Just an idea... The Meta LL
 

Hey all, my first thread outside the newbies section so bare with me :)

I was thinking about link lists yesterday and I got this idea that I wanted some input on. Now if this idea should somehow seem offensive or just plain stupid, or if it is in fact used already without me knowing it, then I want to apologize right now. As I said I'm new to this and this is just an idea, not something I am working on. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

What I thougt of was a "meta linklist".

What would it be? Basically, a LL containing other LL's free sites links. How would it be done? By a bot that collected and mixed galleries from *confirmed partner linklists*. I could code that bot myself, with some effort.

So now you may be saying: "ok great idea dude, so you say you want to STEAL free sites links from other LL's, links that they have put time and effort into reviewing?!" Now I understand that thought, which is why I apologized if someone thought this might be offensive.

BUT, what you would get as a partner (if the meta LL could get decent traffic) is more clicks on your recip (since listed freesites would be pointing to a page with your recip) and more links to pages containing your recip/web address.

In return, the partner LL's would hardlink to the meta LL in one or a few fairly good positions, which is where the meta LL would get its traffic from (to start).

Some pros and cons to this idea:

Pro: The list could grow very quickly and get full of content very fast.

Pro: All links would be verified already (and partners would be asked to agree on adding new partners so as to keep quality high)

Con: The free sites linked to wouldn't have any recips pointing back to the meta LL, which would be bad for SE. However, if big enough LL's would hardlink to the meta LL in good positions, it would still be good enough to get SE traffic (?) Add bought traffic to that, and possibly including a few sites of my own every now and then that DO have the meta LL recip.


Any thoughts on that?

Unfortunately, clicks on recips don't really bring in traffic.

Hmm, yeah I guess that would be true. How bad is it, ie how many visitors approximately would a recip make out of say a 1000 index page views (on a page with 5 other recips)?

I don't really see a problem with scraping free site links from other LLs as long as you don't copy their title / description. There are also lists of recip free free sites out there for people starting a new LL.

But you lose me when you ask for LLs to link back to you. Imo you should be linking from your site to the LLs you scrape as a thank you and ask for no linkbacks.

Which makes me wonder, what your goal is in doing this? To create an automated directory that feeds off of the work of other directories? I don't see that working out too well, but if you can give a LL a reason to link to your site you might be onto something.

I guess the goal would be to make money, as always :) I guess I am just *trying* to think a little outside the box since there seems to be about a million linklists out there; it's just a different way of going about things I suppose.

The bot would copy titles/descriptions too but note that I was talking about partners, i.e. sites willing to participate, it wouldn't just take it from any linklist of course.

The thing is that most linklists seem to mix outside submitted sites with their own stuff (i.e. hosted galleries with their own id). Now, the bot wouldn't make any distinction between these two types of sites. The result? The meta linklist would list sites whose only purpose are to sell for other linklist owners. I believe that would be pretty sweet for participating LL's and thus it would be reasonable to ask for hardlinks pointing back to the meta LL.

Nothing wrong with that but honesty, if you're new to the biz you need to learn and do what works first instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.

You're most probably right there. Just an idea, like I said. If this idea means reinventing the wheel then it's a bad idea no doubt.

Sometimes bad ideas need a little shaping before they become good ideas.

What your describing almost becomes an aggregate... if I understand what one is. But it seems to me the established LL doesn't have a need to outsource all it's content (links/descriptions) for a few extra links to it's sponsor hosted freesites. Maybe that service would be better used by a different market? A different type of site?

I feel as if you're trying to guide me here... :) A different market, a different type of site... have to think about that one.

I guess one thing would be to have a LL containing only sponsor hosted sites, then somehow convincing a few select sponsors to direct traffic there to increase their own sales.. umm... nah don't know about that

I'll think about it but feel free to help me out :) And thanks for the input

No worries. |thumb