want to start your own directory, you can start by investing only few bucks. Buy a domain name and a cheap hosting of around 250- 500 MB web space. Both should hardly cost you 20-30$ per year. Now you need a directory script. There are many famous free directory script. Below I have listed two popular and free directory script, but most famous and widely used directory script is phpld.

phpLD : It is now the most widely used directory script on the internet. The script has many number of templates and mods available. The current free version is phpLD 2.2.0. Download phpLD 2.2.0

PHPWeby :  Look at its features:

# Unlimited categories and subcategories
# SEO friendly URLs with mod rewrite (optional)
# Link validation (optional)
# Instant payment system with PayPal
# Automatic category selection
# Automatic checking of duplicate links
# Compatible with PHPLD templates(ver 3.x, 3.3 not yet)
# Disallow/allow same link in different categories
# Powerful link editor
# Change submitted link title,pagerank,url,description,category, contact name and/or e-mail
# Automatic checking of reciprocal links and marking as invalid if reciprocal link has rel=”nofollow” or rel=”external nofollow”
# Notify Submitter of Link Submission Receipt(optional)
# Notify Submitter of Link Acceptance(optional)
# Create and easily manage e-mail templates
# Faster category adder than any other directory script
# With few clicks create hundreds of categories and subcategories
# Easily move and/or rename categories
# AJAX powered control panel
# Check Pagerank of links (baned on some servers)
# Show latest links
# Show featured links (separate page)
# Show Pagerank of links
# Visual Confirmation to prevent spamming(optional)
# Contact us page with optional visual confirmation(captcha)
# Edit administrator account
# Sql injection and xss built-in protection
# Details page for each link
# Integrated search engine
# Use many templates and change them easily with template switcher
# Set price for featured, regular and reciprocal links
# Enable/Disable featured and/or reciprocal links
# Set links per page
# Set latest/featured links per page
# Set number of subcategories on front page
# Set number of subcategories on inner pages
# Set categories and/or subcategories per column
# Set maximum number of characters for link description
# Set site title,site description and meta description
# Encrypted database passwords
# Lots of free templates
# Easily edit templates with Smarty
# Active support forum
# Compatible with PHP 5 and PHP 4, MySQL 4 and MySQL 5
# Compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera
# Easy installation
# FREE