No "suggest URL" and I am puzzled.

Hello,

I would like to submit my website (http://www.falada.com/ as "Falada Vacation Rentals") under http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/North_.../Travel_and_Tourism/Lodging/Vacation_Rentals/ My competitors are listed there and I would like to be in that category as well, but there is no "Suggest URL" link on that page. I can't find another appropriate category.

We are online directory of vacation rentals covering all of the United States. Going deeper doesn't make sense because I would have to deep-link in every state. I considered http://www.dmoz.org/Recreation/Travel/Lodging/Vacation_Rentals/Directories/ but that directory is for companies covering different countries, and we only focus on USA market.

Our site might be kind of new, but we have more listings than some of the sites that are listed there already. For example, we provide far more listings then "Resorts 101" site, and some other sites look lite too.

Can someone please help me list in that category, or advise me what I should do.

Thank you!

Gregory

Well, you are right about not fitting into http://www.dmoz.org/Recreation/Travel/Lodging/Directories/ because the category description specifically states: Only guides that have significant content in more than one continent will be listed here. Submit all other guides to the most specific category.

Going deeper doesn't make sense because I would have to deep-link in every state.

Click to expand...

I'll assume that you forgot to put the smiley face after that comment, because such an action would clearly get you labeled as a spammer.

While we are not supposed to help subkjitters find the best category for their sites -- since submitters usually know their sites best, I'm going to make an exception here because of the fact that you have obviously done some homework and are not simply being lazy or willfully clueless.

I'd submit once to http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Travel_and_Tourism/Lodging/Guides/
and trust that if it needs to be moved, a qualified regional editor will be able to make that call. You might even want to put, in the description area, your request to be moved to the category you desire.

You do not have anything like enough listings to be considered for that category in this millenium. Many states have nothing, others have several listings apiece. The web would be more useful if this site disappeared altogether, and all the listings were included in more comprehensive directories.

I don't know what you can do with those facts. At this point, your site is worse than worthless both to users (who can find far more sites listed more conveniently elsewhere) and for advertisers (who are still going to have to advertise also in the more comprehensive directories, which rational users will have visited first)

I'd probably suggest focusing first, then expand. (Where would Walmart be if they had opened a lemonade stand in every hamlet in the U.S.?) Make the best directory of sites in Gatlinburg (or wherever else you happen to have more than four listings in the same county). Charge what they are worth -- which, in this case, frankly means you'll have to pay for them. EARN an ODP listing in Tennessee. Expand into North Carolina (and request the site be moved into the South&Southeast category).

The chances for success are small, but waiting for someone else to lift you up by their bootstraps is a mug's game. You're going to have to bring something unique to the table, and right now you haven't got any such thing.
-----------------------------------------------------
It is a bit odd that submittals are turned off in a category that contains listings -- but that issue is moot here.

Thank you all for your feedback. I'll look in other categories like 'spectregunner' suggested and possibly make a note for an editor to consider moving it, when I decided to submit our site.

It was interesting but said to hear that hutcheson feels that our site is useless. Knowing the market and websites of our competitors, I know we can continue to improve, but I also know that dmoz lists sites that are less usefull then ours, and more out of date. I think I'll wait for while before submitting our website to increase our chance of being included.

hutcheson, do you feel that amount of property listings is our only limitation to being listed in dmoz? How many listings do you think would qualify us in your opinion? I value your opinion and suggestions because of your experience, and I hope it can help us improve faster, then in a millenium

Thank you all!
Gregory

A site needs to add a significant contribution to any category that it is going to be added in.

Comparing your site to existing listings is futile, as some may have lowered their content since being listed and will get deleted from the directory as soon as that is spotted by editors , or is pointed out by others in the thread here that deals with such stuff.

Some sites may have been added long ago, when the threshold for listing was somewhat lower than it was now. When a category gets very large, it is always possible that the lowest quality sites get removed in a tidy up.

We cannot give you a number like 51 properties across 4 counties, or 831 per state, otherwise the next wannabee site who is just a spammer, will arrange to have 52 or 832 listings and then quote those numbers back to us as a justification for listing. That cannot happen.

General Comment: YOU will know when your site is a "valuable resource" rather than a "cobbled together set of listings, just enough to get you in the door" type of site. Most webmasters will not admit that though, and press on regardless.

If your site is one of the three to five best directories in a category, then we might want to list it. If it's not one of the 20 best, then we almost certainly don't. If it would be one of the three worst, then we probably want to reject it -- and will remove the other two next time we happen to look at them.

The bar is rising rapidly for directories, as more content becomes available online. Most directories that were listed three years ago would probably be removed if reviewed today; and directories that were listed two years ago probably wouldn't be added if they were submitted today.

With the ODP at one end of the spectrum, and the Phone company Yellow Pages at the other end, a new directory has to have a unique niche, serious focus or serious content.

The site has, what, several listings in Gatlinburg? The ODP has 95 listings in corresponding categories! And that's a BIG category. It goes downhill from there.

You seriously misrepresented me. I NEVER claimed your site was worthless! If it had, say, 10 times as much content as it does, it might even ASPIRE to be merely worthless. But now ... it can only be an obstacle for surfers looking for INFORMATIVE sites. That's not worthless. That's worse.