I built BetaList 16 years ago which was one of the first "product discovery" platforms. Years before Product Hunt, etc.
I manually reviewed every submission and unfortunately often I had to tell founders that their startup didn't qualify to be included. Almost everyone would (understandably!) argue their case, but as volume increased I couldn't afford to go into a deep argument with every single founder.
That's when I made https://submit.co a site similar to OP's. The idea being that instead of say "No, we will not feature your startup" I now gave them an alternative place to put their energy.
Initially it was mostly a list of tech blogs, but as more product discovery platforms popped up, I started adding them too. In a sense, I was promoting my competition but it was exactly the startups we couldn't list any way for one reason or another.
Eventually that list of "places to submit your startup" got so popular (and copied everywhere ) that it started driving traffic back to BetaList. (I included it at the very top of the list).
show comments
wenbin
At listennotes.com , we have to delete tons of fake podcasts submitted to our site [1]
why do people create fake podcasts? they want to get backlinks from all podcast directories
podcasts are distributed via rss feed. and spammers/"growth hackers" put tons of links in the rss feed.
and podcast hosting services (especially those allow free trials, e.g., rss.com, ) could help them one-click to distribute to a bunch of podcast apps / websites
most podcast websites / apps don't delete fake podcasts like we do at listennotes.com . so i guess the backlink hack w/ fake podcasts works. real human podcast listeners might suffer with spammy fake shows even on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
What’s old is new again. In the 90s we used services like Submit It to get an URL into all the crawlers and indices. Now the search engines aren’t the challenge, it’s the sites targeting specific audiences.
show comments
firefoxd
While i appreciate that there are websites where you can list your website, compiling them in a publicly available list is a recipe for spam.
Rather than post links to your websites on these websites, you need to share your website with your community. Imagine never using HN and then posting a show HN. You'll probably quickly get your domain banned.
When you are part of a website community, it's much easier to understand what kind of things you should post, as opposed to just drive-by posting everywhere.
The audience for these listings are people trying to take shortcuts.
show comments
andrelaszlo
I'd really like a website that submits your website to websites that lists websites that lists websites to submit your website to.
show comments
susam
I have been maintaining my own metalist of directories where one can submit their indie/personal websites to. In alphabetical order, here is what it looks like right now:
A clarification: The Wander link above (which I developed) is not something where you list your website. It is a tool you host on your website to become part of a decentralised network of personal websites (much like in a webring, except that the network is shaped like a graph rather than a ring): https://susam.codeberg.page/wcn/. More details here: https://codeberg.org/susam/wander
show comments
Cider9986
FMHY (Free Media Heck Yeah) is my favorite website directory.
It has steadily grown far beyond just sharing free media and has everything from free AI and free education to free cooking websites.
It's probably a significant contributor to the recent return of piracy giving users constantly up to date and safe resources.
Well, at least its honest. For many (most?) of the listed sites, drive-by submitting a link just for the SEO juice would be considered rude.
show comments
dwoot
Submission is broken or doesn't provide any user feedback on error. I've tapped submit 3x, but nothing changes. I have no confirmation that my submission had been received or whether there's an issue.
At-least implement the submission form instead of redirecting to email the submission, lol!
Julesman
I demand a submission directory of submission directories!!! :)
sparkling
Post once, read never
13hours
Yo Dawg...
enthdegree
"X are Y but Z is real."
Closed tab.
theturtletalks
If you’re building open-source, I have a directory you can also submit your product on:
opensource.builders
johnnyApplePRNG
brings me back, man
I remember sitting there submitting my geocities website to every search engine and website that would accept it under the sun
good times
pembrook
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but backlinks has never been less important for SEO than they are right now.
Google has slowly de-prioritized them as a ranking signal over time due to the constant abuse, the death of the blogosphere (the vast majority of websites are now corporate blogspam with few legitimate organic links), and the fact that every major social platform now de-ranks posts with external links in them (to keep people on-site).
And as far as I know the crawlers in LLMs don't use backlinks as a signal at all.
lebuin
Does it list itself?
Igor_Wiwi
boosting DR rating is the biggest psyop of indie hackers: it's temporal and has zero effect on anything. All my websites are 3 to 6 DR points. https://mdview.io has 5 DR and brings in 500 uniq users per day organically
chamara2004
I really like the website
deadbabe
Since search engines are going to be replaced by AI, is there now potential for old school hand curated web directories like we had in the late 1900s to surface again?
Lists of websites hand curated by categories and topics, and even certified to have AI free content, could be cool.
m_w_
No one takes g2 and product hunt seriously right?
stackghost
Hmm, the top item on the page is Medium, and underneath the description begins with "High-authority publishing platform".
That is... not the popular assessment of Medium these days. At one point, Medium and the other minimalist one whose name I can't remember (edit: it was Svbtle) were seen as high-prestige and high-signal platforms.
Nowadays Medium is just AI slop and low-effort surface-level takes from people trying to build a personal brand.
show comments
snowhy
great, now i need a skill to do it on my behalf
Imustaskforhelp
For anyone curious about what all the links are, here are all the 50 websites that the directory links to.
Fun story:
I built BetaList 16 years ago which was one of the first "product discovery" platforms. Years before Product Hunt, etc.
I manually reviewed every submission and unfortunately often I had to tell founders that their startup didn't qualify to be included. Almost everyone would (understandably!) argue their case, but as volume increased I couldn't afford to go into a deep argument with every single founder.
That's when I made https://submit.co a site similar to OP's. The idea being that instead of say "No, we will not feature your startup" I now gave them an alternative place to put their energy.
Initially it was mostly a list of tech blogs, but as more product discovery platforms popped up, I started adding them too. In a sense, I was promoting my competition but it was exactly the startups we couldn't list any way for one reason or another.
Eventually that list of "places to submit your startup" got so popular (and copied everywhere ) that it started driving traffic back to BetaList. (I included it at the very top of the list).
At listennotes.com , we have to delete tons of fake podcasts submitted to our site [1]
why do people create fake podcasts? they want to get backlinks from all podcast directories
podcasts are distributed via rss feed. and spammers/"growth hackers" put tons of links in the rss feed.
and podcast hosting services (especially those allow free trials, e.g., rss.com, ) could help them one-click to distribute to a bunch of podcast apps / websites
any examples? here you go -
* https://podcasts.apple.com/us/search?term=UU88%20
* https://podcasts.apple.com/us/search?term=%E6%B6%A8%E7%B2%89
* https://open.spotify.com/search/%E6%B6%A8%E7%B2%89/podcasts
most podcast websites / apps don't delete fake podcasts like we do at listennotes.com . so i guess the backlink hack w/ fake podcasts works. real human podcast listeners might suffer with spammy fake shows even on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
[1] https://www.listennotes.com/podcast-stats/#growth
What’s old is new again. In the 90s we used services like Submit It to get an URL into all the crawlers and indices. Now the search engines aren’t the challenge, it’s the sites targeting specific audiences.
While i appreciate that there are websites where you can list your website, compiling them in a publicly available list is a recipe for spam.
Rather than post links to your websites on these websites, you need to share your website with your community. Imagine never using HN and then posting a show HN. You'll probably quickly get your domain banned.
When you are part of a website community, it's much easier to understand what kind of things you should post, as opposed to just drive-by posting everywhere.
The audience for these listings are people trying to take shortcuts.
I'd really like a website that submits your website to websites that lists websites that lists websites to submit your website to.
I have been maintaining my own metalist of directories where one can submit their indie/personal websites to. In alphabetical order, here is what it looks like right now:
https://blogroll.org/
https://blogs.hn/ (by @surprisetalk)
https://hnpwd.github.io/ (I am one of the maintainers)
https://iii.social/ (by @freshman_dev)
https://indieblog.page/ (by @splitbrain)
https://kagi.com/smallweb/ (by @freediver)
https://marginalia-search.com/ (by @marginalia_nu)
https://minifeed.net/ (by @freetonik)
https://susam.net/wander/ (I developed this)
https://text.blogosphere.app/ (by @ramkarthikk)
https://wiby.me/
A clarification: The Wander link above (which I developed) is not something where you list your website. It is a tool you host on your website to become part of a decentralised network of personal websites (much like in a webring, except that the network is shaped like a graph rather than a ring): https://susam.codeberg.page/wcn/. More details here: https://codeberg.org/susam/wander
FMHY (Free Media Heck Yeah) is my favorite website directory.
It has steadily grown far beyond just sharing free media and has everything from free AI and free education to free cooking websites.
It's probably a significant contributor to the recent return of piracy giving users constantly up to date and safe resources.
Website: https://fmhy.net
Github: https://github.com/fmhy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists
Here's a much larger list (1,057 sites): https://pastes.io/rcPg2RLC
> earn quality backlinks
Well, at least its honest. For many (most?) of the listed sites, drive-by submitting a link just for the SEO juice would be considered rude.
Submission is broken or doesn't provide any user feedback on error. I've tapped submit 3x, but nothing changes. I have no confirmation that my submission had been received or whether there's an issue.
Reminds me of HotScripts, which is still around for anyone looking for nostalgia: https://www.hotscripts.com/category/scripts/php/scripts-prog...
Site logo is a bad UX idea.
It should be called Ouroboros ;-)
Let's just bring back web rings
At-least implement the submission form instead of redirecting to email the submission, lol!
I demand a submission directory of submission directories!!! :)
Post once, read never
Yo Dawg...
"X are Y but Z is real." Closed tab.
If you’re building open-source, I have a directory you can also submit your product on:
opensource.builders
brings me back, man
I remember sitting there submitting my geocities website to every search engine and website that would accept it under the sun
good times
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but backlinks has never been less important for SEO than they are right now.
Google has slowly de-prioritized them as a ranking signal over time due to the constant abuse, the death of the blogosphere (the vast majority of websites are now corporate blogspam with few legitimate organic links), and the fact that every major social platform now de-ranks posts with external links in them (to keep people on-site).
And as far as I know the crawlers in LLMs don't use backlinks as a signal at all.
Does it list itself?
boosting DR rating is the biggest psyop of indie hackers: it's temporal and has zero effect on anything. All my websites are 3 to 6 DR points. https://mdview.io has 5 DR and brings in 500 uniq users per day organically
I really like the website
Since search engines are going to be replaced by AI, is there now potential for old school hand curated web directories like we had in the late 1900s to surface again?
Lists of websites hand curated by categories and topics, and even certified to have AI free content, could be cool.
No one takes g2 and product hunt seriously right?
Hmm, the top item on the page is Medium, and underneath the description begins with "High-authority publishing platform".
That is... not the popular assessment of Medium these days. At one point, Medium and the other minimalist one whose name I can't remember (edit: it was Svbtle) were seen as high-prestige and high-signal platforms.
Nowadays Medium is just AI slop and low-effort surface-level takes from people trying to build a personal brand.
great, now i need a skill to do it on my behalf
For anyone curious about what all the links are, here are all the 50 websites that the directory links to.
1. Medium : https://medium.com
2. Crunchbase : https://crunchbase.com
3. Hacker News : https://news.ycombinator.com
4. Product Hunt : https://producthunt.com
5. Reddit r/SideProject : https://reddit.com
6. Slashdot : https://slashdot.org
7. G2 : https://g2.com
8. Awwwards : https://awwwards.com
9. Capterra : https://capterra.com
10. Dev.to : https://dev.to
11. AlternativeTo : https://alternativeto.net
12. HackerNoon : https://hackernoon.com
13. GetApp : https://getapp.com
14. Software Advice : https://softwareadvice.com
15. Designer News : https://designernews.co
16. F6S : https://f6s.com
17. Indie Hackers : https://indiehackers.com
18. One Page Love : https://onepagelove.com
19. StackShare : https://stackshare.io
20. Hashnode : https://hashnode.com
21. There's An AI For That : https://theresanaiforthat.com
22. Land-book : https://land-book.com
23. BetaList : https://betalist.com
24. Futurepedia : https://futurepedia.io
25. Lobsters : https://lobste.rs
26. Peerlist : https://peerlist.io
27. Futuretools : https://futuretools.io
28. Startup Stash : https://startupstash.com
29. Toolify : https://toolify.ai
30. Httpster : https://httpster.net
31. SaaSHub : https://saashub.com
32. Sidebar : https://sidebar.io
33. Tekpon : https://tekpon.com
34. AllTopStartups : https://alltopstartups.com
35. SaaSworthy : https://saasworthy.com
36. SaaS Landing Page : https://saaslandingpage.com
37. Betapage : https://betapage.co
38. Launching Next : https://launchingnext.com
39. DevHunt : https://devhunt.org
40. Insidr AI : https://insidr.ai
41. SideProjectors : https://sideprojectors.com
42. Startup Fame : https://startupfa.me
43. StartupBase : https://startupbase.io
44. Uneed : https://uneed.best
45. SaaS AI Tools : https://saasaitools.com
46. AngelList : https://angel.co
47. GitHub Trending : https://github.com/trending
48. Dribbble : https://dribbble.com
49. Behance : https://behance.net
50. TechCrunch : https://techcrunch.com