Our system is running on an older engine and we will proceed with an update today where we are not sure if the directory will still function properly after the upgrade. If ever the directory will go down, we will do everything to get it back up and running again.

There are a few blog comment etiquette rules to follow though. Don’t worry about the NoFollow tag all that much. Yes, it is nice to comment on a blog that does not have the NoFollow tag, but if it is a good post with a decent page rank, you know that it drives a lot of traffic and more people will see that comment than if you commented on a blog that no one went to (but did not have a NoFollow tag).

Do not put a link to your site in the signature of your blog comment, it will come off as spammy and your comment will most likely get deleted.

The same goes with putting a keyword phrase in the name field to get a better anchor text. You will be labeled as spam as well. Unless your name really is “Cool Widgets”, don’t put that as your name.

You do the math, if you comment on 3 blogs per day, in a month you will almost have 100 links to your site, with little to no effort! That equates to almost 1200 links per year. The NoFollow tag still counts as backlinks in Yahoo SiteExplorer and Ask doesn’t even pay attention to that tag. If you use Text Link Ads, it’s good to know that they look at Yahoo backlinks to determine the price of an ad from your site.

About reputation building, if you participate by commenting, you are helping others out or stirring conversation. It is the extension of forum participation, but without the exclusivity.

What better way to start off your day than to go around reading a few blogs and posting worthy comments (oh yeah and leaving a link back to your site). It is probably the easiest way to gain a link back to your site? To help semi-automate the comment form fields, you can read a previous post by the Yicrosoft Directory about semi-automating directory submissions, but will work just as well for blog posts.

However, today in the eyes of SEO, directories have lost a lot of value, with so many bad directories emerging from the bunch. Directories these days require a submission fee to a directory that may not pass any link popularity and drive zero traffic. Make sure if you are paying a directory submission fee, you are getting some value out of it..

If you are paying a directory to list your site, or even paying just to put it in the submission queue, you need to make sure you are getting your bang for your buck. With that being said, you need to do a little directory research before you make any type of payment. A quick way to check if it’s worth it is to check the PR (even though it’s not worth much anymore, it’s still a good indicator of authority).

If a directory has hundreds of listings in a specific category, you have to realize that “Link Juice” will be spread to all of those websites in that category, thus, devaluing each new site added to the category. On the other hand, if that directory brings in a lot of traffic to your site, it may as well be worth it to keep it in that directory. These are just a few of the pro’s and con’s you need to consider when submitting to a directory.

Here are a few guidelines to follow when deciding whether or not to submit to a directory:

1. No Traffic – If a directory is not getting any traffic to it, your website, in turn will not get any, making it useless to waste your time/money submitting.
2. No Substance – Even if a directory has a wide list of categories, if there aren’t any links in them, it is the same thing as a website with no content.
3. Not Indexed – If the directory is not getting its pages indexed in Search Engines on a regular basis, they will not find your site, unless they specifically go to the directory, which is rare.
4. Low PageRank – Like I said before, it’s good to be in a category page that has some decent PageRank.

So before you disregard submitting to directories altogether, like the Yicrosoft Directory, you should really weigh in on a few select ones and do your research to try and squeeze as much SEO value as you can from the dying breed of quality directories.

I have not heard of the Thirty Day Challenge, until I found this video on YouTube about directory submissions and visited their website. It is a program that shows you how to make your first $10 online, in 30 days I’m assuming. You can watch all 30 videos if you want, but right now I am going to talk about Day 29, which is Directory Submissions. In the video, they recommend either outsourcing or purchasing directory submission software to help you in your program.

There is a website, addurl.nu, that lists a number of search engine friendly directories to submit to, but submitting to each one manually is very time consuming. So he recommends a program called, Directory Submitter, which is free and can help you speed up your submission process.

Because most free directories (Yicrosoft Directory) are human edited, they take a long to review your website to add to their directory. The video suggests submitting to hundreds of directories at once, and wait for the each directory to drip in. That way, search engines see you getting more and more backlinks, but not all at once, so it looks more natural.

The way the software works is you enter the typical information you would enter when submitting your website to a directory, like name, email, and URL. There is a preloaded list of directory with various PR that you will be able to submit to. You open each directory in the built-in browser and when you get to the page where you enter your information, the software will automatically fill in the fields for you. All you have to do is verify the information and click submit.

Because you still have to go to each directory and submit, it is not automatic, but that can be a good thing. Sometimes automatic directory submission software will not fill in the correct fields and cause you to get rejected from directories. This way you can oversee everything that goes on, but not have to sit there and type in your information each time.

The video also recommends RSS submitter software that will submit your RSS feeds to free RSS directories. You can find that at: http://www.allscoop.com/tools/rss-submit/. I have not tried that software out yet, but may write about it in a later post. You can find the Directory Submitter software at: http://www.directorysubmitter.imwishlist.com/

Final note: you can add individual directories to the pre-loaded list, so you make sure you add the Yicrosoft Directory.

“InFormEnter adds a small, clickable icon next to every input field in a web form, from where you can select the item to be inserted – no typing required. You can configure it to display your frequently used information such as name, email, address…”

1. Install the InFormEnter Firefox plugin.
2. Configure the plugin by left-clicking on the blue arrow and going to “InFormEnter Options …” on the lower right corner of the browser statusbar.
3. Change the default input menu items with information you enter regularly in forms when submitting to web directories like: Name, Email, Title, Description, URL. Click OK
4. When a page loads with any type of input field, there will be a small blue clickable icon to the right of each input field. Click it and you will be able to select which input you want.
5. You can create different profiles with specific information for each website you are submitting.

This will help shave off a lot of time when submitting to hundreds of web directories, without having to pay for the automated software or paying for web directory submitters. And a good place to see if this plugin works for you would be to submit to the Yicrosoft Directory.

In a post back in August, Matt Cutts of Google said that new documents would show up in minutes instead of hours or days. That’s a huge leap from a couple of years ago when it would take months. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it, for late breaking news especially. Why would you want to hear about very time-sensitive, important news on the internet if it’s a day late? But before, that’s how it was and that’s how people accepted it.

You can see how fast your blog posts get indexed by searching for particular keywords (”yicrosoft directory“) your blog post is about and looking for the time of the refresh tag immediately following the text link.

More recently, in a Webmaster World forum topic, this same issue was brought up and some of the replies were quite interesting. Even if your blog is new, Google will still index it in a very short time. People seem to think it is magic that their blogs are being indexed without having to do anything. But they should really be thanking their blog provider.

WordPress (what the Yicrosoft Directory uses), for example, submits all of your blog posts to Ping-o-matic by default, unless you change the setting before you publish your post. With that being said, there will be cases of people who do not get their blog post indexed because they opted out of getting their post to be pinged. I recommend posting your blog to the following ping services:

http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.blogg.de/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com/
http://ping.myblog.jp/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://pingqueue.com/rpc/
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.britblog.com/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.wpkeys.com/
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.bloglot.com/rpc/
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id
http://1http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/
http://www.imblogs.net/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast

This doesn’t mean that you could sit back and relax as you watch Google index your blog. The reason why some blogs get indexed faster than others is because they have quality content, making their site look like an authority site over others.There has also been discussion about whether Google indexes Blogger posts faster than other Blogs like WordPress because they own it. It would make a lot of sense for them to do that. But for a search engine that is trying to give the best user experience, with the best results, this should not be the case. You would not want to have a blog show up for some arbitrary keyword just because they have a blogger account, would you?

Along with blogging, you should really consider submitting to directories as well, since they do still have some value.

One of Google.org’s first projects was to develop a hybrid electric vehicle that would be capable of driving 100 miles per gallon. That is a lot more than I can say about how most cars perform these days. They have funded to research and produce a viable renewable energy from wind and solar sources, which they hope will be cheaper than the energy produced from coal. This would also help decrease any carbon footprint that energy sources like coal produce.

Google.org has four other initiatives that they are working and researching for. They want to make plug-in, hybrid and electric vehicles more widely used. The reasoning goes the same about the carbon footprint and to help reduce as much pollution as possible. They also have an initiative called, “Predict and Prevent” which in a nutshell, looks to use all their resources to educate communities from emerging threats and infectious diseases.

Inform and Empower goes along the lines of their previous initiative, but this is to help improve public services within third world countries. Like most companies that do community service, Google.org goes above and beyond with how they began this initiative. They wanted to focus on education, health and water and sanitation services in East Africa and India. Most companies just go to their local beach and do a beach cleanup.

The last initiative works to help Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) grow. With Google being as big as they are, it would seem strange for them to actually try and help the little guy. But the way they see it (in a philanthropic standpoint), if they help SMEs, it will give more jobs to more people and help reduce poverty. This makes a lot of sense and since Google is at the top, and will be for quite some time, it is nice to see that they have this perspective.

This just shows you how, despite their best interests, the government is still not doing what they should be doing to help protect our country and environment. Google on the other hand, is going out of their way to help make advances in our already globally fragile world. We are at a point in time where action must be taken to protect our environment, and Google has taken the first step, if not, leaps and bounds.

10 Tips to Avoid by Yicrosoft Directory

1. Javascript Links – search engines cannot read javascript, so you will not get credit for the link to your site.

2. Scraper Directories – they will grab the meta data from your site and put that info on their own site with the name of your site.

3. Links in Frames – search engines cannot read what is in frames, even if your link is in there.

4. More Info Pages Steal your PR – make sure the ‘more info’ link actually goes to your site. If it goes to another page in their directory, they are putting their title of that next page, which is supposed to compete with your site for keywords in the title.

5. .PHP and .ASP Scripts – those scripts with session IDs are used to track clicks, but prevent PR from passing to any site they link to.

6. No Follow Tags – Doesn’t seem like a directory would do this, but there are cases. Make sure your link does not have a NoFollow tag on it.

7. Banned Directories in Robots.txt – make sure the directory you want to submit to does not have a robots.txt file that is disallowing Googlebot, because it will mean they are banned.

8. Avoid Spammers – don’t link to spammers because if search engines find out you are linked to them and that they are indeed spamming their search engine, you will get banned or penalized.

9. No Reciprocal Links – if a directory is asking for a reciprocal link, don’t do it, especially if they ever ask you to place it on your homepage. This will drain your PR from your most important page.

10. No Contact Information – make sure if you are paying for a review fee, that they have contact information available. Some directories will take your money but not allow you to enter your site details.

Hope you will consider these tips the next time you submit your site to web directories. Just because it is so risky to submit to directories, like the Yicrosoft Directory, doesn’t mean you should disregard them altogether, just read my post about value in directories. Are there other tips or advice that is useful when submitting to directories?

1. Before You Begin
   Make sure your site is not already listed in the directory. Sometimes your site will get picked up on other directories, and you will not even know it. If you try to submit to a directory that already lists yours, they will usually tell you. But that is after you wasted your time entering all the information, so it is better to just check first.
2. Follow The Rules
   To ensure that your site will get listed in a timely manner and not rejected, please read the submission guidelines of each directory. Each one varies from directory to directory.
3. Choose Relevant Category
   One of the reasons for delays and rejections is that people do not submit their sites to the correct category. Either they are too general, or sometimes in the completely wrong directory. (Maybe they are trying to submit to a category that has more page rank than another). If it is a human-edited directory, it is what it is: human-edited, which means if you don’t belong in the health category, don’t submit to the health category.
4. Site Title
   This is usually the anchor text for the link of your site, which is why people try to get in as many keywords as possible. Some directories only ask you to put the official name of the site, and possibly some keywords after. Try to not make it sound too spammy.
5. Write a Good Description
   This is where you sell your site and get someone to actually click into your website. Try to get as many keywords in your description as possible, but do not make it too cluttered.
6. Character Limits
   The site title and descriptions sometimes have have a minimum and/or maximum character limit. Please make sure you are aware if the directory has a certain character limitions for their website submission.
7. Patience
   Like I said before, you will not get listed immediately in web directories just because of the nature of the review process. Some directories that ask for your email address will notify you once they have reviewed and accepted your site in their directory. Just know that they have not forgotten about you, just be patient.

Follow these rules and it will make the whole directory submission process go a whole lot smoother. You will avoid delays and rejections from the directories, and getting linked faster as well as rank higher in the search engines and gain more traffic to your site. The Yicrosoft Directory, for example offers a very speedy submission process, that only require the basic information and accepts/rejects in a very short period of time.

It is true, however, that submitting to too many directories can be a bad thing just because there aren’t that many high ranking web directories out there, and getting onto a bunch of low profile, directories will make your website to look more spammy than anything. Like they always say, ‘quality over quantity’.

Whether or not search engines penalize you for submitting to web directories is beside the point. You have a new website and you want people to visit. What better way to get people there than to submit them to directories and get it listed in search engines? Even if it doesn’t get listed in search engines, people browse web directories all the time (this is why it is important to submit to the correct category). This will help get people who wouldn’t have normally visited your website to take a look.

There are many ways to find quality web directories, the easiest way would be to Google ‘free web directories’ and check out the top listings or go to the sites that explicitly list the best directories. The best place to start is from the beginning, so why not take a stab at the Yicrosoft Directory. So if you are an up-and-coming website that needs some exposure, make sure you submit your website to some directories before you do anything.