Hi, I am looking for feedback from Directory owners as to their experience, opinion and operation of accepting submissions in their Directories. I am finding it increasingly frustrating that the "persons" making the submissions are not taking any care with the quality or placement of the site being submitted. I believe that as many as 50/60% of submissions being received are: 1. very poor description, or even no description 2. adding email, phone and contact numbers in the description, 3. are having a totally irrelevant category selected - not even trying and 4. of late are getting a number simply submitting with the default [Top] - which means they are using auto submitters to override the category selection. So what I would like opinion and feedback is: a) - is this a growing problem in all Directories, b) - do you as editor amend and edit and re-categorize the submission, c) - or do you as editor simply bulk reject the submissions Directory owners views would be appreciated - I believe the submitters are NOT pulling their weight when making the submission
I'm not the kind person you're talking about, but i found it's very difficult to add my site in those directories after submitted numbers. I can't find the resources any more. God
We all receive daily spam to our directories, the simple thing you can do is to delete all of the links that do not follow your directory rules for inclusion. In my opinion submitters who do not take a few minutes to read my directory guide and follow it wither they are using programs or submitting manually, do not deserve to be listed within the directory and certainly do not deserve any of my time spent editing there submissions.
Facing this problem almost every day in my directory, so the "X" button in the admin panel always helps.
I am assuming that you are talking about the directory in your signature. I understand why you're frustrated with the quality of the submissions your receiving, because I can plainly see what your talking about by looking at the latest listings in your sig directory. Those are horrid! So stop accepting them or at least edit them. There are two answers to your question. First if you're talking about a free directory - What do you expect in a free directory? You will get blasted with spam and low quality submissions which for the most part should be mass deleted. Second if you're talking about a paid directory - editing is what the directory is getting paid to do so make any needed edits or decline if it is an issue of the quality of the submitted site.
Thanks for the replies: Swedal: - your comment above "I can plainly see what your talking about by looking at the latest listings in your sig directory. Those are horrid! So stop accepting them or at least edit them. I have gone and had a look at that specific 20 Listings - all have reasonable Descriptions, 85% have page Ranks, New N/A sites need somewhere to go........ Why do you say these 20 Listings are "Those are horrid! So stop accepting them or at least edit them"..........???? I do not agree with that part
CReed: It appears to be a number of Directories we manage..........I was asking if that is a general industry problem and trying to find out if Directory editors are in fact simply deleting 50-70% of all submissions - or if a lot take the time to edit and re-categorize the submissions......???????
I am not sure, I am relative new to managing directories and have where possible been re-categorizing and editing passable submissions - but this is becoming too time consuming and the numbers of submissions that don't appear to care - putting say SEO under motorcycles or [Top] - leaving the editor to either amend or reject. My inclination at present is as "Arablue" - above posting suggests - if the submitters wont take any care or time - why should the directory I am trying to get a feel if those directory owners that care about their directories are mass rejecting submissions or simply doing the work to fix.
Overall, I'm running about 1-2 usable submissions for every 10 and that's on a niche directory. It's part of the directory game. If you want to run a quality site, you're going to end up deleting way more submissions than you accept. It's been that way ever since I started in 2006 and probably was that way long before that. That said, my daily queue is significantly smaller than that of a general directory. I know many of my submitters are not "directory savvy" and some are providing sites in English but are still only learning the language. After a while you can start to tell the folks who try and those who are just dumping information. If a site looks worthwhile, I will visit and fix their submission. If the submission is 100% trash it gets trashed, often based just on the link title. Speaking of link titles, when looking at your popular listings page, those 2-line link titles are way too long. I'm fairly lenient about what I'll allow but I would never allow something like "Nepal Trekking Tour, Nepal Tours and Trekking, Trekking Himalayas, Trekking Agency Nepal."
As a paid directory owner the category the site is submitted and the description is irrelevant, if the site meets the guidelines we alter the description and categorize the site into the closest fit anyway. As a directory owner you should strive to alter site descriptions to come inline with your guidelines and editorial style. If submitting to a free directory the submitter should at least make the effort to find the closest category fit. Directories are hard work and making your directory unique means involving yourself with the submissions and altering descriptions, titles and moving sites to more appropriate and better fit cats. I have found with our submissions the descriptions are written as sales pitches or adverts, will that really help a user? Do you want your descriptions to sound like an adwords ad? That is definitely not grounds for a rejection as you may be rejecting a very useful resource and great addition to your directory, but you need to get involved as an editor/owner and actually edit submissions, your directory will thank you for it later.
Even good sites often send lousy titles and descrips, and occasionally lousy sites send conforming titles and descrips. Rejecting the former is a waste, accepting the latter is a mistake. Just assume that when you get a submission you ARE going to re-write the title and descrip based on the site review and your guidelines, then either add it or dont add based on the quality of the site... not based on whether the submitter did the editors job for you in advance. You'll end up with a better product in the long run.
Running a free directory attracts much of what you don't want; poor quality submissions. Editing submissions is a part of the job that most directory owners never consider when starting a directory. Ultimately, you're responsible for the placement, titles and descriptions for all of the listings in your directory. It's your directory, and as a n editor, you might be expected to edit a submission here and there. It's not uncommon to get submissions for anything and everything anywhere and everywhere. You're offering a free link - they don't care where it's from. Clowns offering submission services only care about the confirmation email - it's the proof that they provided the service they advertised. On another note - accepting listings such as you have on re-purposed domains only invites more of the same (especially when all you offer is some pre-existing foolbar PageRank). There is no consistency with how the titles are formatted or the descriptions used. You're basically letting the submitter dictate how you are going to run your directory. Looking at some of your directories I see listings that I would not have accepted as submitted (if I accepted them at all). Think about where you're marketing your directories along with how you're marketing them and I think it'll be clear as to why you're receiving the crap that you are.
No one really care about their submission as they interested to get backlink , so the best thing is do not approvr them at all or ban their IP . I don't really know how to fight with spammers so the best way is to do not list spammers websites and block their emails to avoid another submissions in the future .
Why would you IP ban just because the submitter didnt prove to be a decent editor? Often the submitter isnt even the site owner. No reason to skip a great site because they hired an idiot to do the submission for them.
You need to differentiate between spam submissions and submissions that meet the basics of your directory guide, you can group link submissions that you receive into 3 groups: 1. Submission that meet your directory guide. (Submissions which we all accept) 2. Submissions that meet the basics of your directory guide. (Submissions which require editing from the directory owner/editor) 3. Spam submissions that does not meet the basics of your directory guide. (Should be deleted) The second group are submitters who do read the directory guide but they still make mistakes while submitting, there submissions meet the basics of your directory guide and there submissions require some editing from your part. Spam submissions are clearly submissions that does not meet the basics of your directory listing guide and they are usually submitted by spammers who do spam all directories with the same link details and these should not be listed in your directory if your trying to achieve quality.
Thanks for all the opinions, I tend to agree with Arabule - up there - if the submitter can't be bothered taking the time - why should the editor.. The main issue I have to agree with RobJones - is in a lot of cases it is then unsuspecting site owner that then misses out, having paid for a service by some SEO guru's - that can prove they submitted the site (confirmation email receipt) - and are taking fees for submissions that have zero chance of being accepted. The site owner then never knows why their or if their site was rejected. There are no winners