Many Tries to Submit, No Results

Over the last few years I have tried many times to submit to DMOZ. In the beginning it would just timeout, lately the submission is going thru...but still I have no listing in DMOZ.

I am submitting a typical ecom website that I have owned for the last 2 years, no porn, just computer parts and software.

Is there something I am missing?

John
DealCore.com

Well we can't give status reports any more, only point you at the FAQs on this site which should explain why reviews can take any time from days to years. Submitting many times may be doing you damage if an editor is reviewing in date received order - a new submission overwrites one already waiting. We review all sites suggested to us, just not to any timescale so not being listed is not indicative of anything really. Submit and forget is the usual advice. You might be missing something though so make sure your site (a) meets all the guidelines (b) is the most comprehensive it is possible to be, packed with unique content (c) make sure an editor can see the site is packed with unique content when they come to review it - you have a max of 60 seconds to convince an editor (and any other surfer) it is worthwhile lingering longer. Being "typical" in many categories is bad news - such is the competition "exceptional" gives you a better chance of being accepted.

Thanks for your reply

I guess I don't understand the process well enough. My website is not really unique per se, but how do you make a computer parts ecom site unique?

I have waited months between submissions, so overwriting should not be an issue.

And the fact that a number of my competitors with the exact same type of site are listed seems to suggest that mine should qualify, am I wrong in assuming that?

I am really hoping that it eventually gets a listing soon.

I am a new editor so dont take this a gospel, but if your competitors sites were listed they had something to offer the directory, thats the point of manual reviews. All i can suggest is that you read the guidelines (and also the catagory description for your catagory) and make sure your website has something special too.

Also try to remember it can take years for a listing in backlogged areas, dont conclude that nothing will happen just because nothing has happened yet.

To paraphrase someone else around here - who you are, what you sell, why you did it - your philosophy, how long you've been doing it, where you are... they are all unique even if a CDRW drive in a box isn't. I prefer to buy online from someone who tells me about themselves every time over a faceless catalog.

Just make sure that the products are yours to sell - we don't accept sites from affiliates, MLMs, or drop-shippers.

Thanks

Thanks again for the input.

I have been delivering computer products to my customers for over 9 years. We have tried to build a website which delivers only products which we know from our personal experience to be of good or best quality. We have dealt face to face with customers who have had to fight poor quality products when they are trying to upgrade or repair thier computers for many years.

We try hard every day to make sure people are happy when they do business with us, because word of mouth is the best advertising.

Anyway, I will think about your suggestions, wait a month or so, and if the site isn't listed in DMOZ I will try to write a description which describes our passion for our business.

Hey..did you hear that Google now has a larger stock value (market capitilization) than Time Warner. Google stock is almost $300/per share, wish I could have bought some at the intitial offering...

Thanks Again.

John
DealCore.com

if the site isn't listed in DMOZ I will try to write a description which describes our passion for our business.

Click to expand...

Please don't. If you choose to resuggest the site again at a later date, do not write a description what describes your passion for the business. A description like that would almost assuredly be unusable to the ODP.

Thanks again,

Is there a way to see my submission details by any chance?

John
DealCore.com

Our editor says:

>>Well we can't give status reports any more, only point you at the FAQs on this site which should explain why reviews can take any time from days to years.

To which you reply:

>Is there a way to see my submission details by any chance?

In the country of the precognition-challenged, the one-eyed man is king.

Would respectfully like to know ...

I'm certainly willing to take your FAQ advice about "waiting months or years" and not "resubmitting" ... but how am I supposed to distinguish between the "wait period" and the event of my submission being accepted or rejected? If you are not going to inform us of either (1) "submission status" or (2) "submission accept/reject" then you have orchestrated a catch 22 that we (the "precognition-challenged" masses) have no way of knowing what (and/or when) to do next.

All of the buzz about submissions and the "wait period" boil down to this issue ... I don't doubt that sooner or later someone will review my submission ... it's lack of being informed the outcome, when it finally happens, that causes the apprehension.

Does the "one-eyed king" realize this?

I appreciate your confusion.

Maybe we are using the wrong terms, when we talk about stuff like this. There is really no "wait period" - you build your site, you suggest it to various places you want to promote your site (including the ODP) and you go on marketing the site, and improving it.

You shouldn't think of it as "waiting" for a review. Heck, an editor may just have found your site before you even suggested it to the ODP.

It's much healthier to think of this as "Suggest it and forget it" - move on with other ways to promote the site that you have put the work into.

Asking for status doesn't help you get listed any faster, and therefore doesn't actually accomplish anything tangible. Knowing whether or when you were reviewed doesn't change anything either. We don't want people to build sites just so they are listable in the ODP, and we don't want to become some sort of arbiter of how people should build sites. Build the best site you can and suggest it to the ODP once.

People build sites. We list some of them in the directory. To misquote a semi-famous internet article: Don't worry about your listing, or worry but know that worrying is as effective as solving algebra equations by chewing bubblegum.

>I guess I don't understand the process well enough. My website is not really unique per se, but how do you make a computer parts ecom site unique?

There is only one way you can make ANY site unique. Tell the world who you are and (what you know, what happened to you, or what you'll do for money.)

>I have waited months between submissions, so overwriting should not be an issue.

>And the fact that a number of my competitors with the exact same type of site are listed seems to suggest that mine should qualify, am I wrong in assuming that?

Yes, absolutely, you would be wrong to assume that.

Two obvious possibilities: may have been our mistake to list your competitors, or we may have listed sites for some deep significance they had OTHER than that they had dared to compete with you.

If you know about a real business that doesn't have a website -- a unique group of persons offering their skills to make or stock a unique collection of goods, or offer a unique range services -- then it will be POSSIBLE for you to create a website describing all this. It doesn't follow that you actually did!

If you have the kind of business that doesn't have very obviously unique services (that is, the editor may have to puzzle a while to find anything you offer that someone else doesn't already), then ... you should have expected longer delays than usual: for the sake of efficiency, editors often focus where their time results in more listings. Or if you have the kind of business that there's so much competition already listed that a surfer could problably find "something" that would suit their needs, even if it isn't exactly what you would have offered, then expect longer delays -- editors often focus where their work will make the most difference for our customers the surfers.

I do not say these HAVE happened. It may merely be that nobody has yet gotten around to the site for some reason that we could know only by tracking the priorities of each of thousands of editors -- which is not possible.

So, what's unique about the business? And what can be done to make that OBVIOUSLY unique?

Here's one thing businesspeople often neglect. There may be a zillion computer parts stores, but there are surely only a few that maintain a stock within driving distance of Nether Niflheim, New South Wales (and only a few dozen in North Manhatten, New York). If you describe the place where customers can walk in and pick up whatever stock you have, that's something OBVIOUSLY unique. You can submit to that locality and hope for more surfer interest (which is the same as to say, a "better chance for quicker editor review.") And eventually, perhaps have two listings.

Ah, if the outcome is "site listed", then there's no secret, the world will know, we can't hide it from you.

And if the outcome is "ugh, spam, pure spam -- reject", then ... explain again to ME why it's not a Very-Bad-Idea for me to contact the source?

Now, you're probably thinking "but suppose the outcome is "not enough content, put more content on the site and we'd love to list it."

Well, fact is, that just flat doesn't happen often. In fact, it doesn't even happen rarely. It happens EXTREMELY rarely. It would be a waste of everybody's time to build our entire process around something that's rarer than simple editor error.

And when it happens, in our experience (which you can verify yourself by reading a few thousand threads in our archived submittal status forum -- you'll have to read that many threads to find more than one or two examples!) -- EVEN when that happens, sometimes people just flat can't or won't publish more information. (That's absolutely fine, it is their website. There's no point in us complaining about it. All we do is just list sites that provide the kind of information we're looking for.)

But ... remember what we're looking for. Who are you and what will you do for money? Put that on the site, and it will be enough to be helpful for a surfer (and an editor will list it) ... or it won't, and you will have done all that you're willing and able to do. So however rarely this situation arises in general, you can make sure it doesn't arise for you.