Directory Seeding: How Much is Enough to Start?

Gah!  I’m in a bit of a quandary about seeding this directory project:  how much is enough to start out with and how much further seeding just adds noise?

I have raided my bookmarks, read laters, memory, etc. and have come up with about 300 links which, on the face of it, seems pitiful for a general web directory if I built it circa 1998 - 2003.  But times are different now, those old directories where trying to be comprehensive: Dmoz had over 4 million listings and in the end it was a pittance compared to the ever expanding size of the web.

I’m not trying to be comprehensive, just a place where one might find useful or interesting things off the beaten path, and find them quickly.

My past experience in niche directories is of limited help here.  Back in the day of static HTML sites, those sites were not huge, I could poke around and get a good feel for the value of the site rather quickly.  Today, everything is blogs or sites built on platforms.  There could be hundreds of posts and pages.  Compounding that so many blogs are abandoned.  Yes a blog abandoned in 2014 may still have some very useful articles but that is not something I can dig out in a reasonable amount of time.

All this is to say, I feel like I am forcing it.  I am now just digging up links just to fill categories not because they are special.  And that means quality starts to slip in favor of quantity.

A web directory never should quit growing, but I think I’m near the point where I need to open it up for submissions of links by the public while I also continue to add listings at a slower and more measured pace as I find things.  Things need to grow organically.

Which means I need to get cracking on finishing up help pages and UI tweaks for a launch.

Any thoughts?

Brad Enslen - Thoughts from my stylish, mysterious, perilous mind. @bradenslen

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