affordablequalityvitamins.com

ODP Editors,
I have submitted the url: http://www.affordablequalityvitamins.com to ODP in the category: Top: Shopping: Health: Nutrition: Retailers

We offer the entire line of Source Naturals vitamins and supplements. We are not a typical superstore selling every brand out there. We specialize in one brand and only one brand (Source Naturals).

The category has no editor (Volunteer to edit this category) is at the bottom of the page so I am wondering if this is cause of the site not being added.

The site is a quality site included in Yahoo!, LookSmart, Google etc.. coming up in the top listings under "Source Naturals Vitamins" in most search engines and directories, but I would (of course) like it included in ODP.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is my first posting here, so hopefully I did not violate any rules. I read through them and think that this should be OK.

Thank you.
Vitsales

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

Rejected, and will not be listed. Nor will any other mirrors/affiliates of your http://www.affordablenatureslife.com/ site.

Please see http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html#notinclude if you have any questions.

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

Lachenm,
Thank you for the prompt response.

I think that there is a mistake regarding this. It is not an affiliate or mirrored site. It is an entirely unique website, with it's own domain, shopping cart, business account and order processing.

The only similarity is that it is owned by the same man.

Considering that it is setup as an entirely independent site, I do not understand how it is considered a mirror? The owner went to the expense of setting up a fully independent website. It would have been much more cost efficient to incorporate it into a single website (ie. smartbomb, webvitamins, etc...).

This was setup to be independent and "Source Naturals" specific. Is it truly a mirror or affiliate just because it is owned by the same man?

I am not trying to be belligerent, I am genuinely confused.

I have read over the affiliated links information page of ODP and we certainly do not fit into that category of dishonest, misrepresentative websites.

The owner has purchased several independent (specific brand) websites to focus on single brands as opposed to trying to sell everything to everyone. I do not understand how this would be considered mirrored or affiliated. They are all unique, independent sites.

Yahoo! initially rejected it also for the same reason. It was included (along with his other sites) when it was realized that it is a completely unique site.

Is there any recourse or reconsideration for this? I will be happy to supply whatever paperwork or correspondence required to show that this is truly a unique and independent website that is not in any way trying to dishonestly misrepresent itself.

Thank you for your time. Please contact me with any additional requirements or information that would be necessary to help resolve this.

Thank you.
vitsales

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

The fact that someone chooses to split their inventory (in the same industry, even) between multiple websites doesn't mean we should list every website (in this case, they're all product-specific subsites of Nature's Nutrition, which appears to have a physical store in Brick?). Speaking as a user, I've never understood why people segregate their content like that -- they miss out on the chance that I might buy something else as I'm browsing one of the sites.

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

Since that site contains no information about that physical location in Brick (aside from an addy), it won't be listed in Regional, either.

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

Motsa,
Thank you for your quick response.

I can understand your view point, but quite frankly the owner felt that by concentrating on specific high quality brands he would attract the loyal followers of specific brands.

In general the websites that sell all brands are only knowledgable about specific brands in regards to information that they obtain in a database. Their product knowledge is usually extremely limited.

On his website's, the owner is personally familiar with each brand and would strongly recommend and give information regarding virtually every branded product.

As to the splitting their inventory, it is not really splitting inventory. It is maintaining separate online businesses. Ford does not sell one car. It sells many, each unique in it's own stature. They are all owned by Ford but are unique in their individual appeal. Lincoln Mercury should therefore not exist. Lincoln and Mercury as individual brands should also not exist. They are all subbrands of Ford.

Certain high quality vitamin and supplement companies maintain the same individual appeal and loyal following of other types of items.

It is not the most common concept, most websites are interested in squeezing in as much content as is possible. That is not at all the case here, the owner has a different idea about how to sell high end vitamins online. It is an unusual concept, but not one that should be penalized.

ODP allows not only individual sites, but individual CATEGORIES for virtually every brand of car out there. I am not trying to be wiseguy, but I do not see where there is a difference.

As mentioned earlier, I will be happy to supply information to support the fact that these are all unique websites.

Thank you again.
vitsales

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

Sigh.

There is no mistake. The situation as you describe it was thoroughly and accurately understood by the reviewers.
The reaction that you got was the correct reaction, according to the express and specific wishes of the founders and sponsors of the ODP, as well as the consensus of the editors.

And, yes, we absolutely do regard such proliferation of single-product retail sites controlled by the same enterprise as spam. Our most specific technical term for this is "fraternal mirrors with vanity domain names."

I trust this will eliminate the confusion. You don't need to appreciate the experience through which we came to this guideline, or understand the logic by which we came to it. But we had that experience, we rely on that logic, and we strongly believe in the necessity for that guideline.

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

I just want to add a footnote to what hutcheson said...

It may well be great business practice to divide the sites up like that - that is your (or the owner's) decision. But that doesn't affect how many listings the business will get in the ODP. We're not the judges of your business decisions, so debating the merits of them on here will not change our guidelines.

I'm sorry this isn't the answer you want, but this is the policy of the ODP.

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

Thank you to everyone for their timely responses.

While I don't agree with (to be honest, I don't understand) the policy, I have a feeling that somewhere along the way someone was dishonestly playing games with something that is similar, if not identical to what is being done in our circumstance. This is something that others must now pay for.

We have not tried to mislead, misrepresent or do anything that is less than 100% honest with regards to the websites, to either ODP or to our customers.

I will not be bothering ODP with anymore submissions for these sites. It is unfortunate to be shut out of such an important directory because we have decided to specialize in specific high quality brands as opposed to just selling every brand available on a "supermarket" type of vitamin site. Brand loyalty is very important with vitamins as with most other products.

I would however, like to thank everyone for their timely and accurate responses. It would have saved me much time in fruitless submissions, had I known this information sooner.

Alucard, you are correct; "this is not the answer I want" but it is your policy.

This forum is excellent. I have had my questions answered and that is certainly better than constantly wondering why the sites were not being admitted.

Thank you again.
vitsales

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

Let me clarify just one point: You are not being "shut out" because you decided to specialize. Indeed, your business has a listing in the ODP. You haven't been shut out at all.

However, you have made the business decision to "shut out" users of one part of your site from the brands sold on other parts of your site. That's your decision to make, and we wouldn't dream of telling you that you can't operate your site that way. It's your site, so you are free to operate it any way you want.

In exactly the same way, the ODP decides what to put on its site: in this case, one listing per business.

You would be free to create a site that had links to all your content, emphasizing the "high quality" of your brands, and submit it (as an update request to your current listing) for inclusion in the ODP, allowing ODP users to access all of your products easily (as a user, and not an editor, I'll also point out that this strategy would allow you to build brand equity in your store, and not just in the individual products -- which are brands that you don't even own). You are also free not to do so. The point is, it's your choice.

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

>While I don't agree with (to be honest, I don't understand) the policy, I have a feeling that somewhere along the way someone was dishonestly playing games with something that is similar, if not identical to what is being done in our circumstance. This is something that others must now pay for.

Yes, you have indeed grokked the situation. That is exactly what was happening. And it was _myriads_ of someones doing it.

It occurred to me later that I had omitted what lachenm said about creating one "business home page" with a "site map" and links to all your product lines.

But I will mention one other thing that raises red flags. Suppose you have a domain with no content on it but links to other domains (which had no apparent connection with each other. That would look like an "affiliate banner farm" -- and we'd not list it. So, be careful how you set this up.

Make sure that the "business home" domain contains information about the business -- contact information, physical address of walk-in bricks-and-morter (wattle-and-daub, or whatever) storefronts, all the stuff that would let editors know there is a real business there. And on each of the "product-line" sites, make sure there's prominent link back to the main business page -- a little "this product supplied, and customer service provided, by xxx corp at xxx.com". Now that tells us that, despite the separate domain names, there really is one entity controlling all the domains, and gives us the information to check to see how real an entity it is.

That's just basic professional website navigation: you might have already thought of it. But, if not for you, for somebody out there it might avoid an unnecessary submittal rejection for an otherwise acceptable site.

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

There's something else I could have phrased better. It is NOT the presence of lots of domain names, that makes something "spam," it's just submitting them to the Open Directory as if they were not related sites. The ODP doesn't and can't have a policy about how many domain names you buy, or how you promote your product elsewhere on the net. I didn't mean to suggest that we reject or accept based on the kind of domain name in your site's URL..

Re: Submission status with no category editor?

Lots of good advice in this thread.