Fired from ODP after requesting additional cat

Nov 24, 2002

donaldb,

Good question. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

A quick glance at the two sites might lead you to believe that they contain the same content, but a closer examination will reveal that the information contained is very different. One site is for company drivers. The other site is for owner operators.

There are great differences in the types of jobs, and the types of requirements that employers put on the two groups.

A company driver could work for company "X" with only 6 months of OTR (over the road) experience, while an owner operator might need to have 24 months OTR experience to work for company "X".

Benefits, training, types of runs, endorsements, all of these things differ for company drivers versus owner operators.

Company drivers drive company owned trucks while owner operators have purchased their own peterbilt, freightliner, volvo, etc... and have leased themselves on with a company and work as a small company that subcontracts their truck to company "X".

Crete Carriers only requires 12 months OTR experience for a company driver;
http://www.classadrivers.com/companyprofile.php?cvar=45

while they require 24 months OTR for an owner operator;
http://www.owneroperatorjob.com/test.php?id=53

Please review the two profile sheets for Crete Carriers. One is for company drivers (ClassADrivers.com) and the other one is for owner operators (Owneroperatorjob.com)
I feel that you will see the difference in the information provided to the intended target audience.

I also hope the links do not get deleted as they are used to prove a point. If they are, please send me a message through the board, and I will provide those links to you for your review.

Nov 24, 2002

The "content" is different enough that they probably both should be listed (and yes there is some overlap), but I am very unhappy with the number of visual distractions (spam) you are including on the pages and in pop-ups and pop-unders. Your sites are on the border of being excluded for being difficult to navigate and for being more affiliate than content. Some editors may very well say you are over that border.

Keep in mind that you are adding to your own problems by making the two sites so darned similar.

Nov 25, 2002

kctipton,

but I am very unhappy with the number of visual distractions (spam)....

[Broken External Image]:http://www.gamers-forums.com/smilies/contrib/tweetz/spam1.gif

I am not a fan of the pop unders either, but they are related to what we do which is help drivers and owner operators find employment. The ads have been purchased by our clients, and they do pay some of the bills. To say that I am running this site for the fun of it... well, that would just be a lie. It would be different if they (the pop unders)were for casino's, or for the x-10 camera, or for a home mortgage, but they are for trucking companies offering employment, which is why people come to my site in the first place. They are not spam. I did, however, cookie out the pop under so that it only loads once.

Your sites are on the border of being excluded for being difficult to navigate....

With respect to being difficult to navigate, I received this testimonial from one of our clients.....

Drivers that I have recruited have praised your site on its clear, concise, and easy process to submit applications.

This one came fron a driver...

I have filled out allot of applications on the internet and never got the response like what I got from yours. You have a kick _ _ _ web site going! Thank you again and I will spread the word.

For us, this has been our navigation theme for two years now. The content of the sites are different, but the navigation is similiar. The layout of the company profile sheets is similiar because we found that it works for our targeted audience.

...and for being more affiliate than content. Some editors may very well say you are over that border.

[Broken External Image]:http://www.classadrivers.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rant.gif

In terms of affiliate versus content, how much raw content does a site like monster.com or hotjobs.com have? We are a recruiting site that provides a detailed employment sheet on every company we work with, job postings posted by the companies, online application, searchable job database, application database where the drivers can retrieve and modify their application, and a fairly active drivers community on our Ikonboard message board http://www.classadrivers.com/cgi-bin/ib3/ikonboard.cgi with over 1200 members. Plenty of content there.

To say that we are nothing more than links is an understatement of the quality and depth of our site. Banners do link outside of our site, but all profile sheets and the tools we have to help get drivers and companies together is contained within our site. We have done good work in the field of online driver recruiting, and have even implemented a thing called recruiterchat where the drivers can chat online with different company recruiters.

I am not trying to start a pissing match with you here as I know you do good work as a board moderator and I have seen some of your postings at JimWorld. Even if this reply does not sit well with you, it does not matter as my site has already been removed from the category. The fact of the matter is this;

1. This category has been spammed before.
2. I was removed by a category spammer before.
3. The category editor was removed and my site was re-listed.
4. Site remained until the addition of new editor, and was immediately removed again.
5. A note was attached to the site by another meta editor... Since you have already seen some of the results of your inquiry I won't go into everything. The classadrivers.com site has been relisted. I have also placed a note on it so that future editors will be more aware of the differences between the two sites.

The above note did not guarantee a permanent listing, but it is too much of a coincidence that 1 new editor of the category immediately equals removal of my site.