I’ve been working on a business directory website in my spare time for a while and it is now live. The directory is www.blinks.org.uk and is for for companies / organisations / individuals based in the UK who want to promote their businesses. It is totally free to register and you won’t find any registration details sold or passed on to anybody!
At the moment it is still very much in a testing stage and I’m after feedback. Comments suggestions etc. would be greatly appreciated.
The site is written with the wonderful CakePHP framework (and god bless view caching)
Tell me more…
The sign up process is quick and easy and only requires that you confirm the email address you register with (this email remains private and is not displayed on the site).
When you have registered you can add as many businesses as you want. You can add the following information for each business you add:
- Company name
- Website Address
- Contact Details
These are mandatory, although you can elect not to show them on the website - Summary
- Long Description
- Image or Logo
- List your business in up to 5 Categories
Always like to have a look at any new directories.
Fresh faced but the cloud concept spoils it for me. Think keyword clouds have run their course, but just my opinion.
No business categories, and tried a couple of image uploads which failed.
Really like the UK map and the 123 concept looks ok, but has been done many times before. We had a nearly identicle “123” look about 4 years ago. But it does make the site look familar, so could be a good thing, time will tell.
Not bad at all, and quite a catchy name. Good luck.
Steve Richardson
My Local Services
Hi Steve
Thanks for the feedback, it is much appreciated – after all that is what I’m looking for at the moment. I think there is a place for keywords – but they are something that can easily become unwieldy as they scale.
There is a fair bit of refactoring to do anyway, but more importantly, I think adding features and amending the way things work in response to feedback.
As for things like ‘123’s – as in many things there is the danger of cliche – but people do like to know where they are during processes and have an indication of the process – if people like it it stays – otherwise…
Cheers