After nearly two years of research and development, BOTW has brought it’s local product, BOTW Local to public beta. Though still a little clunky along parts of the ride, the BOTW Local offering provides users with details on over 16 million businesses and local information from cities throughout the United States. The initial list of cities that we spent time working on include: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Austin, and Miami.

BOTW Local is a free service where users can rate and review local businesses, find information including phone numbers, location, directions, hours of operation, and more. It’s not cluttered like other local offerings, with ease of use at the center of our development efforts. Users can search for businesses in a specific city, or browse categories for each city. Users can see businesses on a map, and find out further information about businesses by visiting the business details page for individual businesses.

BOTW Local is also free for business owners. Business owners can claim their business with our free JumpStart page, where the business owner can provide users with additional information about the business. For owners looking for increased visibility, we offer the Premium business listings and Sponsored business opportunities. Each option provides the business owner with a great opportunity to cost effectively reach users in their community.

We have much more planned for BOTW Local (outside of smoothing out those bumps). Stay tuned for more social features, and enhanced account management. We’re continually striving to offer users and businesses the best possible experience, and we look forward to providing additional features in the months to come.

We hope that you enjoy our newest offering, and we welcome any feedback you may have.

Why BOTW Directory?
Before I came here, as a longtime web editor and voracious reader of SEO forums (yeah, somebody’s missing a great opportunity for a good 12 step program) I’d seen countless “Top Directories” lists. There are many many directories, but a select few always stand out, whether due to vast databases or for successfully representing a specialized niche. What constantly put BOTW on those favorites lists?

Answer 1: A Commitment to Quality
“Talk” about quality is a standard feature for virtually every organization. If it isn’t backed by tangible investment, it’s just chatter. In the case of BOTW the investment is not only real, it follows an unusual pattern. As the income increased the honchos didn’t treat it as a cash cow and just bank the profits… they’ve systematically reinvested to make BOTW a better resource.

Of course a standard complaint about pay-for-review directories is that they may be weak in areas where there are minimal paid submissions. Portions of the web will always include sites that are labors of love, not for-profit ventures. Those seldom pull out a Visa card and submit, they’ll only be in if somebody seeks them out. In order to have a broad range of offerings, BOTW has long used paid editors to flesh out these areas.

The recent addition of The Nerd Herd was a sign of this continued commitment. We don’t handle the paid sites, we build around them to make sure paid inclusions are in good enough company to show up on the radar. The Herd wasn’t a cheap investment… they’re well paid (especially given most of us learned this role as volunteers), but frankly they’re paid well because they are hand selected, a team of experienced folks who are very good at what they do.

Answer 2: A Commitment to Both Users and Site Owners
To most directory owners it would seem an insanely high monthly overhead to tack on. After all, BOTW already has a good rep, why bother? Reason: A commitment to the directory’s various constituencies… including both end users and webmasters that depend on BOTW to help get their site in front of folks.

Method “A” : Adds / Taxonomy / Nav Aids
Since their arrival The Herd (which has quadrupled in number and is still growing) has actively worked to not only add sites… but to improve taxonomy and descriptions and provide additional contextual navigation. The point is to find good sites and to make them more findable.

Method “B” : DESCRIPTIONS
If a site is worthy of inclusion, it is worthy of a description that enables it to be found by search engines, not just via an on-site “drill-down”. That doesn’t mean it should be keyword stuffed… in the long run that does more harm than good, but it should be properly keyworded so it can be found. The value of a listing in any directory is diminished in value if the site doesn’t have a reasonable description. Adding without truly describing is a waste of effort.

But We’re a Directory, Not a Search Engine ( ? ! )
I got into directories in ‘99. At the time the phrase “We’re a directory not a search engine” was common, and might have actually meant something before SEs were as reliable as they are today. Well, people still use both methods to search, but this isn’t 1999. Directories serve a dual role, and a very important role IF we do our job well. In the real world, search engines are an important vehicle, not an afterthought, and definitely not an adversary.

Moving Forward with Best of the Web
Today BOTW is a constantly improving information resource for both on-site users and for those using the search engines that farm it. The recently announced Blog Directory is another recent example of BOTWs continued commitment to providing new resources. Though BOTW is rapidly becoming the fastest growing directory on the web… whether it will become the largest is not our focus.

As the name implies… the point is to be “the best”.

Regards ~

Rob Jones
Proud Member of “The Nerd Herd”

NEXT WEEK:
A Rising Tide Floats All Boats… Why the directory biz is NOT a zero-sum game

About a week ago we announced the newest addition to the BOTW executive team. We are psyched to get Adam on board, and we’re confident that he’ll help us bring BOTW to the next level.

With more than a handful of projects running simultaneously, there are a lot of business opportunities that don’t get the attention they deserve. For months now we’ve had multiple business development deals that are somewhere along the sales cycle, but to date have not yielded much fruit.

The addition of Adam to the BOTW team will enable us to maintain focus on operating and growing our core business without having to neglect the numerous business development opportunities that we pursue. Moreover, his entrepreneurial values and keen knowledge of the search industry will prove instrumental in the successful development and launch of future BOTW projects.

Adam is well recognized in the search industry as a forward thinker with great networking skills and a passion for sales. We’re certain that BOTW will be a stronger company for his joining, and we look forward to a long and prosperous working relationship.

We ran an ad a handful of months ago seeking a qualified editor. After finding our man, we formulated a plan to put together an editorial Dream Team. While there is still room for additional talent, the current Nerd Herd is in a league of their own. The few dozen editors that currently comprise the crew include pioneers in the web directory industry, with years of experience editing at directories such as Zeal and DMOZ.

Consistent with our mission, the crew will focus on beefing up both the web directory and blog directory with additional high quality resources. Additionally, their experience uniquely enables them to help shape the taxonomy of the directories in a manner that is intuitive and helpful to users. They will contribute on future projects, and their insight will enhance our efficiencies.

They’re a pretty impressive group of people to work with, and we’re glad to have ‘em on board. We look forward to an exciting future!

Interested parties should contact robjones[at]botw[dot]org to learn about joining the team.

Last week at the SES NY conference, BOTW teamed up once again with IMNY to hold a charity party. The event was put together as an opportunity for industry professionals to come together for a night of networking and laughing, with all of the proceeds raised to be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

As anticipated, the event was a great success. We raised approximately $17,000 to donate, almost 200 people attended, lots of drinks were served, and only one table was broken (note: the Black Finn tables don’t seem to be made for dancing on).

A huge thank you to Danny Sullivan for helping out and being such a good sport. Additional shout outs to those who did more than they needed to: Neil Patel, We Build Pages, Greg Niland, Pepperjam, Vintage Tub and Bath and The Outreach Center.

Foe more on the party, check out the party recap page, and have some fun browsing through all the pictures from the event, here and here (thanks Li).

Once again, thanks to all who participated. We look forward to seeing all of you at the next charity party!

So come on out to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, network with industry titans, and have a chance to win a full pass to any one of the following search conferences:

• SMX Social Media (April 22-23)
• SES Toronto (June 17-18)
• SES San Jose (Aug 18-21)
• SMX East (Oct 6-8)

The SES NY Charity Party will be going down Tuesday night March 18th, at The Black Finn. Raffle tickets are only $5. All money will be donated to charity. Drinks are on us from 8 to midnight. Full party details can be found on the SES NY Charity Party page.

The event has gotten some nice attention, and we’re confident that this will be our largest gathering to date. The original SEO Ninja, Jim Boykin, has graciously offered to make a large donation, and others are stepping up and opening their wallets.

There’s a Facebook event page with pictures from previous events, and general chaos amongst attendees.

We look forward to seeing you there!

It is our pleasure to announce our first promotion of 2008. For the month of March, all submissions and sponsorships are 25% off their regular pricing, for both the web directory and the blog directory. When prompted, use the promotion code SAVEBIG, and you’ll instantly receive a 25% discount off current pricing. For the entire month of March, the SAVEBIG code will provide discounts on:

The code is good for an unlimited amount of submissions, so take advantage of the discount and submit away. But don’t wait too long - the offer expires March 31, 2008.

Attention resellers: This promotion is commissionable. So you can pass along the great savings to your users and receive the same great commission. They save, and you make money. It’s a great opportunity to get your users introduced to BOTW offerings. Start now!

Not a BOTW reseller? Find out more about the BOTW reseller program.

Repeat scenario a handful of months ago when we got together with the fine folks at IMNY and sponsored the SMX Social charity party. Once again the event exceeded expectations, a bunch of money was raised for charity (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society), and a good time was had by all.

It is our pleasure to announce that we will be sponsoring our third charity party at the upcoming SES Conference in New York next month. This time we are letting the search community decide which charity will receive the proceeds from the event. A handful of people have championed a charity, and after all the votes are tallied, the winning charity will be selected.

Full details of the event at the SES NY Charity Party page.

Make sure to stop by and cast your vote. Thanks - we look forward to seeing you at the party.

Fortunately where there is a need, there is typically a savvy business person to step in and fill the gap. Enter Aaron Wall and the SEO for Firefox Extension. By simply downloading and activating the extension, interested marketers can discover a plethora of details about any given site, providing some understanding to the search engine listings.

We are pleased to announce that the super-cool SEO for Firefox extension now includes details about BOTW listings. Included amongst the host of features, web marketers can now see if a given site has been listed within the BOTW directory. Very nice!

Find out about all the features here (make sure to watch the instructional video). After learning more about the extension, download and activate it, and take your insight to the next level. And don’t forget to chech out the rest of the SEO tools provided by Aaron - the keyword suggestion tool is ingenious.

Happy surfing!