Editors in Computers and Internet: Sales and Services

Can somebody shed any light on whether there are currently any active editors in the Computers and Internet: Sales and Services category? I appreciate that this must be one of the busiest categories around and it probably takes years to get submissions reviewed but for that exact reason it would be of great interest both to myself and no doubt many others visiting this forum to know roughly how many people are actively reviewing computing sites.

As a side issue, when considering online shopping sites who's focus is essentially selling products, what sort of considerations are made to determine whether to list one rather than another? Since the vast majority of online selling sites amount to little more than a collection of product pages tied to a checkout process there must presumably be an underlying system for approving some and rejecting others?

First of all, in most, if not all categories, there is a "Description" link over on the right side of each level of the directory. (I'm assuming "every" but I have not actually been to every level.) If you click that link at whatever level, it takes you to, what else? ... the description of what sort of site fits that category.

Here's an example from the top level, "Shopping." .../Shopping/faq.html

Hope that helps.

It's "unique content." In the real world, every businessman, whether retailer or manufacturer, knows what is unique about who he is and what he'll do for money. That's what his business website is "about."

Thanks for the feedback. It appears the most appropriate category for the site my business falls under would be:


Top: Regional: Europe: United_Kingdom: Business_and_Economy: Computers_and_Internet: Sales_and_Services

I see that I can click on description to find out what sites are covered but what I cannot work out is how to find out how many (if any) editors look after this category.

On the unique content point - whilst every business owner may indeed know their USP the reality in many cases is that this message is not conveyed on their web site in any meaningful way. A quick browse through sites listed in DMOZ for the above category shows multiple sites with the same message, offering the same products with a very similar site structure.

That's hard to say, Think4_Danny, as there are probably at least 200-300 editors that roam all parts of the Directory, and there are editors in higher categories who can edit everything below them.

As we're not required to edit in any category we'd rather not edit in, there is no way to predict when a site suggestion will be looked at, and no site has a right to be listed, it's at our complete discretion whether a site is listed.

What you say is probably wrong. By the ODP guidelines, the most appropriate category is contained in the smallest geographic entity that includes all the places of business OF the business: the locality containing THE building (if the business only operates out of one building), or a higher-level regional category if the business operates retail locations in multiple locations. The UK category would be appropriate for a retail chain that had stores in, say, Edinburgh, London, and Cardiff.

Think4_Danny said:

I see that I can click on description to find out what sites are covered but what I cannot work out is how to find out how many (if any) editors look after this category.

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Neither can we.
We only know how many editors can work in a category, that amount is around 250 for each category. But can does not mean they also will work in that category, neither can we predict when they will do so.

Think4_Danny said:

On the unique content point - whilst every business owner may indeed know their USP the reality in many cases is that this message is not conveyed on their web site in any meaningful way. A quick browse through sites listed in DMOZ for the above category shows multiple sites with the same message, offering the same products with a very similar site structure.

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The product is in many cases not the real unique content (webhosting is webhosting, not easy to make it different) but being a real company and telling us what you provide for a service or products is the content we are looking for.

<added> I am to slow .... :toomuch:

Well I must say I'm slightly encouraged by the fact that there could be up to 300 editors roaming around the place. I just have to hope that enough of them are interested in editing the computer retailers category.

We've worked very hard to distinguish our web site from the competition so hopefully this will be evident to anyone who does decide to one day review it.

You'll no doubt have heard it many many times before but it is SO frustrating to not be able to check the status of a submission. I know nobody has a right to be listed in the directory but when you consider the importance Google attaches to DMOZ, a directory listing can make a huge difference to the success or failure of an online business. It's therefore not surprising that so many people have a vested interest in this area. It's a shame there isn't a managed way of checking a submission status. The last thing I (and many others I suspect) want to do is submit too many times and risk spamming.

Yes, we've heard it many times. It is a very intense emotional thing.

But it's not a practical thing. There is nothing you can do with that information (if you had it) -- and in fact most of the information you want, simply doesn't exist.

Will my site be accepted? None of us know. We can't know until the review.
Who will review it? None of us know. We don't know and can't know until the review.
When will it be reviewed? None of us know: we can't know until the review.
If the site is rejected, what can I do to get it accepted? How could any of us possibly know what you are capable of doing, or are willing to do?

So I have a practical recommendation. Assume the site has been both rejected and banned forever. What would you do in that case? What action would you take?

Now: go take that action: because that same action will be the best action in every OTHER case also.

So I have a practical recommendation. Assume the site has been both rejected and banned forever. What would you do in that case? What action would you take?

Now: go take that action: because that same action will be the best action in every OTHER case also.

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I guess I'll go have a cry and think about some other way to make a living because the harsh reality is that in the long term, with no natural SE visibility, our business is doomed.

Thanks for the feedback all...

Think4_Danny said:

I guess I'll go have a cry and think about some other way to make a living because the harsh reality is that in the long term, with no natural SE visibility, our business is doomed.

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Ok, but what has this to do with DMOZ.
If you want to make your business a succes you should be willing to do a lot of work and spend some money. And you have to do it all yourself. Never rely on other people and certainly not if these people do not offer the service you are looking for.

The ODP is just one bread crumb, Think4_Danny, and I can't imagine search engines would use it as their only source of finding new sites, with millions of other sites out on the net that we haven't yet discovered ourselves.

I find many new sites on my own, merely by following the links I find on other sites, so a site suggestion from the public is far from being our only resource for discovery by editors.

To prove my point, many of us use the Google search ourselves in finding new sites. If Google only listed our sites, there would be no point, or at least much less point, in us using it, .

I know how much Internet businesses depend on being listed in what they consider important places, but, I think the more bread crumbs you can toss around, the faster the trail will lead back to your site, so don't be discouraged, . One of us may be following those bread crumbs.

By the way, if you have a walkin office/location and an address on your site, you might want to submit a site suggestion to your city/locality in the Regional section of the Directory here:
http://dmoz.org/Regional/

Some sites qualify to be listed twice, once in Topical and once in Regional.

Thanks Crowbar. There are indeed lots of crumbs out there but some crumbs are tastier than others as far as Google is concerned. Google spiders will pick most sites up via crawling, that's not the issue. The problem is the perceived importance Google places on the sites in its directory. Google uses both spider generated results and directory listings and most SEO experts suggest that a site listed in a human edited directory will gain that extra placement advantage. I could spend 10 years spreading the word elsewhere or spend money buying links but the impact of these activities could be far outweighed by a single directory listing in the right directory.

Unfortunately we dont have a walk in office so a regional submission wont be possible in this case.

Anyway, I dont want to drive people mad by continuing to harp on endlessly. Just want to say a final thank you for all the input on this thread and I wish you all every success in whatever ventures you are undertaking.

I can't make recommendations about how you should make a living: that would be as stupid as making recommendations about what kind of website you should generate. It's always based on your skills.

I'm not a salesman (or a marketroid of any stripe -- that module is on the rather long list of omissions from my mental configuration), but I do know an entrepreneur has to have those skills: either hired or in his own right. If you don't have those skills, then it's a matter of finding some job for which you are qualified (which might be working for someone who's already hired marketing staff, as I've generally done).