Name of your website?Black Cat Web Directory
Your name?
Walter Wykes
Your Location (city, etc)
Valley Village, CA 91607
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Black Cat Web Directory is a human-edited general web directory. Sites pay to be reviewed and, if accepted, are organized by subject.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
As every one knows, there's really a glut of web directories out there right now. But as a webmaster, I was frustrated by the lack of well-designed, QUALITY directories that I could list my sites in. Most directories look like they were thrown together in about five minutes, many are carbon copies of each other, and a lot contain so much advertising (banners, google adwords) that the website listings really become secondary to the advertising--you almost don't even notice them. I wanted to create a clean, aesthetically-appealing directory where webmasters would feel good about listing their websites.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched my first website in 2000. It was http://www.theatrehistory.com
It's an archive of articles on every aspect of the history of theatre. It's still up and running, gets lots of traffic, and is a PR6 site.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I just like the play on the superstition. People think black cats are unlucky. I think they're cool.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
I think it offers a cleaner design than most web directories. And I'm not putting any advertising on the site to keep it clean. As a result, I've had to make it a paid directory, but I think it's worth it to keep it looking good.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I plan to keep it.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Black Cat Directory is fairly new (just launched it two weeks ago), so the jury is still out. But most of my other websites have been very successful. I still have them all. Hopefully this one will follow suit.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Not much.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I think so.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
None so far. It's been smooth sailing.
What has been your biggest challenge?
All of my other sites are free sites--they offer free content. So this is the first one where I had to set up a payment system. It wasn't that big a deal though. I'm using Paypal.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
So far, I've gotten most of my traffic from listings in other directories and directory lists.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It's been pretty much what I expected.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
It's been up for two weeks, and I plan to keep it going forever. Hopefully I can pass it on to my kids when I retire.
Why should webmasters list their sites in your directory?
It's a clean, good-looking website, the price is reasonable, and while it's a newbie site right now, I do have a track record of building high-traffic websites such as theatrehistory.com. They should get in now while it's still cheap. As the PR goes up, I will probably raise prices too.
What is your website address?
Black Cat Web Directory
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