When you submit your site to DMOZ or another high end directory, wouldn't it be best to take all the ads OFF your site before/while you submit it? Then once your site is accepted, you can then place ads back on your site. Does not having ads on your site, or making your site look like an MFA site, improve the possibility of having your site put in DMOZ or another high end directory?
You mean "is this a good idea, apart from being an unethical attempt to cheat the directory?" No. It isn't. It would only work if you know for sure when your site will be reviewed. You can only know that with directories which give a guarantee of review within a certain period, for a fee, such as Yahoo! With the ODP your site might not be reviewed for three or four years. Or it might be reviewed with 24 hours.
It's not cheating the directory, it's just making your site better looking and protecting it from reviewers who may be bias against small time Adsense users, or who may make assumptions questioning your credibility based on a vew well plaed Adsense ads. And not reviewed for 3 or 4 years? Oh come on, be serious.
DMOZ says it looks at the unique content, not the ads, so ads shouldn't matter. Of course, if the ads predominate to the point where the unique content isn't obvious...
Yeah, but my concern is that there are thousands of reviewers, who aren't really accountable for their actions (unless it's something serious), and I fear bias against Adsense ads, or any other "well placed" advertisements.
I am perfectly serious that sites may not be reviewed for years. That is common knowledge. There is certainly a strong dislike of bait-and-switch. Sites have been delisted for that tactic, as perhaps I should have mentioned in the first place.
Editors are obliged to ignore Adsense or other forms of advertising and judge what is left. There is not a formal count-up of adverts and affiliate links, it is a balance that will vary from category to category, but a site where the ads are prominent and outweigh the content is not going to be given much review time. Four or five in a strip to the left or right, taking up about a quarter of the space is not going to make any difference to the review as these days it is pretty normal. But make sure the real original content is obvious, prominent, and there is lots of it. Don't do it for DMOZ though, do it because that is what any visitor to your site would expect.
This is a good idea, but you never know when they will review your site. Even in case of rejection, they don't send an email, so you will keep waiting...
I don't mean a drastic change, just leaving Adsense off for a while, pretending you have yet to sign up for it, and adding it later after it's added to the directory. I think you have this mindset that my intentions are to cheat DMOZ, not so. Just make my site a bit more presentable by leaving Adsense off until it's listed.
AdSense shouldn't hurt, if you have unique content. Popups that cripple site functionality can be an issue. If you have an MFA, then removing the AdSense units will leave probably nothing than a useless list of links or phony SERP, in which case you wouldn't be listed, AdSense or not. Most likely, you won't be listed for another 3-4 years, and it won't measurably affect your rankings, when and if you are listed.
There are over a million sites waiting for review and at the current rate of productivity 3 years or more would not be unusual. It is simply not worth adopting any kind of strategy for getting a DMOZ listing, it is just another backlink, no more. Your strategy should be directed elsewhere.
So it takes the average person 3 years to get listed on DMOZ? I think you're leaving something out, I don't quite believe that.
Yes. Brizzie is leaving out that you may not be listed ever, even if your website is listable. Let me refer you to a previous post: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showpost.php?p=1393699&postcount=5
As Helleborine has said, Adsense won't make any difference, if your content is truly unique. Look around the directory. You will see many, many sites listed which carry advertising. Why are you so reluctant to believe that sites can take years to be reviewed? You will find endless complaints about it all over the Net. It's not just in the ODP either. Any directory which offers free listing after review by an editor gets rapidly swamped with submissions. There are not enough people willing to volunteer to review them. I submitted to a couple of other directories years ago and my (non-profit) site has still not been listed. As I said in my first reply to you, if you want a review guaranteed within a stated time, then you need to make a paid submission to Yahoo! or some other commercial directory. You can't have it both ways.
The number of editors willing to accept a bribe is miniscule, for they know that they will be removed if caught. So any attempt to bribe an editor is far more likely to result in the permanent banning of all the sites of the would-be briber. Anyone willing to pay for review/listing would be far better off submitting to a commercial directory.
So you're saying it would probably be quicker to just submit an application and become a reviewer myself, and then add my site, then to just submit it normally? I don't like the idea of bribing, with my luck they'd ban my site for life.
Let's get down to basics. What you want the listing for? Directories deliver very little traffic on the whole, though you might get more in specific niches. Nor will a directory listing boost your site's rankings in the SEs more than any other link. If your site is new and you want to make sure that it is indexed by the search engines, then listing in a reputable directory would be a good start (though not the only one, by any means). The big directories are spidered constantly by the big SEs. But so are plenty of other well-established, reputable sites. If your heart is set on a directory listing, then given the long wait for a free listing, you would be best to pay for a commercial one. Yes you could apply to become an editor in the ODP, but there is no guarantee that you would be accepted, and it seems a lot of bother for you to go through that process simply to list your own site.
I am looking to get listed in DMOZ for the search engine benefits, I don't expect a whole lot of click throughs from the actual directory.