Register
Blog
Directory Navigation I was hoping to get some advide from some of the people that have built out big directories. Howard and Henri have been very helpful with pointing me in the right direction on several issues. I Here is my question to the developers. If you have a directory that is, for example autodealers.tel. You would obviously break them down by state and city in the folder structure. Lets say that you also have new and used as well as Ford, Toyota and GM. A single dealership could exist in all 6 or more of these categories and need to be listed in each folder sub directory. Does that entail entering all of the contact and location information in each of the 6 locations for each dealership? With the current Telhosting (understanding that label and goto changes are coming) what is the best (easiest) way to enter this data and have it flow nicely for the user? Any input is appreciated. |
. There is no new method: You have enter the contact info for each company or dealer, etc, separetly, manually. But you might have a few things, that are aleways the same, such as: - Brand names - Phone number of head office - Phone number of factory or direct parts supply - Header / Name - General Brand name - Company names of car manufacturers - Head office name - Etc., etc. These, you are able to insert with "copy and paste", if you use multiple virtual desktops. Or even only a dual monitor setup will do. Which means, that you copy and paste within a constellation of a few .tel domain subdomains (or, if your directory is quasi your .tel portfolio, it would be also: copy and paste within a constellation of a few .tel domain management panels.) That is all you can do. But, hey!: The good thing is, that you will get used to using virtual desktops, with which you are able to populate big amounts of .tel domains (or subdomains) within one day, or one task. . |
This is a problem with sites like autodealers.tel and people who try to populate sites like this one. You assume that autos are sold only in the USA because you want to divide in only into states and cities only. Don't forget that the world does not end in the US. Autos are sold even in Mongolia , Pago Pago and other countries around the world so unless we start building local directories .tel will never be a success. We will fail |
Please be a little bit more sensitive, about how you talk to other members, even if you might be right, dear marimax. It might discourage other members, to populate their .tel domains. I like his concept, and the way he is going about his project. I am not able to judge, if he is doing anything, which might not be ideal. Always, what counts most, is ambitions and interest, etc. It is a learning curve. And he hasn't got much experience yet, on that specific task. A lot of things, come the right way, by learning by doing, and getting some experience and routine. Sure: Good directories about car dealers, will be important, for a good distribution, and for good sales results of electric cars, or other "green cars". Because we will be able to offer users a similar experience with a .tel search engine, as you have with Google or Yahoo, the community would have to act very akward, for .tel to fail. So, it is out of question, to say, that not selling cars locally, all around the globe, would let .tel fail. Nonsens. If he would not make any efforts to populate his domain, and if all other owners, of car domains, would neither populate their domains, than, it would be a problem. But nothing bigger, than a few other problems, that are existing. A good effort, will never be a reason to worrie. Only effortless. Or non existing efforts, or efforts not made (yet). I think it is fantastic, that some one is populating a directory for car dealers. Wow!... This will all add to help the new "green car industry" to pick up production and sales, and to distribute the cars, etc. Owners of .tel domains, who populate their domains, and build directories, will be able to share their experiences with other owners, and help to improove the quality of the content, as well as of the structure and navigation. It is all very promissing and encouraging. It is basically the right way to proceed: make a concept, and if you need help: get it within this forum. . |
I have to disagree with you. If you think you are right we will only need a few .tel sites to cover the whole world. In your opinion we need to populate only sites like hotels.tel, restaurants.tel, lawyers.tel and so on to achieve our goal. Is there only one Yellow Page for each business or profession to cover the whole wide world ? I stopped populating my .tel domains because I only own city name + business and a lot of people think like you do. It's a waste of time and unless we cover every larger city in the world with directories instead of doing it globaly we will never succed |
@Mactel Quote:
Well said, Mactel. It is indeed a learning curve. I had to completely re-do my directories back in July because I hadn't a clue what I was doing. But believe me I have learned the hard way and I am getting very encouraging results in Google searches in the past few weeks. And I still have many more tweaks and changes to make to my directories before I am satisfied that I have a finished and polished article that is of a high enough quality to launch. Directories that are not of a high standard will damage the brand. Dottel is completely new so there isn't any perfect template any of us can follow right now. It's a new and evolving technology and the Telnic Roadmap is constantly creating new and more interesting ways for us to develop our domains. I would say to Triton NW give yourself six months to a year to get your directories the way you want them. You will have to make changes along the way before you will be satisified. Take a look at other directories for ideas. Spend time doing research and believe me you will know when you have got the right plan for autodealers.tel. Maybe you shouldn't be trying to cover every State, right now. Something smaller and more focused might be what is required in order to demonstrate the potential of the domain to the auto industry. These are just some thoughts although I realise not very helpful in a practical way to you right now.[/size] |
@ tony mayo: Thanks, for your interesting and helpful post: it is a pleasure to read. Hello marimax, I understand your point and concerns, and in a way I give you right. Here, as well, we must put qualitiy infront / before of quantity. But as you say: quantity is relative, as well. I see it it this way: Isee: 1.) owners of .tel domains, who populate them 2.) mainstream users who will have to use .tel domains, so that .tel won't fail 3.) the question about .tel failing, or not failing is mainliy depending on the behavior of the mainstream .tel user (which is not using .tel yet, because he has not yet discovered it) 4.) which is why owners of .tel domains are in a way disburdend, of beeing responsible for a possible failing of .tel As long as they insinst in that the telproxy must have a .tel search engine, they will be doing the most important thing 5.) owners of .tel domains have yet not found or experienced a efficient method to quasi "bulck populate" a group of domains, including .tel domains, and websites with .tel "Contact Us" pages 6.) to cover every city with a good .tel directory, we must firstly have owners of .tel domains, who are willing to spend their time and skills on it Thank you, and kindest regards . Quote:
|
Thanks for the input. To the point above about local directories, I certainly agree. autodealers.tel was just an example to try and describe my question about loading lots of info. To prove that I agree with the local directory point, the actual donain is wallawallawine.tel. Walla Walla is a city in SE Washington state that is famous for its wines. You cant get more local than that. |
Directory structure The directory structure seems very inflexible. I would find it very useful to set up chains of nested folders but there seems no clear way of doing this with the control panel. Am I missing something? Thanks Tim |
Hello Tim and welcome to the forum, Could you give an example of what yiu are trying to do so that I can understand properly and advise if it is possible within your .tel. Thanks, Howard |
Hi Howard, Thanks. I have been looking at some of the sites that have been created and noticed that some of them have interesting features that it seems hard to replicate with the control panel supplied. I was wondering if I had missed something. An example is is the www.brighton.tel site. This site features a range of linked folders set in a hierarchy ie from the top level you are invited to GOTO health, when in health you are invited to GOTO dentists and when in dentists you are given five options to GOTO. Through this process you finally arrive at say the Village Dental Centre and this level contains contact, phones, web info etc. It appears that the control panel I am using allows only one tier of folders below the top level. In the example above this would be Brighton.tel with GOTO health but with no lower tiers with which to organise content. Am I using old software, have I missed a link or need to add some extra tools? Regards Tim |
Hi Tim, You should be able to add any level of subfolders (until you hit the maximum folder limit of 3,000 folders). To use the example you have, the owner of Brighton.tel has firstly created their "Health" folder. They have then clicked on this new "Health" folder. This allows them to populate the folder but ALSO if they click "Add" in the folder section while their "Health" folder is selected this adds a subfolder to Health. They are now in the third tier. Let me know if this helps, otherwise if you drop me a PM with your email address I can send you some screenshots. |
This was very helpful and I have put it to use. Many thanks Tim |
New label appearance Hello all at Telnic I first want to say that I love the ability to add label information. I was on one of my sites today (www.t1providers.tel) and it just looked odd. The goto links look great. There is the description and right below it is the link. On the others like the web and e-mail links the spacing is much differert and it makes it look sloppy an unprofessional. Will this be fixed soon? Thank you |
Triton NW - thanks for the feedback. I'll pass your comments on to the development team. |
Quote:
I totally agree - the GoTo labels look great but the Web labels do look odd (see http://newsletters.dot-tel.mikeseaton.tel/ for before and after examples) and now take up 4 vertical lines instead of 2 (assuming 1 line of description). I have made the suggestion in the .tel Dreams thread http://telnic.org/forum/showthread.php?t=288 that the Web label format be brought in line with the new GoTo format - hopefully with more people now noticing this a revised Web label format will be added to the .tel Roadmap soon. Mike Seaton[/size] |
