I have asked John Scott, the owner of BlueFind to send me some information on how his directory differs over the others. Here was his response:
Since launching BlueFind not even three months ago, it has become the main focus on my daily activities. The directory started off with a high PageRank � PR8, and it has attracted a lot of attention because of it. Good attention and bad. I�d like to address a few issues here. Selling PageRank?
Because we have done some massive advertising, including buying links and banners from Internet.com and various other high PageRank, webmaster related sites, BlueFind now boasts a very strong PR8. Whenever a site has high PR, the question � Is this guy selling PR? � may come up. So, are we selling PageRank?
No. We aren�t. And I�ll tell you why. First, the PR8 is on the home page of BlueFind and on the About BlueFind page. But we aren�t selling listings on those pages. No amount of money would get you listed on either of those pages.
Second, when a webmaster submits their site, we do not guarantee listing. We have, in fact, refused to list some sites and refunded the submission fee. We are building a quality directory. One that serves the consumers as well as the webmasters. It�s a joint venture, and we are not going to sacrifice the integrity of the directory for $40.
Third, a lot of submissions do not even go on the PR7 or PR6 pages. One category getting a lot of submissions is BlueFind - Hosting, with just PR5. If you�re looking to increase PR, a listing in BlueFind most likely is not your best bet.
I still brag about the PageRank, just because PR8 does open a lot of doors that wouldn�t be open if we had a lesser PR. It is also an effective marketing tool, and we need to continue to generate revenue if we are going to successfully develop BlueFind into the kind of high-traffic website we want it to be. High PageRank is seen as a sign of credibility. It shouldn�t be; but it is. And as such, we use it accelerate the growth of BlueFind.
Directory Listings Worth It?
The other question that often pops up is, is it worth it? There are a few benefits, in my mind, that make it worth it. The first is of course traffic. While BlueFind only gets a couple thousand searches per day (it�s practically brand new!), it does drive a decent amount of traffic. One of my motorcycle related sites listed in BlueFind shows 200+ referrals from BlueFind; and one submitter recently posted about getting quite a bit of traffic from BlueFind, albeit the search terms were somewhat adult oriented. And although we do not deliver masses of traffic at this time, I expect that to change as we grow.
The second benefit, and the reason I submit to other web directories such as Yahoo!, WowDirectory and GoGuides is because I see the benefit of such listings in search engine rankings. More and more, search engine optimization professionals are coming to understand that search engine rankings are not dependent on PR alone. BlueFind has a great PR8, but still not in the top ten for �Web Directory�. It�s also not about repeating the same anchor text over and over on thousands of pages of one or two sites. In my opinion, it is more about getting linked, with the right anchor text, from as many unique domains (and IP�s) as possible. Links from relevant page with the keywords you target in the page title of the linking page. That�s my philosophy.
All in all, I think it�ll be first tier directory before too long. There will always be a naysayer or two in the crowd, but in the meantime BlueFind is growing and we appreciate the support of the majority of the webmaster community.
