lachenm

>> Unless you have something unique. So what's unique? If you're an Orange Hand Goo site, maybe you start handling all sorts of cleaning products from multiple vendors, and offer unique combinations of products. Of course, 45 other sites will likely copy you in 2 months... << Or you could write (and copyright), say, a history of Orange Hand Goo, and its derivation from clear hand goo by the addition of OranjStuf. Not everything has to be about selling things, even on a shopping site. Adding unique informational content is a little extra effort, but it is one way of increasing the probability of an ODP listing, and as a bonus, can bring extra traffic to your site (e.g. from Orange Hand Goo history buffs). It's not just ODP editors who appreciate unique content; "regular" people do, too.

Please submit your site once, to the category in which it best fits (not necessarily the category where you most want to be listed). Submitting multiple times, or to multiple categories, just slows down the process for everyone. If, after a reasonable amount of time (and two weeks is very short), your site is not listed, you can check on its status by posting in the Site Submission Status Forum. Also, having an editor in a category is no guarantee that action will be taken quickly, just as having no editor is not a guarantee of a long wait. Remember that different categories get different numbers of submissions and different volunteer editors have different amounts of time to spend on the ODP. Also remember that many editors in levels above the category, as well as editall and meta editors, can edit in a given category, so not having a listed editor doesn't mean that the category is being ignored.

[Edited] Furiosity, you beat me to it! <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

Like everyone else, I don't know why your specific application was rejected, but I'd like to offer some (hopefully) constructive suggestions. Since it sounds like most of the sites you suggested would fit in .../Peabody/Business_and_Economy, which is a small enough category (with some potential, and with no subcats), why don't you try applying for that? You might want to try writing the descriptions in a word processing program, so you can use the spell-check function (and grammar checker, if there is one) before pasting them into the application form. And don't forget to look over the Editing Guidelines; good style and content is likely to make a big difference.