If I stopped using the money-365 site as a way of tying each website together and made each one completely independent again would it help me get added into the directory?
No - because they are still the same business. You are better off with a central portal page.
As it stands, the main page 'may' be eligible for listing, but the others would not be.
If you submit all those sites, you will probably get yourself labelled as a spammer, and harm your chances of a listing :-(
However they get rejected each time I submit them, and I can only assume it’s due to my use of affiliate marketing. I would argue that the independent and unbiased advice on my sites is more valuable than most of the sites that currently have an ODP listing.
You would not be the first to argue that! Unfortunately 'independence' is kind of undermined if your advice is crammed full of affiliated links.
I'll try to give you some further information on the policies for your area, and what elements of your site could be causing problems.
Firstly, your credit card site is using moneysupermarket.com's comparison engines? Since moneysupermarket are already listed - you are not adding any new content to the database in that area.
Please read the charter for the UK price comparison category here (Since your site is comparing financial products, that is where it would normally be placed):
Price Comparison Category Charter
You fall foul of the submission guidelines because whilst your sites are providing some unique content, they are not providing a unique price comparison engine, since you are using engines from other sites.
This poses a problem, since because your comparison engines are not unique, you are not eligible for listing in that category.
So if you aren't eligible there, your next best bet would be (for general consumer information sites):
Consumer Information category
In order to qualify for a listing there, you'd have to be providing sufficient independent advice.
I can certainly find some information on your site, which might warrant a listing. At the end of the day though, whoever reviews your listing has to be convinced that your site is an independent financial advice site AND not an affiliate farm. Given the level of submissions to the UK Business and Economy hierarchy, editors are not going to have very much time to make a decision on your content. So you are in danger of falling into the affiliate trap.
Think about your site from an editors point of view, we have to make a decision based on a fairly cursory scan of your website. So if at first glance your site looks like something, it will probably be deemed to be that thing.
So does your site at first glance look like an affiliate farm? I'm afraid the answer is yes. I agree it has unique content when you look deeper, but still that content is interspersed with affiliated links. I had to pick links with care to avoid affiliate filled pages.
My advice to you would be to try to make your site layout place more emphasis on the unique content, advice etc and less on the affiliated links, if you really want to get listed.
Andy
