Can I detail my frustrations...

I worked for an SEO company a few years back and we had an in house ODP editor. Now I'm sure he submitted things well, and did a good job as an editor, but it benefited our company as well. So, since this process is inexplicably slow, is it suggested to find such an SEO company? Or perhaps I inquire for this fellow at the place I used to work at?

My site has been live for its 4th year, and I've submitted my site maybe two or three times. I even check on other sites related to my genre and watched one go out of business with its ODP entry subsequently removed from the directory. I also haven't noticed any changes in the category I'm looking to go in, that I'm certain I fit in.

I just thought I'd complain somewhere....

T

Thank you for your opinion and remarks.

I'd like to point out that editors should leave their employee hats at the door when they log in to edit. Favouring associated websites is editorial abuse, is likely to lead to account closure and may cause all associated websites to be permanently blacklisted.

Now where did I park that black helicopter?

since this process is inexplicably slow

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It's entirely explicable. The usual reason for a long elapsed time to list a website is either that the website is unlistable or that no volunteer editor has yet volunteered to process it.

I'm sure a good fraction of ODP editors work for SEO companies. There's only so much you can find out about an editor in the online world, and besides that I can't imagine consistently adding sites to the directory if you weren't associated with some sort of SEO company. Do you guys do any sort of correlation of websites? I guess if the editor were real good, he'd suggest 1 to 3 sites to the directory for every site of his company's to minimize finding a correlation.

Well I think my site is listable, can that determination be made on these forums?

I really am frustrated that 4 years have gone by and I'm still out of luck. The other sites in my category have the money to go to SEO companies with in house ODP editors, but I do not. So I think this is unfair. Otherwise, there would be at least one major business in my category not in the ODP, but there isn't because they have the $$$. And if there is a big list in my category that I may perhaps be at the bottom of, how did the big wigs get in there? It seems at least that $$$ translates into higher priority.

I respect that it's openly looked down upon, and I'm sure you do this for good times. But seriously, I really want my site included and at this point am ready to do just about anything. But you know why should I pay to get listed when it's dubbed an "Open" directory?

My site started small and still is small, but I have customers in the government that help keep things worth while, and I think it's high time I got included here.

Well I at least appreciate the dialog.

Cheers,
T

I actually remember submitting my site the first time when we were allowed to get a status update. I even remember getting a tidbit of advice for my site. Where are the archived forum posts? I can't seem to find them. It must have been late 2004, or the early months of 2005.

Cheers,
T

So your basic pitch is that you'd like to pay somebody to list your website in ODP but you can't afford it. Is that right?

No, I can afford it. I just think this is more or less silly being dubbed open when the only surefire way to get listed is to pay someone.

T

My basic pitch is that I've hit a fork in the road, and am here to complain about it. The lingo used by editors in these forums indicate nothing will come of my ranting here.

There's only so much you can find out about an editor in the online world, and besides that I can't imagine consistently adding sites to the directory if you weren't associated with some sort of SEO company

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Maybe you can't imagine it, but for huge number of editors, this is a hobby, not a career enhancer.

when the only surefire way to get listed is to pay someone

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That is a surefire way to get blacklisted.


So very nice of you to come in here with the hopes of corrupting an editor.

I'm sure it's a hobby for most. But that does not take away from the FACT that websites with $$$ are always listed.

I have NO intention to use this a means to corrupt an editor! PM and all that can be tracked.

But that does not take away from the FACT that websites with $$$ are always listed.

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Really? I'd be interested in seeing the research to back this up.

From knowledge of the way things work, I'd say it's more likely that popular sites have an increased chance of being listed -- and that's arguably a good thing as far as our users are concerned, since the sites are presumably popular for a reason. You see public suggestions are only one source of new sites for editors to add. Editors are encouraged to go out and find sites to add on their own. So when working in a particular category, they're more likely to know about popular sites themselves and also more likely to come across a popular site when searching on a search engine.

(Of course with sites that make money from being popular, there's going to be some sort of correlation between popularity and wealth, but don't forget that we list lots of non-commercial sites too.)

Yeah, you got that right. Popularity and wealth is probably what I'm referring to, but it's because of the $$$ they are popular .

Anyway, I'm done here. Just have to hurry up and wait. Maybe I'll resubmit, it has been probably over a year since since the last time.

No need to resuggest your site, suggestions don't expire.

tfunk said:

I'm sure a good fraction of ODP editors work for SEO companies. There's only so much you can find out about an editor in the online world, and besides that I can't imagine consistently adding sites to the directory if you weren't associated with some sort of SEO company.

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Seriously, I know many editors and I have yet to find one that actually works with or for and SEO company.
Besides, why is it that site owners act so desperate to be listed, waisting so much time and energy? There are much more effective ways to market a site.

My company is a good example to contradict that... we have plenty of money to spend on SEO and are one of the largest companies in the US in a multi-billion dollar gift category... but in over five years still no listing.

While a lack of editors is a primary reason... we continue to see home based companies get listed quickly. So there's no easy answer. But given we are so prominent in our industry, I have to suspect corruption via a competitor getting us blacklisted somehow... because our not being listed is ridiculous.

Like McDonalds not being listed in Fast food...

I'm continually surprised by the major companies or large, very popular sites that aren't yet listed in the directory. It's the nature of the beast -- if no one chooses to edit in a category where the site in question would be listed and no one thinks of the site in question while they are editing in a category where it could be listed (or the site hasn't been suggested or it's been suggested but no one has chosen to go through the suggested sites), then the site doesn't get listed until someone comes along who does. Keep in mind that not everyone is going to think your industry is important and thus not everyone is going to be burning to make sure that the leaders in that industry are listed.

So, you can see that it is rarely the result of editorial abuse, though if you have some proof that it is (proof beyond "my site isn't listed so there must be abuse"), then by all means file an abuse report.

And there is always the possibility that the site in question really, really s*cks.

(Before you go blasting away, I didn't look at anyone's site before posting this.)

McDonalds is not listed in

top / recreation / food / fast food

because the category description clearly states the eligibility, and McD does not fit:

This category is ONLY for sites with information on fast food and the fast food industry.

Please do not NOT submit restaurant sites here. Restaurants should be submitted to the Regional category for the city in which they reside, in the Business_and_Economy/Bars_and_Restaurants subcategory if it exists.

McD is correctly listed in

top / business / hospitality / restaurant chains / burgers

>But given we are so prominent in our industry, ...

Assuming for the moment that's really true, what does it signify?

Did you imagine that any editor had an authoritative list of people owning websites in order of their industry prominence? And for some reason a editor listed persons #1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, ... but skipped #2 for personal reasons?

In case it needs to be said, there's no such list, and if there were such a list, there's no such process. You can look at almost any industry category, and you'll find the fingerprints of at least half a dozen different editors, most if not all of which are not personally employed in the relevant industry. Now, look at your own past life. Have you really been so ostentatiously vicious that in any random selection of half-a-dozen volunteers on planet earth, you can feel confident you've probably offended _all_ of them so much that they wouldn't review your website? Very few people in any industry could be so sure of that.

I don't know what business you're in, but there are a number of businesses where there are several large aggregator companies with aggressive stealth-affiliate programs, and lots of small mom-and-pop businesses. In such a case, you can pretty well expect that a MAPB site can easily show bona fides and uniqueness (because no other site can authoritatively describe what MY mom and pop will do for money!) And you can pretty well expect that a well-known large aggregator company can show bona fides (because it's a household name).

But ... a website claiming to be a large aggregator, that isn't a household name, is 99.9999% likely to be a affiliate spam.[*] So you can pretty well expect that when an editor looks at such a site, he'll look very very carefully for subtle evidence of affiliation or plagiarism, and even when he doesn't find it, he'll probably assume the evidence is there and he missed it (which assumption will usually be correct!) So out of caution, he'll not list the site (leaving it for someone else to find the evidence that's probably there) and go edit in some other category, where it's easier to find websites that are demonstrably unique.

[*] You can check this. Google for "Las Vegas Hotels". Divide the number of hits by the number of actual hotels in Las Vegas. Or "Los Angeles Flowers", and divide by the number of florists in the Greater L. A. phone book. You can probably think of other examples.

Yeah, no joke. The amount of renegade editors, though these folks can claim they are few if they want, affects some of us. And all the terms they can use are "unlistable" or "submit and forget", etc. Amazingly, they provide answers for disputed ODP listings, but they don't care about anyone trying to get in. Yet clearly they have time to post here and elsewhere.