Have you ever run across one of the thousands of home-brewed internet directories and wondered how they came to be? You know, directories in the mold of Yahoo or DMOZ, but run by individuals or small businesses? And, perhaps such directories operate in a niche, such as Home and Garden, or for a particular geographical area like a City Directory.   Here are some examples of web directories that I run: The first is my general directory: Kijashi Web Directory. And, I also run some niche directories: Austin Local Business Directory and Health and Medical Niche Directory. All three of these directories run on the same script...PHP Link Directory, also known as PHPLD. 

You Can Run Your Own Directory

You can run your own directory--it's very easy--by installing one of many ready-made directory scripts. I run a few of my own, and I'll explain here how to get started.

Most Popular Script: PHP Link Directory

The most popular script for DIY web directories is PHP Link Directory, also called PHPLD. You can google the phrase "phpld" to learn more. PHPLD costs $25 for version 3.3 (most current as of January 2009) if you display a link to PHPLD on all the pages of your directory, or $75 if you want to remove all links to PHPLD.

Also, there is a free version (2.2) of PHPLD, but it's older, and quite feature-barren.

To get the script, visit the PHPLD website and make payment arrangements there. You may also wish to join the support forums (sorry, but it's another $10 to join the support forums).

The next step is (gulp!) to install the directory script. You'll need ftp access to your server. Generally speaking, the process involves:

• Copying the script files to your hosting account. You'll need mySQL database services with your hosting account (99.5% of hosting accounts offer this) 
• Then, setting file permissions (this is pretty easy to do with any ftp program) for a few files after you upload them.
• You'll need to create a mySQL database on your server.  
• Then, simply run the phpLD installation file. 

Finding a Theme for Your Directory

If you followed the links above to the directories that I operate, you'll notice that each directory has a different look, or theme. This is done through a special theme or template that you install. There are paid themes and free themes--plenty of the free themes are quite good looking. We have made a few free themes, one is called Strawberry Fields PHPLD theme, and another is the Whitepaper Theme for PHPLD. Or you can simply google the phrase "free phpld theme", and you can probably find a dozen or so without too much trouble.

How to Install the PHPLD Theme/Template

And so, here's how to install the template: Download your free template and unzip it so that you have all the template files (about 30 files, depending on the template) in a single folder. In the case of the Strawberry Fields template, you should have a folder called "strawberry_fields" with all the template files in there.

Then, ftp your folder and place it into the folder on your webserver where you installed phpld within the folder called "templates". See the image just below to see the folder where you should drop your template folder.  

Now that you have uploaded your template files, to activate the template, simply log in to the admin section of PHPLD. You log in by going to www.YourDirectory.com/admin and typing in your login and password. Then browse to the section SYSTEM, then TEMPLATE MANAGER to select your template.

First, Create Categories For Your PHPLD Installation 

First, you'll want to create your categories. To create categories the slow way, log in to your admin section and browse to DIRECTORY then CATEGORIES. Once there, hit the button "New Category". You can enter your categories one at a time.

The "fast" way to create categories is to find a category dump--a pre-loaded file of hundreds or thousands of categories created specifically to be installed into a phpLD installation. To find a category dump, you'll need to hunt around google (use the search phrase "PHPld category dump"). Once you have the dump, you'll need some fairly good mySQL skills to enter the category dump into your system. If you don't know how to do that, you might ask for some help on the phpld forums at the phpld main site.

How to Promote Your Directory

Now, how to promote your directory? You'll want to get the word out so that visitors will come to your site and submit their sites. Well here are some ideas:

• List your directory with the "directory of directories" sites such as vilesilencer.com and directorycritic.com. Both sites offer free basic listings. There are many similar sites, but those two are the biggest. 
• For a local directory, put an ad on craigslist offering free listings to local businesses and sites.  
• If you are a forum poster, put a note in your posting signature that you offer free listings in your directory.  
• Add some links by yourself--the best directories are chock full of useful sites. Feel free to add your favorite sites to your directory to get it jump-started.  

Good luck, and have fun!