The role of a web directory is to review and list quality websites in the best organized manner possible by topic and categories so that surfers and search engine bots find it easier to find them.

In order to add more quality and make our directory unique, we have initiated re-categorization of all topics and categories. It might take couple of weeks to complete the job for us.

Hence, webmasters are kindly notified to excuse our editors if reviews are a little late.

Best Regards

John

Admin of BIR

I started my online journey back in 1998 from cyber cafes and friend’s desks just to check e-mails. Slowly, I got addicted to it and more so with Yahoo Games playing chess. It was my jobless time and I used to run bills of Rs. 5000/- per month (around $175 at that time)–and my father was generous enough to foot the bills.

Then I stared working and started o know the value of money. But my urge for internet was greater -as I bought a desktop and got myself the only available internet connection in my locality from BSNL. I was playing 3/4 hrs per day and had to pay around Rs. 3000/- per month ($75-80). where as my salary was barely Rs. 8000/- per month ($225).

I had to look for alternatives- but there was no way out. BSNL was the only ISP providing dial-up connections which was too slow. During the monsoon season, it was like I had to go to the Amazon jungle where no-humans lived as connections blacked out for days.

I was also looking for alternative income sources to foot my online passion. I tried to give private tuitions to students. But I never liked taking money for giving out some knowledge- specially to poor kids. So I stopped it and started looking for venues to earn money online. I tried freelance jobs -but nobody would gimme a job without experience.

Then I discovered Digital Point Forums in December 2006 and here I am — being a webmaster and SEO enthusiasts.

The probles has been, while I started earning some money from my online work, my Internet bills went up to Rs. 5000-6000 ($125-$150) per month. It ate all my profits.

But- perseverance always pays. Finally, I have been able to get a BSNL GPRS connection a week ( it has been introduced in my area not so long back) it cost only Rs. 223/- per month for unlimited internet connectivity. What more, I can even follow my business from my work-place, school through e-mails.

I also hear that, Broadband connection will be in my village preety soon. Lets see. Now I can really surf the net all the time without worrying about my internet bills.

Cheers for the LIBERATION.

All over the net - this debate rages on. While officially, Google acknowledges that higher Page Rank of pages means higher importance (Google Tech), there are many webmasters and self-styled SEO experts who vehemently argue that PR is just a number on the Google toolbar for FUN! They say that Google is not serious about Page Rank.

Now I think PR is one of the most important factor that determines Google SERPs. But there are some very important dynamics to it.

1. It is not the toolbar PR of the said site that matters for SERPs. Matter of fact, it has been acknowledged that, Google Page Rank is more than the greens one sees on the toolbar ( PR updates almost daily with newly indexed links that we don’t see) - Google SERPs also changes according to new contents and new invisible PR.

Example- suppose a PR2 site has put up a highly resourceful and valuable article/source - and it received lots of organic links from high Page Rank sites (pages). Its toolbar PR will remain the same - but the invisible PR that Google updates regularly will push SERPs of the site higher with all those high PR inbound links.

Hence, although the toolbar PR of the site is only 2, its actual PR has changed and gone higher than many who ranked ahead of it previously. So it is ranking higher now.

Another important point to prove the importance of the effect of PR on SERPs is a bit dangerous. Just buy one PR8 inbound link ( homepage sitewide) - with your choosen anchor text and kep it for around 2 months. you will not only storm SERPs for that keyword, but most of your ontents will also start ranking as soon as within 48 hrs. This will last untill Google discovers that you are manipulating SERPs with paid links and penalize you.

But Page Rank is not everything that will put your site on top of SERPs. One has to have high quality unique contents in order to make SE bots fall in love with your site and also attract organic links (linkbaits).

It is also important that the site linking to you is trusted ( old and good PR). According to many experienced SEO professionals, a PR1 link from a very old site carries more linksjuice than higher PR link from a new site. It is said that pages carry the weight of the homepage.

There are many factors that influence SERPs and Page rank is one of the most important of them.

Disclaimer:- Views expressed on this article are purely my own.