I've never been submitted to DMOZ, Why is it so hard?!?

Who says we approve quality sites? That's not what we're looking for, it ain't a design contest. We look for unique content. Hell, when I'm looking for information, I'm looking for information, I don't give a rats behind about how purty your site is or what a wonderfully talented site designer you are, I'm looking for information.

You got a one page site in orange and yellow, but you have the info I'm looking for, that's all that matters. Don't entertain me, inform me, my time is valuable, give me what I came there for and impress your friends with your talent, I'm not interested.

Editors are looking for unique content, not some empty headed site designer looking for fame. If you can't provide that, then go away, you're not wanted.

 

Classic! Are you trying to say that DMOZ does NOT list quality sites, or that content does not factor in to quality? Maybe that "scammy spammy sites" are what the directory is looking for (assuming they have content)?

Re-read the post you quoted and re-reply...

 

i say that spammy sites are in directory.

if you remember that i have also sent the spammy site with pm to you.

dmoz database is full of spam.

it's a secret which is known by everybody

i hope google will take action to that spammy directory

 

Well I have tried and got nowhere with a great content relevant business site. How much does DMOZ really help anyways?

 

It seems the sites I have that sport no ads and make no money get accepted right away. Any site I have that makes money or has ads gets the shaft.

 

Actually, our instructions are to ignore the ads and concentrate on the content that is left first. The judgement we have to make is whether there is unique content worthy of listing and whether the content outweighs the ads.

Will the content itself stand alone? or is it only there to provide a come on for the ads. If it is, we're not interested in the site. Is this really an afilliate site used to generate money, or are the ads there to benefit the information seeker?

Often times, I might personally be very interested in ads about a topic I'm interested in, (like where I can buy certain supplies) and really appreciate the information. At other times, I find them very annoying and distracting (because they have nothing to do with what I'm looking for), and I'll leave the site.

As a former editor, that sort of thing did influence me, it's kind of hard to ignore when it's right there in your face.

In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with making money on a site, as long as it also serves the information seeker, if it doesn't, then it sucks and I wouldn't list it it, I'd delete it.

 

didnt kno this.

 

me either.. and how do you know if a category has an editor or not? What if I submit a site to a category that has no specific editor but someone whose main category is something completely different? Would they even know what information the visitor might be looking for in a particular niche if it's not theirs?

 

Just found this http://www.evolt.org/how_to_get_listed_in_dmoz

It is quite informative but still doesn't say why a site that "meets the guidelines" would be rejected.

 

I agree with this guy...I can see why'd they would reject a MFA site. Altho it makes me mad that they would wanna reject everyone that trys to earn a little revenue off their hard work. Owell, forget em, if they don't want me, I sure as hell don't want them.

 

Any category? That's too good a challenge to turn down.

I picked this at random:
http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/Ireland/Sligo/News_and_Media/

It has two sites. Are you telling me that at least one of the two sites there is spammy or scammy?

Or be good percentage do you mean zero percent?

 

need more lucky to be listed in dmoz

if you are an editor it will make more easy

 

You are right but I am looking at the historic historic rise and stagnation of DMOZ parallel to the evolution of internet. And I think, almost everyone thinks on this line too.

Those were the times when you had to either memorize each website's URL or note it down on your scribbling pad plainly because of two simple reasons

1. Browsers didn't have the concept of cache to hold the visited sites like we know today
2. There were no search engines in order for you to somehow work your way to any specific website or topic

Growth of internet is not different from the Great Explosion in any way and I am sure everyone of that time has failed to predict this and were caught unawares when the explosion began and ended.

DMOZ was a good concept and a great service to help people find indexed websites through archaic methods which don't belong in this day when dynamic indexing methods, by different SEs, are also hardly able to keep pace. Aside of this, there are several structural and paradigm differences enforced on the indexing industry by the flood of machine generated websites as well as commercial possibilities.

I really don't understand why the big three of search industry assign high weight to directories at a time when, on the other hand, they don't seem to care much for irrelevant backlinks from insignificant and rock bottom sites which serve no purpose other than being link holders. I am talking of such sites where there can hardly be any human visitors to really use their link/s to reach parent sites which is the very very fundamental/rudimentary purpose for having links (a fact Google upholds and acknowledges as the reason for counting backlinks in its webmaster guidelines). Plus, the integrity and credibility of some of the directories and their editors are under clouds for apparent reasons and DMOZ isn't exclusive to this.

Whether the Big Three weigh them highly or not (at least Google doesn't guarantee high ranking after inclusion in DMOZ even though it encourages), the need of present day webmasters to have traffic and more of them can be met by even without having websites listed there. Moreover, SEs are not known to remove websites that aren't listed on DMOZ.

I believe, I don't need to explicitly tell what I tried to tell. There are unmatchable gaps in the guidelines of SEs and directories as well as ground realities. If it is not for personal preferences, then why else would anyone want to have his website listed in DMOZ? DMOZ is no more a holy cow that it used to be. It is time to get practical with our SEO efforts and move on.

 

"It is time to get practical with our SEO efforts and move on."

I agree completely.. I recently launched a new website in what (I thought) was a highly competitive niche. Certainly, the client for who the site was for was desperate to reach at least the front page of google for their chosen keywords. It also appears that the site(s) that currently hold the #1 ranking for those keywords spend a LOT of cash annually on purchased links/adverts.

As I was doing this as a favour for a friend, there was not intended to be any costs for my efforts and so I could only promise to try..

At the time of this posting the site is front page of results for at least 3 of the chosen keywords, and second page for most of the others, and the cost of that has been... NIL!! (and I'm still hoping/waiting for a DMOZ/Yahoo entry).

My friend/client is wanting to achieve that #1 status for all of his chosen keywords, so much so that he has told me that he is also prepared to spend money on links/adverts. (initially, he was reluctant to do that). I now believe that it's not necessary to do that, per se, and that he/I could use his money more effectively elsewhere. I'm now considering suggesting that, rather than paying for links, he should pay for link building services (directory submissions and such) for other, more obscure, keywords.

DMOZ/Yahoo can include an entry, or not, PageRank isn't necessarily the be all and end all if the rankings in SE's pay off (and so far it appears that they are doing with the website having generated a number of leads already).

I'd still like a friendly editor to include the entry in DMOZ but I won't be that bothered if it's not... I think that, as Alevoor said, DMOZ isn't the Holy Cow it once was. If you work hard at building quality and relevant links into your sites with the correct anchor texts and make sure your onsite SEO is good (and I don't think mine is super-great by any means), then the SE rankings are there for the taking. (with or without DMOZ)