28 Apr, 2007
Directory Submitter - digiXMAS Submitter review
Posted by: admin In: Uncategorized
Getting other sites to link to you makes you look better in the eyes of the search engines. The normal approach for a new homepage would be to provide lots of excellent content and relevant articles, and bringing back visitors to build a solid userbase.
This is what you should do any way, but in order for you to get a head-start you can use the huge list of directories on the internet to build up initial back-links.
There are several posts on SEO related blogs that lists both pros and cons to this approach, most noteably is the problem that the directories are not niche-related to your site, and that you share the pagerank of that particular page with dozens if not hundreds of other sites.
However, to build up a new domain, you have to start somewhere, and I have chosen the digiXMAS Submitter as my weapon of choice, and I will share the results here on this page when they start showing up in the google index of sites linking to this page.
The digiXMAS Submitter is a submission tool that aims to automate as much of the tidious process of submitting to hundreds of sites, gaining backlinks.
The digiXMAS Submitter has two submission modes, “Semi-automated Submission Mode” and “Manual Submission Mode”.
Semi-automated Submission Mode
The first, and by far the best reason to purchase the submitter, is that it automates the process as much as possible. The team behind the submitter updates the list of directories that support this mode sometimes several times a day, and the list is up to 723 directories at the time of writing this review. The directories range from PR 0 to PR 6, where the bulk is only PR 0.
- Smart, self-learning category selection algorithm guaranties that your website is submitted
to most relevant category. - Long list of free general directories with Google Pagerank, updated every day.
- Automated check for site’s listing in directories with recording exact anchor text.
- Possibility of manual image verification or category adjustment during submission.
- Automated record of submission error messages.
- Up to 10 concurrent connections that reduce your time to minimum.
After downloading the program, and purchasing credits for submitting sites (read more about that later on) you can log on via the windows program, and create up to three titles and descriptions from which the program will choose randomly to submit to the directories. The semi-automated system can also detect possible categories to submit your site to, based on the keywords you enter when you set up your site you want to submit.
Manual Submission Mode
The manual submission mode is basically a huge list of links, which when you click it, it goes to the website and leaves it to you to locate the correct folder for your submission, and then attempts to automatically fill out the form to help speed up the process. I had very varied results with the automatic detection, but it worked out pretty fine overall.
It was however slightly annoying to see the software automatically redirect to a “Help us promote digiXMAS Submitter” page, that has a “digg” button. I was especially annoyed since I first of all purchased a package (why do I still see this page, and not the next page in the list of directories?) and after I actually digg’ed the page, why do I still see it? The software should automatically detect if the user has paid for a package (I have to log in, so the software should know this) or if the user actually digg’ed the page. (Should be detectable as well). Minor thing, but overall, annoying.
Helpfull trick: Do not use your primary e-mail for reference for the submission sites. Each and every site will e-mail you that your site has been submitted, and then also another e-mail after a while if it has been accepted or rejected.
The Cons
Not everything about this software is perfect though. The whole interface of the software is poorly designed (not poorly in itself, but very much resembles what you would expect in software back in the 90’s. The help-file is good, although they refer to different names/terms than in the actual software. For instance, the help file refers to the two submission modes as Shinkansen Mode and Truck Mode, but in the actual software they are named “Semi-automated Submission Mode” and “Manual Submission Mode”. A slight detail, but still annoying.
However, for a basically free piece of software, they have done quite well.
The Pros
The price structure is perfect for struggling web masters, or people who prefer to do things them-selves rather than using people and companies that offer directory submissions:
Free package: As free service, you can submit your sites to 150 directories with lower Google PR in Shinkansen mode, plus free submission to all directories in Truck mode, including directories in your own lists.
I purchased the bigger one, the Featured Package, as I had tried the software in free mode, and decided it was worth spending $10 dollars per site, and since I bought the bigger package, I actually got each site for $7. A bargain.
Featured package: Buying featured package, you can submit 10 sites to all directories in the list. The cost for this package is $70 USD. It’s intended for webmasters that have up to 10 websites.
Overall impression
It is an excellent piece of software that you get for free to up to 150 directories. If you do choose to spend some money for the featured packages, you will not be dissapointed, and the price is very reasonable. You should however expect some time working with the software for submissions, but if you had the money, you would use a company/individual to do it anyway. They are probably using this software anyway 
