EZ-Directory™
It really is easy!
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Welcome to EZ-Directory™ - the easiest way to create an Internet directory. Directories are very useful and can draw large numbers of hits with the right content and promotion. They can be used to promote all kinds of businesses within a particular geographic area or those that share a common interest or theme. A directory can be a direct source of revenue by selling listings or an indirect source of revenue by promoting your web consulting business through the hits that your directory receives. Now, with this powerful new tool, you can create a versatile, fully functional directory quicker and easier than ever before - right in the tools! To help you get started, we will walk you through setting up a sample directory step-by-step. Use the information that you receive in this article to carefully consider and plan how to do your own directory.
The Most Important Step - Planning
What are you going to list in your directory? The options are limitless. As an example, Carl, the Reseller in a Fishbowl, created a listing of Rexburg, ID area businesses at RexburgOnline.com. Other potential uses for the directory include: classmates, schools, businesses with a common theme, non-profit organizations, churches, or practically any topic. What type of directory could you create which would have interesting content to draw traffic? For our sample purposes, let's create a small community directory. To make this even easier, let's use EZ-SiteDuplicator™ to copy the Business Directory model site into a new account for our sample. Note: You must close this new account within 30 days to avoid being charged the monthly fee on your next billing.
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1. Login to EZ-NetTools™ using your Reseller ID (ex.D3xxxxx) and password
2. Click the EZ-SiteDuplicator™ button
3. Click "Duplicate A Site"
4. Choose an empty target account
5. Choose the Business Directory Model Site to copy
6. Click Duplicate
7. Follow the directions for setting a password and subdomain and click submit
8. Click Login to enter the newly duplicated site
9. Choose to View Web Site and familiarize yourself with the look and feel of the site
10. Re-login to EZ-NetTools™ with the site's Member Number (ex. X3xxxxx) and the password that you established in step 7
Note: You must be logged in directly through the member (X) number in order to use the EZ-Directory™ features. If you login with your Dealer Number and go through View Members, you will not be able to use the EZ-Directory™ features.
11. At this point you will see a diagram of the steps involved in setting up a directory. Click "Labels"
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Directory Terms
Let's pause to become familiar with the terminology involved in creating a directory. A directory is composed of Labels, Associates, and Categories. Associates are the companies, people, sites, or what-have-you that are to be listed in the directory. Associates are sorted by Category. Categories can be sorted into Parent Categories and Sub-Categories. Labels are the descriptive names given to those categories and associates. We will stick with the default settings of the program.
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12. In the Edit Associates Labels screen, enter "Business Types" for the Category Label and "Businesses" for the Associate Label and click Submit
13. From the EZ-Directory main screen, click Categories
14. Note that the resulting window's title uses the Category Label (Business Types) as this page's title
15. Click Add to add a category
16. In the Description field enter "Automotive" to create an automotive category
17. Set Parent Category to None
18. Leave Link to Graphic and Link to Web Site blank (note: you should play with these later to see what they do)
19. Click Submit
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Organizing the Directory
Pat yourself on the back! You just created your first category. It's a very broad topic, however, which could include everything from junk yards to mechanics to Ferrari dealers. Now would be a good time to create some subcategories. This is an important side to the planning stage that we described above. Invariably there are going to be some changes that you will have to make along the way. However, the better you can plan your directory in advance, the smoother developing the directory will go. It is no fun to have to start over because you didn't take the time to thoroughly plan the directory's navigation and hierarchy in the beginning.
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20. From the main Category page, click Add
21. Under description, enter "Mechanics"
22. Set the parent category to Automotive and click Submit
23. Click Add again
24. Under description, enter "Sales"
25. Set the parent category to Automotive and click Submit
26. Click the Expand All checkbox to be able to see the hierarchy
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Adding Associates
Well, we're progressing nicely. You have a parent category and two subcategories. You could actually go click right now on the Business button in the sidebar of the site and click on the A under Search by Category. The resulting screen would show the Automotive parent category with a + sign next to it. Clicking on Automotive would pass through to a screen with Mechanics and Sales listed. Clicking the + would make Mechanics and Sales appear below the parent category. As you can see, setting up the categories will be a time consuming process. Again, another reason to try to only do it once if possible. Now, we're ready to add some Associates in our categories. We'll add stores in each of the subcategories to get us started.
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27. Return to the screen that displays the EZ-Directory diagram
28. Click on Associates
29. Click Add to add an associate
30. Enter an organization name (e.g. Mike's Mechanic Shop)
31. Select Standard for the type
32. Fill in the rest of the form with fake information to see how it works
33. Click Add and select Mechanics for the category
34. Click Submit to save this associate
35. Click Add to add another associate
36. Enter an organization name (e.g. Big Mike's Car Sales)
37. Set this one as a Premiere membership to see the difference
38. Add the Sales category
39. Fill in all the other fields to see how they work (as compared to the standard listing)
40. Submit this associate to save
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Navigating the Directory
You've done it! You created a parent category and two subcategories with stores in each. That's enough for us to be able to go see how it will work from the user's perspective.
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41. Return to the main menu and open up EZ-PageBuilder™
42. Open the page called directory
43. Edit block 5 to see the various available options
44. The options are mostly self-explanatory, so play with them to see how you can change your navigation
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Conclusion
Obviously this is a very simple overview. The variations and uses of this tool are virtually unlimited. You will find that the more you get to know the tool before you actually try to create a real directory, the better off you will be. Familiarizing yourself with EZ-Directory™ by experimenting with it will give you a better idea of how you can best setup a directory to suit your needs.
Editor's Note: For those that would like additional help in creating and marketing directories, ICServ has developed the Facilitation Program to help resellers take advantage of this tool. Please call Jake at 1-800-627-4780 for more information.
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