Watching the PHPLD Forums Site of the Month contest it appears the Aviva Directory will likely be the winner, although it hasn’t been declared yet. The contestants:
best design: http://www.avivadirectory.com/
coolest mods: http://www.ask-dir.com/
best content: http://www.irkawebdirectory.com
I’m not surprised to see the Aviva directory ranking so well. Jeff has taken the Aviva directory above and beyond the average. By a longshot. Not only does the directory have an Alexa traffic rank of about 11,000 but a regular listing is only $34.95. Less than half of some directories with less page rank and far less traffic.
The overall feel of the Aviva directory is clean and sophisticated, yet a contemporary ‘hip’ at the same time. You can tell by the graphics that the site is current and maintained. In addition to the traffic, page rank, and overall appearance of the directory, the average user will gain far more use out of the new blog, free templates, and extra reading material. Most directories are put on the market with one purpose these days: links. For a directory to last amongst the barrage of new sites popping up daily, it must stand out and offer more to the average user. Aviva’s contests, free reading, tips for success, blog, and other extras all meet that need.
PHPLD has announced its winner for the October 2006 Directory of the Month award and the winner is, Directory Dump. Directory Dump is a very nicely laid out and organized directory and is much more than simply the same free script with a few design modifications. Its design is definitely different from the dozens of directories we visit daily.
Directory Dump is a very new directory, but its popularity has skyrocketed over the past few months and there are dozens of web sites already listed and many more being added on a frequent basis. One of the best aspects of the directory that we wished more directory owners would do is the “Public Statistics†feature so the webmasters know what to expect when they submit a link. It is generally accepted that directory submission is for SEO value so while Page Rank and search engine ranking is vital when submitting to a directory, it is always nice to know how much traffic a directory gets. Directory Dump makes this information available in the right sidebar where they include information about how much traffic the web site gets monthly and how many people are currently browsing the directory
The categories are also very detailed so under each of the main categories, there are hundreds of subcategories so that visitors can easily find exactly what they are looking for and web site owners can place their link in the exact category that matches their web site.
You can visit the directory and evaluate it for yourself at http://www.directorydump.com.
PHPLD has announced its winner for the October 2006 Directory of the Month award and the winner is, Red Pines. The Red Pine directory owner also won $100. The Red Pines directory is a very active web directory and features over 300 listings in 16 major categories and then hundreds of minor categories. Submitting a link to Red Pines is very simple and all it requires is the basic information, the URL, a title, a description of the web site, and contact information. It is easy and quick to complete the form and should be able to be completed in just a few minutes.
The directory also has a very nicely designed header and search feature where you can browse all listings in the Red Pine directory to quickly find a web site that has information on what you are looking for.
Most web sites are accepted to Red Pines; however, like most directories, adult related web sites or web sites that contain copyrighted content or promotes any illegal activity are not included in listings.
You can visit the directory and evaluate it for yourself at http://www.redpines.org.
Here at PHP Link Directory, we have started a new program where we will award one directory the title of PHPLD Directory of the Month. The winner of our first Directory of the Month Award is Active Web Links. The Active Web Links directory is very nicely laid out, but what sets this directory apart from the rest of the pack is that it has many features that most other directories do not have.
Apart from hundreds of links in dozens of different categories, Active Web Links has a weather feature that uses Foreca to display all of the latest weather information in your home town. All you have to do is enter your Zip Code and the weather section of the web site will instantly be updated with a five day forecast of the weather in your area. Active Web Links also has a news section with hundreds of articles covering news from around the globe and is updated daily.
As far as the directory aspect of Active Web Links is concerned, there are 27 main categories with dozens of sub category under each main category. Submitting a link is very easy and a web site can be included in Active Web Links for as little as $9.95 a year. Featured links are also available for just under $30 annually. Active Web Links also has a “Suggest a Category†feature so you can request that the administrator adds a new category that best fits the theme of your web site.
You can visit the directory at http://www.activeweblinks.com.
Announcing the 2 Winners of August 2006 of best php.ld
website design.
http://www.bloggeries.com AND http://www.portprophecy.com.
There were many more fantastic directories in this month’s contest as well and we could not decide one only one winner so we had a tie for first place. Both the Bloggeries directory as well as the Port Prophecy Directory will share the honor of directory of the month for August.
Bloggeries
Bloggeries is a fantastic directory of hundreds of blogs. The site layout is very clean and organized, and these are many blogs already listed. The site is fairly new but already has hundreds of visitors each day who look through the directory’s categories to find the ones on the topics they enjoy reading about. You can find blogs on a wide variety of topics from Sports to Shopping to the War on Iraq at Bloggeries. The site also has a page rank of 5 so it can be of value for traffic as well as SEO. You can visit the blog directory at http://www.bloggeries.com
Port Prophecy
Port Prophecy is a very simple nicely laid out directory that has multiple categories and dozens of links to a wide variety of web sites. At Port Prophecy you can find a link on everything from Real Estate prices to the latest scientific breakthroughs to the newest song by your favorite recording artist. The site has a page rank of 4 and is growing in traffic so it is a great place for people to submit their web sites for inclusion. You can visit the directory at http://www.portprophecy.com
Announcing the July 2006 Winner of best php.ld
website design.
ChrisMystikmedia-http://www.allmediadirectory.com.
There were a lot of top notch directories in our competition this month and the voting was very close. Picking the winner was very difficult, but like always, one winner was awarded. The winner of this month’s directory contest is All Media Directory. All Media Directory is a great web site to find everything you need on the Net that is related to multimedia.
The directory has a very nice clean layout with good graphics to go along with each of the main categories. The directory also has a number of links and you can find music related web sites, graphic design related web sites, web sites talking about hardware and software and offering product reviews, and much more. If you are into any type of Multimedia or computer animation, this is a great directory that you should check out. You will find what you need easily as the site is designed very well.
If you are a webmaster with a site that fits into any of the directory’s categories, be sure to submit it for inclusion as this directory is getting more popular day by day and should get you some quality traffic. The directory also has a Google Page Rank of 5 so requesting your site for inclusion into the directory may have value in terms of SEO as well. You can visit the directory, check out the listings, and submit your web site for inclusion at http://www.allmediadirectory.com.
Announcing the June Winner of best php.ld
website design.
ChrisMystikmedia-www.alivedirectory.com
With new search engines and directories being built each day, it is difficult to find one that can suit your needs while still maintaining style and ease of use. One of these is www.alivedirectory.com, which casts an overwhelming shadow onto other directories. Not just is it a great website, but it has just recently won the June site of the month from this thread. Out of over twenty-five sites, alivedirectory.com took the vote with its easy to navigate page, including a search engine, featured sites, and a directory. The vote was run by digital-point’s dvduval, who runs PHP Link Directory. In a close second place was Free Web Index Directory, which is also owned by Chris, the owner of www.alivedirectory.com. In third place was bigvertiser.com and in fourth was www.allthelink.com. Finally in fifth place, the fourth runner-up was Bayengine.com. www.alivedirectory.com and freewebindex.com utilize contrasting colors to allow for text to stand out and be more easily read. With separate sections of the sites using different background colors and shades, division of the sections is clear. When viewing the “Top Hits†link on www.alivedirectory.com, a page rank scale in the margin facilitates selection of the most fitting website of your choice. In addition to the “Top Hits†section, there is a link to submit links and a link to view the Latest Links.
Free Web Index Directory, with a more simplified layout than alive, appropriate colors, and an attraction logo, give it reason to be second to alivedirectory.com by only two votes. FreeWebIndex has all of the attributes of AliveDirectory including a Submit feature, Top Hits, and Latest Links, but one item it does lack is the featured sites section. For some this may make the site more manageable for the eyes, but to others it may make it seem less informative. With out a doubt though, both sites can be used for the purpose of locating websites that apply to where you would like to submit advertisement and for general website searching purposes. Although FreeWebIndex may lack some of AliveDirectory’s features, it does have a special and helpful feature of its own. When entering Top Hits or Latest Hits, a visual of the websites is shown to allow the user to view the website before actually visiting it. Using these sites will assist you not only being of their easy-to-navigate layout, but also because of the high quality content that is at each site. It will be interesting to see if they will again capture July’s site of the month 1st and 2nd places. I guess we will have to wait and see!
Alive Directory - #1 Winner!
Chris Mystikmedia
