Webmaster Pro Guide

Free phpLD 3.3 Themes

here are some themes for php link directory ( phpld 3.3 )

The themes can be used for free, the only thing we ask in return is that you keep the designer and sponsor links in the footer intact.

Downloaded themes come with the image, style and .tpl files needed, and also a short text file with details of the theme and basic instruction for installation . ( check the post to Download) (more…)

 Andy and Aaron just put out an excellent guide of 101 link building tips, and it kicked me in the butt to get it done, so I could give their article the proper link love it deserved.

Types of links and how to get them

Using a arbitrary ficticious example of an informational site about real estate law. **I do not currently work with any sites of this type.

In this example, we have two specific themes to dive deeper into that are relevant to our search - real estate and law. Starting at this level gives us hundreds of thousands, if not millions of sites to start to filter from (not to mention the backlinks of THOSE sites), and sites that share similar themes.

1. Authority links
How to obtain them: Start with your related category in the Google Directory
What to look for:
-Top rankings for big terms - city or state + real estate, vertical category + lawyers
-Sites that currently offer links out
-Sites that would benefit from offering users your content
Examples: real estate law
Other Notes: Authority links are an absolute must for improving your trust score these days. This is a MUST for a new site, and should be where you start your efforts, and always be dedicating SOME time. Suck it up, and take the time it takes to get some quality, trusted links. The existence of trusted authority links will make or break your site. Find the 800 lb. gorillas in your field, and **find a way to get on a dozen or so of them. Failing that, hunt their backlinks, and find a way to get on some of those pages. Use some creative queries with the combination tool. Give the tattler a shot.

2. Directory links
How to obtain them: Pony up some cash
What to look for: Generally easy to find niche directories, don’t go overboard with more than a few directories per month, quarter, etc.
Examples:General directories, real estate directories
Other Notes: My gut feel is that too many directories triggers a filter. I wouldn’t go over 10 - 15% of my total link ratio on my own sites for my own sites at any given time. Start with a few highly trusted directories. (Yahoo dir, business.com, MSN SBD, BOTW), and add some others after you have many more links added to your profile. (more…)

Article directories have been a great source of back-links and visibility. Am writing this article as am running an article directory myself for the last few years, and I do feel that this section of the web needs lots of improvement. The following tips will not only help the article directories but also it will help the article submitters. 1) Technorati Indexed: Get your directories indexed and claimed at Technorati, that way people submitting their articles will get Technorati votes and authority. 2) Do you accept those articles with links inside the article, this might be a risk, as Google might find this as a paid post and give your article directory a penalty. Even if it’s not your fault as the article if free so no paid links stuff but you still don’t want to get penalty due to poor and in-efficient google’s algo. 3) Is your site properly cashed? Check your last 50, 100 or 200 article, and see if they are even indexed by Google or not. When was the last time Google bot gave your site a visit. This problem is mainly because article directories don’t add unique content, so search engines don’t find anything useful in these sites and stop visiting frequently. So I suggest article directory owners to buy unique and high-quality articles from time to time, so that your sites get properly indexed. 4) Do you accept every article that is submitted? So far I have seen that many submitters use article-spinning software and submit those articles to directories, this is the reason why I say that at least read a few lines from the article before approving it. 5) Research on the keywords for the articles submitted. Then re-write or at least edit the title of the article with a good, low competitive keyword. That way you will have some occasional traffic coming from every article. 6) Get your article directory some quality back links; try social bookmarking if you want free back links. That way your site will gain authority and your over all traffic will increase, as you will be beating your competitors on competitive keywords. 7) Keep adding content yourself, not a bad idea. Just do some research for low competitive and high searched topics and add some small articles by yourself, this way your site will have unique content and your writing ability will develop which will help you in the long run. Promotion is the key. If you have a good site with good content, but it is not promoted then it won’t get traffic. Do social bookmarking, directory submissions; press release submission and distribution, forum signatures; blog posts etc. do it slowly and continuously. If you have a budget for promotions then things will become lot easier, else you will have to do the hard work.

A phpLinkDirectory modification that that allows update the page rank of all links in your link database. You can select as many or as few links you would like to update. You can also reset the tracking to update the links at any later date.

• Updates links with actual current page rank.
• Choose a variable number of links to update at once.
• Reset option to allow updating with latest page rank.
• Update feature available in admin section only.
• Compatible with phpLD V2.00 and phpLD V3.06 (slightly different install process for each).
• And its free too!

Download PR Update MOD (more…)

This question of How to make a Directory has been posted again and again on various directory forums. So I planned to write a small blog post to getting started on your own directory. Now let us get familiar with the term “directory“. The prime motive of any directory to organize various resources, so that they can be easily found instead of searching on various search engines.

So below are the steps listed to eventually becoming a directory webmaster.

1. Hosting : With so many hosting companies around like HostGator, BlueHost and many others you can easily sign up for a shared hosting account to set up your directory. Once your directory starts getting some huge traffic and becomes popular then you can move your directory on a dedicated server.

2. Selection of Directory Script : This is really most crucial step and with many directory scripts around like PhpLD, Esyndicat, SiteSift and PhpLynx or (PhpLinkBid for bidding directories) you will not be having a tough time deciding the script as per your needs. Again all these scripts also come in with a free version and also paid version. It is quite obvious that there is a better support and more features with the paid version of the script. So It will be really your decision, how you would like to scale your directory. There is always a upgrade from the free version of the script to the paid version.

Tip : I will highly recommend you to start on with PhpLD, not because I am affiliated with them in any way. But It is the most popular directory script and has largest number of mods, templates and a very big support forum.

3. Niche Selection for your directory : Now after that you have decided on the directory script. It is important to decide up on the fact that whether you want to start a general directory, bidding directory or a niche directory. So accordingly you can modify the category structure as per your needs.

4. Installation of the Directory Script : Most of the directory scripts are easy to install, But if you are not good with the installation or find installation difficult. You can get the script installed by paying some one on the Services forums or various directory forums. Please do not use a category dumps available with the scripts to create categories, instead use unique category structures and that will help you rank better on search engines.

5. Templates and Mods for your directory : Directory scripts generally come up with some default templates and you can use them or you can use many of the free templates available online and the same goes with mods for the directories.
Directory mods really enhance the directory functionality.

6. Promotion of your Directory : Congrats and welcome to the world of directories. There is actually no rule as to how you can promote your directory. You will have get quality backlinks for your directories, do lot of link building, social
Please post in your comments, If you feel that I have missed something in the above post.

Here are some screenshots of phpLD 3.3 that will be released in Beta to all standard v3 license holders in the next few days. We hope you will like the new features, and look forward to your feedback, as well as continuing our development of this great product.
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Now the dust has settled regarding Google’s stance on directories, what does the future hold for the sector?
In my own opinion the move made by Google was a master stroke for various reasons.

If a directory owner had the capital to list their site on 1,000’s of paid directories, their website was bound to rank well, regardless of the optimisation of the site, the amount of traffic the site delivered and the strength of the inner pages.

This is history now, Google have adjusted their platform so only genuine directories perform well. I have noticed Google now displays links based on quality not page rank. Google is now indexing more and more links from free directories even though they display little to no page ranking. This is fantastic news for the general public, however not so good for directory owners.

I believe in the future Google will continue to stamp down on paid directories as well as penalising sites who pay for links. So how can directories be of benefit if less and less people want to purchase links?

The answer to this is simple, people need to look away from the direct benefit and look towards in-direct benefit, I will try to explain. I own a free reciprocal link business services directory. I gain benefit in terms of my link building process is totally automated through the directory and content is added on a regular basis. By using this tactic as well as others I have transformed my business from being an average ranked business services website, to being one of the highest ranked in the UK.

All online businesses have to have a degree of flexibility, simply because the goal posts change on a regular basis. By being flexible and forward thinking it is possible to use a bad situation to your benefit. For sure people will continue to purchase links from directories, even when doing so will damage their sites ranking, but eventually the stream of customers will dry up. The majority of paid directories will have to change their business model if they want to be around in a few years time.