of Authority Directory

Interview with Bruce of Authority Directory

Jan 29th, 2008 by Chetan Bhawani

Bruce, who has been working well and constantly doing good with his directory Authority Directory also won the Directory of the Month for January 2008 at PhpLD forums! It was great to talk to Bruce and to take the Interview :) He is popular as swedal in webmaster forums!

Here is what it is -

Q. Some Personal Insight Of Yours?
I see questions all the time in forums about starting a directory. For those of you thinking about starting a quality directory it is not an easy path and takes quite a bit of hard work in building a concept to implementing it to gaining a presence. If you are thinking in terms of a quality directory resource be prepared for the time and effort it will take.

Q. From when are you into the web directory world?
I really started gaining an interest in SEO, link building and website promotion in 2005 while promoting another site of mine. While doing that I learned about and gained a strong interest in directories and the services they provided and about a year ago began planning my own directory. It went through about 3 months of planning a concept and another couple months of building and design to become the Authority Directory which was launched in July 2007.

Q. How many directories do you own, and can you please share them?
I currently have one directory, but I am in the planning stages for another directory which will serve a niche and there is a possibility of making one additional directory after that. It really depends on if I feel I can devote the time necessary to do it right.

Q. How do you rate your own directories now?
I would say the Authority Directory compares favorably with most directories currently available. I personally feel it ranks among the top directories, but of course I am a little biased. You can also look to some third parties that don’t have the bias I do for my own site when it comes to rating the Authority Directory. The Authority Directory recently won the January 2008 Site of the Month from phpLD and first runner up for the 2007 Directory of the Year at iGuides.

Q. What kind of promotions you have done for the directories?
I promote using many methods. Some of the methods I have used are press releases, forum signatures, directory submissions, sponsoring free templates, article submissions, directory lists and a couple that I am forgetting right now.

Q. Do you think your directories will rank well in thousands of these?
You are absolutely right there are thousands of directories out there. The thing is that nearly all of those thousands of directories are just not in the same league as the Authority Directory and cannot be compared. I would say that it ranks very well among the other quality directories.

Q. What are your ways of earning in the directory? Only links or Sitewides etc. ?
The only revenue for the directory is through site reviews for possible inclusion to the directory and the site of the day feature for listings to generate additional traffic. That revenue is turned around to further promote the directory.

As far as the site wide links you mention, you will never see them on the Authority Directory nor will there ever be any adsense related things going on.

Q. Do you have future plans on building the directory more?
I always like to make improvements and I do have a couple ideas for additions to the site, but I think I will keep them to myself because I don’t have a specific timeline for them yet.

Q. Which directory script do you think is the best and why?
I like and prefer phpLD. David and the rest of the people there provide great support for their product and are dedicated to producing quality.

Q. What do you think would be the future of directories?
I think the future of directories can be a strong one for the people who are making them if they focus on the visitors that use them. If your intentions are to make a quality resource with quality content for the traffic you receive you can’t go wrong.

Q. What are your suggestions to the upcoming directory owners?
If you’re going to build a directory, build a quality one that will be useful to your visitors.

Q. Lastly, which is your favorite directory?
Other than mine I assume. I do have a few favorites. Some are for design reasons, some for an innovative feature they have and others because I like the owner. I think rather than run the risk of forgetting one or offending someone else I will politely decline this question.

Courtesy: http://www.nobledirectory.com/directory-owners/