People, we are new and learning. We still have empty categories but why is it that you can get 100 confirmations but when you use all tools available or physically visit the site that has purportedly listed you, you can't find your listing or you are listed under the "no follow" page. Is this common? S
You could try refreshing the page if you cant see your listing as your browser may be using old cache. As for nofollow, you better get used to it because little g is king of the hill and a lot of people are complying with unreasonable dictatorship rules.
From time to time i cant see my site listed even after a acceptance email, as pctec points out, browser may be using old cache.
My directories are free. The first one was all about quality from day 1. The second one was going to have less rules other than topic match. After the same person submitted what must have been the 10th site using only slightly different URLs to push only slightly different affiliate products - I killed all of the crappy listings. If they had paid for the listing that would have changed things, but every directory owner has a right to tighten their requirements to maintain a quality resource. However, I suspect part of the OP's complaint refers to submitters who give crummy reciprocals if any. Most here consider reciprocal links to be worthless, yet on another forum they see all links as equally valuable - either way, they are too time consuming to police. I would recommend to never use a reciprocal link as a form of 'payment' for a directory listing. But, I certainly won't discourage anyone from giving me one as a thank you.
I think a good option to give a chance to "reciprocal link payment" is to create a system where the reciprocal links placed with a client/submitter ping back somehow the directory, thus proving that it still lives.
Actually, there are too many FAKE directories around. I submitted to 40 of them( I just realized they are no more directories) around 8 months ago and yesterday I realized all of them returned to blog or parked. What a shame, modern way of stealing. To whom it may concern: If your directory is a free one maybe you don't care off throwing the directory away but If you are building a paid directory and getting paid for permanent reviews and inclusions you have to let the submitters know and HAVE TO REFUND if you are quitting the directory. With my directory I removed some listings to more appropriate categories for a couple of times which is also mentioned in the guidelines, but never deleted them.
Listings get moved, so use the search rather than going to the category you submitted to. Often I will approve websites in batches, so it's easy to fill up a category and then almost immediately move the site in question down a level into a more specific subcategory. It's normal to delete listings in a free directory if they go down for a while or get hacked, or if you want to tighten up on quality. So if you've had temporary problems it could be worthwhile checking you are still listed. Also, check the script: are there some that add approved websites to the directory index on a weekly basis? I'm not sure about this, but I vaguely remember this getting mentioned on some approval pages or emails.
Ive noticed that, when i go back sometimes afterwards, the directories have turned into blogs or something else.
There is a tool around that i saw on a site that checks to if a reciprocal link is still existing in a directory. As far as freebies go, there really isnt a way to police those submissions. If I can recall tool site that I saw it one I will post here. Or, maybe someone else has seen the same thing elsewhere?
The first thing I always do is use the search function in the directory to search for my site. If still not there, just fire off an email to the owner. 8 out of 10 they'll respond.
Sometimes the category is not exactly appropriate for the submission i am editing. So what i do is, i approve the site first, then create a new category for it, then move it to a new category. I do that because i rewrite titles, urls and descriptions 99% of the time and sometimes i forget to check the category before i do that. This approach leads to an automatic email sent out to the owner telling him that the site is approved at the category he submitted in, but since i already moved it to a different category, the owner can't find it... now if we had another notification sent out to the owner saying that the listing has been modified and/or moved to a different category, that would make phpld even a better script.
Thanks for your responses. All these are valid arguments. All said and done I still think there are serious malpractices going on. Reciprocal links are special cases. I am more concerned with the free regular listing. With reciprocal, if I don't see mine and I will delete yours. Usually I take time to find the right category and follow the submission rules (at least most of the time-more often than not if I don't it is a genuine mistake). But I am only able to find less than 10% of the" approved" sites It is true that sometimes you can review a site the second time and decide to remove it. If you find a submission you inadvertedly approved but violates your rules then send a rejection email, if you approve then it should be in your directory. Normally if you search the site, search your back links you still don't see it then it is time to contact the web master but if s/he does not reply to your email what do you do? Really, the issue is if you run a dir and you have indicated that you are offering that service, then go a head and do it honestly if not drop out.!! I think we need to clean our act by discouraging this behaviour.