http://www.kitchen-mixers.com

I was wondering if someone could please help me out and tell me the status of my domain submission. I believe I submitted it to the following category:

http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Home_and_Garden/Kitchen_and_Dining

I apologize for not being sure, but I may have submitted here:

http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Home_and_Garden/Kitchen_and_Dining/Appliances/Countertop

I think it has been a few months and I still have not heard anything. Someone told me that it could take up to 6 months, but it would be great to at least get some sort of update.

Thank you very much for your time.

Kitchen-Mixers is a doorway site to www.nutritionlifestyles.com , which is already appropriately listed. As per the Editor Guidelines, we don't list doorway sites.

Could anyone please tell me what a "doorway site" is? I looked at the link given to me in the previous post and about the DMOZ editorial guidelines and saw the following:

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"General rule of thumb: Look at the content on the site, mentally blocking out all affiliate links. If the remaining information is original and valuable informational content that contributes something unique to the category's subject, the site may be a good candidate for the ODP. If the remaining content is poor, minimal, or copied from some other site, then the site is not a good candidate for the ODP."
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I guess there are some shades of grey with these matters where a judgement call is made by the editor, but I guess I cant help but think that our site does seem to follow the guidelines in my opinion (whatever its worth). While the advertiser does have a listing already, our site has a lot of good unique content on it that I cannot find anywhere in any of the other sites in this category. We did not copy this content from any other websites out there and we believe it does offer good content.

Yes - we are an independent distributor of Nutrition Lifestyles products and that is what pays our bills, but we really did spend time trying to offer good and valuable content on our site as well.

Im not trying to argue about the decision not to include my URL... I just truly want to understand the rules on this.

Thanks for any feedback anyone can give here,

You wrote: "Our site has a lot of good unique content on it that I cannot find anywhere in any of the other sites." So I went to look for it.

1 - http://www.kitchen-mixers.com/Benefits-To-Mixing-Your-Own-Flour.html can also be found in http://www.nutritionlifestyles.com/homemill.htm.

2 - http://www.kitchen-mixers.com/Top-Ten-Reasons-to-Avoid-Processed-Foods.html can also be found on http://www.nutritionlifestyles.com/juice10.htm.

3 - http://www.kitchen-mixers.com/History-Of-Bread-Making.html can also be found on http://www.whippersnapper.ie/07.html.

4 - http://www.kitchen-mixers.com/Bread-Making-Products.html can also be found on http://www.nutritionlifestyles.com/mixers.htm.

"We did not copy this content from any other websites." Really?

The only page which I couldn't find elsewhere is http://www.kitchen-mixers.com/How-Bread-Is-Made.html. So if this is your unique content, your site might qualify for Home/Cooking/Baking and Confections/Breads/Yeast Breads, but it seems to me most sites there have more unique content than you do. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

&gt;&gt; Could anyone please tell me what a "doorway site" is? &lt;&lt;

By 'doorway' (or 'gateway') what we mean is that the site doesn't contain any content, it merely leads a surfer to another site. In this way it acts like a door, letting the surfer through to the real content. In your specific case you have submitted to a Shopping/ category, but all of the shopping is done at another site, hence your site has no content appropriate for the category.

See the section in the guidelines labelled ' Affiliate Reseller Sites (aka Fraternal Mirrors)' (sentance 4 to be exact: &gt;&gt; For example, sites which sell products or services provided by another company and make a small margin on the sale are affiliate mirrors &lt;&lt.

Some terminology does vary between editors (some call them 'gateways' others 'fraternal mirrors' etc etc). But basically, it all boils down to the same thing: we aim to list sites that offer "Original, unique and valuable informational content that contributes something unique to the category's subject.".

I really had no idea that our copy was taken from their site or any other sites. I will talk to our web person about this and remove any duplicate content from our site.

Sorry for the misunderstanding... and thanks for the explanation of what a doorway site is.

If I were to have our webmaster write all new content, is there any way my site would qualify to be listed. Am I allowed to even have a link on my site that goes to an affiliate.. kind of as if I was placing a paid advertisment on my site?... just an idea. thanks again for any feedback.

Re: http://www.kitchen-mixers.com/

&gt;&gt; I really had no idea that our copy was taken from their site or any other sites &lt;&lt;

Really? Perhaps you shouldn't be registering yourself as technical contact if you don't even know what's on your own site.


&gt;&gt; If I were to have our webmaster write all new content, is there any way my site would qualify to be listed.? &lt;&lt;

No. It doesn't matter who writes your content, there is no Shopping/ content on your site. You are allowed to have links that go to affiliated companies, but those do not count as content. Besides, in your cae it's not just a link is it. You actually load an entire page from another site into a frame on your site. Since there's no shopping on your site, you won't get a listing in the Shopping area of the directory.