50+ Free Directories For Your Blog | The Monday Marketing Tip

a listing of directories for your link-building efforts, with Renzie Baluyut.

Link-building is a handy skill for marketing professionals, online entrepreneurs, small business owners and web administrators- it's great for making your site more search-engine-friendly, it also helps build your credibility and authority, and hopefully, all this improved traffic into your site translates into increased participation, inquiries, leads or even sales.

Link-building is a part of search engine optimization (SEO)- the science and art of getting your blog or website to the top of the search engine results pages (or at least as high as you can), which works on the premise that those listed at the top of search engine results pages (or SERPs) actually get more incoming traffic, and therefore, improved business.

We'll definitely get into the intricacies of link-building strategy in a later post. For now, you have to remember that part of your blog SEO strategy is to get as many incoming links into your blog as you possibly can.

For your convenience, Martin Preece and the good people over at WebSEODesign have compiled a number of free directories for you to visit, so you can register your blog or website. Martin's got some very useful notes about each of these sites, so go right ahead and check those out.

Here we go, 50+ free directories for your link-building efforts:

1. AllTheWebsites Directory | http://allthewebsites.org
2. R-TT Directory | http://directory.r-tt.com
3. Exactseek.com | http://www.exactseek.com
4. Directory World | http://www.directoryworld.net/
5. Wiki Directory of the Web | http://www.wikidweb.com/

6. Jayde B2B Search Engine | http://www.jayde.com/
7. CANLinks | http://www.canlinks.net/
8. All Free Things | http://allfreethings.com/
9. Geeks on Steroids.com | http://www.geeksonsteroids.com/directory/
10. IllumiRate.com | http://www.illumirate.com/

11. InfoListings | http://www.info-listings.com/
12. Iozoo Web Directory | http://www.iozoo.com/
13. Consultant Directory | http://www.consultant-directory.com/
14. Find Hound Directory | http://www.findhound.com/
15. A Free Directory | http://www.a-free-directory.info/

16. SoMuch.com | http://www.somuch.com/
17. Open Directory Project | http://dmoz.org/
18. All Links Directory | http://www.all-linksite.com/
19. LDMStudio.com | http://www.directory.ldmstudio.com/
20. Joe Ant | http://www.joeant.com/

21. Tsection Web Directory | http://www.tsection.com/
22. Directory Link | http://www.directory-link.info/
23. UK Directory - Business Listings | http://www.uk-web-index.co.uk/
24. Weblog Directory | http://www.yourwebloghere.com/
25. Hedir Web Directory | http://www.hedir.com/

26. Megri Web Directory | http://www.megri.com/
27. Feed Pub | http://www.feedpub.com/
28. RSS Mob | http://www.rssmob.com/
29. Fabaroo Directory | http://fabaroo.com/
30. Add URL-Free.com | http://www.addurl-free.com/

31. Quicksilver | http://www.quick-silver.org/
32. Beginner's World | http://www.beginnersworld.com/
33. Software Pointers Directory | http://www.software-pointers.com/
34. Apexoo Directory | http://www.apexoo.com/directory/
35. High Class Blogs | http://www.highclassblogs.com/

36. Webmaster Resources | http://www.webmasterlead.com/
37. Directory Delux | http://www.directorydelux.com/
38. Bulletize | http://www.bulletize.com/
39. RealState 4 Real Estate | http://www.realstate.ws/
40. Add Your Site Free | http://www.addyoursitefreesubmit.com/

41. gDotz | http://www.gdotz.com/
42. SgtSearch.com | http://www.sgtsearch.com/
43. Level10s Internet Sites | http://www.l10s.com/
44. Search Sight | http://searchsight.com/Directory.htm
45. BYS.NET-Internet Directory | http://www.bys.net/

46. DirectoryRecreation.com | http://www.directoryrecreation.com/ --> also gets listed in...
47. ...Shopping5.com | http://www.shopping5.com/
48. ...LookDirectory.com | http://www.lookdirectory.com/
49, ...FunRecreation.com | http://www.funrecreation.com/
50. ...DirectoryB2B.com | http://www.directoryb2b.com/

51. BusinessSeek.biz Business Directory | http://www.businessseek.biz/
52. Directory On | http://www.directoryon.info/
53. Business Web Directory.biz | http://www.businesswebdirectory.biz/
54. Site Pro News Webmaster Resource Sites | http://www.sitepronews.com/wresources.html
55. buzznick Web Directory | http://www.buzznick.com/

56. Global Weblinks Directory | http://www.global-weblinks.com/
57. Gamsis Human Edited Web Directory | http://www.gamsis.com/
58. Add Your URL Directory | http://www.addyoururl.org/
59. Lonely Way Directory | http://directory.lonelyway.com/
60. www.treatment-centers.net | http://www.treatment-centers.net/links/index.html

61. List 'n Click.me | http://www.listnclick.me/
62. NicheLister | http://www.nichelister.com/

Much thanks again to Martin Preece's team over at WebSEODesign.com. In addition to the listing of free directories, they also have lots of great stuff for all things SEO.

Incidentally, there's also this webinar that I'm attending, a certificate course on link-building organized by ProFora Media. Should be fun. You guys might want to check it out as well.

Cheers, everyone!

Read more...

Resources for Blogs: BlogCrowds

I suppose it is no secret that I've been trying out all these different kinds of templates on my other blog projects.

The usual templates provided by Blogger is alright- but as I may have mentioned before, it seems that I have a preference for 3-column templates.

Now, there area a lot of sites out there- both free and paid- which features quite a number of the 3-column templates that I like, and a lot other templates. The problem is that when you start loading the .XML template file, or pasting the template file onto the existing one, more often than not, Blogger displays a variety of error messages, end result being- you find yourself unable to load that smashing new 3-column template you found.

And it does get rather frustrating after the first several tries, really. At least until Blogger fixes this nuisance altogether.

Of course, you have the option of learning how to make a template yourself. I probably could, but I'd really rather spend more time churning out blog entries than making templates on my own- but maybe much later on, who knows?

Thank goodness persistence pays off: I stumbled onto Blogcrowds. On top of the new templates they've been offering, they also have lots of useful tips, widgets and other goodies for bloggers- all bloggers, for that matter- whether begginer, intermediate or even advanced.

Nothing too fancy, really. In fact a lot of them are just the usual Blogger templates, only expanded from 2-columns to 3-column deals. As far as I'm concerned, they loaded easily enough (just take away all your previous widgets before previewing or making final changes- you can slap them back on later anyway), and they look great! And I'm already sporting them on my other blog projects.

So go check it out. I'm sure there's something in there you'd like. If it's working templates you're looking for, you can get them here.

Cheers!

Read more...