Francois Panassac, Owner of AllTheWebmasters.com, Aroundirectory.com & many other Search Engine Friendly Directory, has been working as a professional on Internet for about 2 years now. After doing his Masters from France, he spent sometime in Ireland, developing softwares in asp and asp.net and also managing Wireless networks. He moved back to France to set up his own company called Creascripts.
Recently, Submit2Please.com had an opportunity to speak to Francois & unearth, what makes his directories so popular & special. Here are excerpts from our conversation with him.
Please tell us something about your directory
I own many popular directories including www.allthewebmasters.com created in early 2005.
This directory was free for about 2 months but is fee based now.
I then created 11 other directories and added a special package which allows people to submit their listing only once and get listed in all 12 directories. The average PR of these directories is 4 and many sub-pages pass PR. They are all created with Creadirectory and I keep testing it with new evolution of my script on these directories.
So, what sets you apart from other directories?
The thing which set my directories apart is the fact that they are always evolving. I keep adding new features every month. I also promote them actively.
Can people submit their website to your directory for free?
No, none of my directories are free now. It was taking me too much time to maintain a free directory. I also invest the money earned to promote these directories so people get benefited from them!
But, why do some directories have free submission and others have a fee?
I would say that directories offering free submission are the one which can propose other products and want to attract visitors. It’s quite hard to have a free directory over a long period of time because you get many more submissions and it requires much more time. Put your directory as paid is a good thing if you have good traffic, a good Page Rank and if your directory already has many listings in it.
But you need to be attractive if you want people to pay a fee to get listed.
Can you share some of the factors which people should bear in mind so that there site is not rejected by you?
While submitting their site, webmasters should try to be as much explicit as possible when describing their site. They shouldn’t try to advertise too much and most of all, should try to tell the truth!
What if after inclusion in your directory, a site changes radically? Is there some kind of detection process in place to prevent deception?
I usually check my directories every 3 months with a spider which let me know if a site has gone down or changed.
In the recent PageRank update by Google, some of your directories were one of those few sites whose PageRank rose in their PR! As per you, what are the possible reasons for this big leap?
Google is now looking at quality directories. They changed their algorithm to reduce spam directories. The fact that I evaluate each listing submitted in my directory is probably one of the main reasons why Google put a better note to my directories.
Many of our visitors are concerned about their Google Rankings. Do back links from Search Engine Friendly Directories act as a valuable thing in this regard?
Yes many of my customers saw a big increase in their Google Rankings only by submitting their website to my directories. Not all directories as good though. Take time to check if you have a direct link to your site and if it’s not a spam directory.
If you had to spend money on Paid Directories, which directories will be your first choice?
My best directories would be Yahoo! Directoy, Uncoverthenet, JoeAnt and Goguides.org
Are there any web directory or “Spam Directory†we should stay away from?
I don’t have a list here but there are many.
Many of our visitors believe that submitting to PR 0 directories would impact their PageRank adversely? Should anyone submit to a directory which is PR 0?
I do submit my sites to PR0 directories as they are usually free directories and might get a PR boost in the next Google update.
What are your future plans with regards to your directory?
Future plan would be to get better PR by promoting them even more and add new features.
Finally, Your message for our visitors?
The only message I would like to bring is that you need to be consistent if you want your directory to work. Creating a successful directory takes time and you need to keep your motivation over at least 6 months to get good results. Once you have passed this first step try to build new interest for visitors by adding new features and by promoting your directory.
On behalf of our visitors, we would like to Thank Francois Panass for taking some time out to speak to us & sharing your experiences!
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You can read a review of each of the 12 directories owned by Francois Panassac in the “Directory Review Section”. To submit your site to his directories for FREE, get in touch with us at info@submit2please.com