Status of http://www.cruisecheap.com

Good evening. Can you let me know the status of http://www.cruisecheap.com/, submitted to the following categories:

1.) http://www.dmoz.org/Recreation/Travel/Specialty_Travel/Cruises/Consolidators/
2.) http://www.dmoz.org/Recreation/Travel/Specialty_Travel/Cruises/Travel_Agents/North_America/United_States/Florida/

Thanks for your help.

Uf

It does meet the guidelines for listing in ODP and the submissions have been removed.

Please refer to http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html#notinclude

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not exactly sure what your reply means. Did it meet the guidelines and will be added or did it meet the remeval guidelines and was removed. And how can it be removed it it was never on the ODP in the first place?

I acquired this URL and started this company in April of 2004 and launched my website on July 15th. It's never been on ODP as long as I've owned the URL and I never submitted the URL to ODP until this summer.

The URL used to belong to a large travel conglomerate called www.cruisesonly.com and I acquired it from them. Is there an appeal process?

Thanks again.

Uf

It means it won't be listed because it's an affiliate and because there doesn't seem to be any unique content.

Thanks for your reply. This is very interesting and thanks for the explanation.

Can you give me some insight on how to appeal? I don't have affiliates or an affiliate program. As I said, I acquired this URL this year and launched my site in July. Maybe it was an affiate site in the past under previous ownership, but not today.

Can you point me in the right direction to communicate this to the editor of my requested ODP categories?

By the way, it's all unique content. I should know. I wrote it all.

Uf

By the way, it's all unique content. I should know. I wrote it all.

Click to expand...

Then I'm sorry to tell you that you've fallen victim to multiple plaguerisers.

There is no 'appeal' as such. It's highly likely that further submissions will just be a waste of your time and ours.

If a site was delisted for non-compliance and then becomes compliant again, how does one get relisted?

Resubmitting Previously De-Listed Site

Threads merged. Please don't start new ones

In April 2004, I bought the URL for a site that was removed by the ODP because it was considered an affiliate website and did not meet the ODP standards for listing. Apparently in 2003 before I owned the URL, the previous owner, was pointing the URL to a mirror website.

In August, I launched a new, non-affiliate website. I've since built a nice little business by promoting my website through pay per click and SEO. I'm even doing pretty well with getting my pages indexed in google. But I'd like to be listed on the ODP. What's the best way to go about resubmitting a previously removed url for editorial review and communicating that the site is under new "ownership" and "new management" and in no way connected to a previous owner?

Under Jim Noble's advice last year, I really don't want to waste an editors time or mine. But, can a URL be resubmitted, then get listed if the URL is now compliant? Or is it once a URL is black-listed, it's always blacklisted?

Your advice would be appreciated.

Are you really trying to say that you are no longer an affiliate? Is what you are selling/marketing your very own or do you just provide access to travel-related services provided by third parties?

Yes, thank you. That is what I am trying to say. This URL is no longer an affiliate. This URL now belongs to a living, breathing company will real people.

We are a regular, every-day high-street travel agency and we sell holidays, vacations and cruises just like other travel agencies that are listed on the ODP. We also have a 3000 square foot store with 18 employees, telephone book advertising, letterhead & stationery, a customer service department, happy customers etc etc. We are the same as any other travel agency that is listed on the ODP.

Again, I bought the URL in April, hired employees, opened for business in May, and launched a new website in August. We are not affiliated with anyone. We are on our own.

I'm afraid when I bought the URL, it came with ODP baggage I did not know about until Mr. Noble brought them to my attention in October.

Is there a way resubmit and communicate the change of ownership?

So tell me all about http://www.destinationoceans.com and http://www.autoeurope.com/

The text I placed above; provide access to travel-related services provided by third parties? was actually taken from your own terms.

Lets assume that you are a single company with a single site offering this service. That in itself does not mean that a listing is guaranteed (not by any stretch of the imagination). The question you need to ask yourself before even considering resubmitting is does your site offer something that all the other already listed sites don't? If not then that magic 'unique' word that you see in our guidlelines is not met.

We do not aim to list every site that offers a service or covers a topic. If we did, and listed your site, you would be very lucky to even find your site amongst the rest of the many hundreds of sites offering similar service.

Hi, and thank you or giving me the opportunity to explain . . .


1. "Third Parties"

The means we do not own the cruise ships, we do not own the airplanes, we do not own the hotels, or the insurance companies. The suppliers are the third party, and we sell their products. We are a representative and we receive a commission just like Exedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and Hotwire.



2. "Destination Oceans"

AutoEurope is the largest private supplier of rental cars in Europe. They asked for and received a private label version of our website offer cruises to their customers. It launched in mid-October. They own the brand and URL DestinationOceans.com. Check out the Whois? We just fulfill the cabins for them in our call center and on the website. In this case, my company supplies cruises to Auto Europe customers. They are effectively an affiliate and strategic partner of our's, using our content. Additionally, as far as I know, neither I or AutoEurope has ever submitted DestinationOceans to ODP to be considered for listing. We are the payor of commissions, the supplier of the cruise product to AutoEurope. We are not an affiliate of them.

Orbitz, Hotwire, Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity, etc all have affiliate programs with LinkShare and Commission Junction. As far as I know, being the Payor or having an affiliate program is not a reason for exclusion.



3. Similar Relationships already listed on ODP

The ODP has already set a precedent of allow such websites with similar strategic partnerships. Yahoo, Orbitz, Hotwire, Priceline, CruisesOnly.com and many airlines are all using the same content from National Leisure Group, NLG.

Here are the examples:

Priceline
http://www.pricelinecruiseoutlet.com/c/cruisemain.asp

Orbitz
http://cruises.orbitz.com/c/cruisemain.asp

Hotwire
http://www.cruises.hotwire.com/c/cruisemain.asp

CruisesOnly.com
http://www.cruisesonly.com/c/cruisemain.asp

VacationOutlet.com
http://www.vacationoutlet.com/c/cruisemain.asp

Yahoo
http://www.yahoovacationstore.com/c/cruisemain.asp

The relationship between CruiseCheap.com and DestinationOceans.com is no different than the ones between CruisesOnly / NLG and the well known travel portals above.


4. Unique Content

Finally, every Internet Marketer knows the ODP is the Best of the Best of the Best of the Web. All of us who beg to be listed on ODP know your jobs as editors is to review websites and to see if they provide a unique value proposition to consumers searching for a particular topic. I've worked very hard for the past year with the ODP in mind to build my own, unique value proposition.

I will admit, is it very frustrating to hear your content is not unique and you can find it elsewhere on the ODP. Well, this isn't the case. You can't find the same info on other cruise websites on the ODP.

Examples:

a. If you were in a wheelchair, where else would you find this level of info?
http://www.cruisecheap.com/cruise_lines.asp?pageID=190

b. Planning a Honeymoon?
http://www.cruisecheap.com/honeymoon_cruises.asp

c. Travelling with Kids?
http://www.cruisecheap.com/cruise_lines.asp?pageID=187

d. Want assistance in Spanish?
http://www.cruisecheap.com/how_to_book.asp?pageid=397

e. Driving Directions to Port Canaveral?
http://www.cruisecheap.com/port_directions.asp?pageid=220&portid=1

f. What to do on Royal Caribbean's private island of CocoCay?
http://www.cruisecheap.com/royal_caribbean.asp?pageID=137

g. Discounts for the Military?
http://www.cruisecheap.com/carnival_cruise_lines.asp?pageID=288

h. Discounts for Senior Citizens? - Jim - you included
http://www.cruisecheap.com/senior_discounts.asp


5. Closing Statement

If you, as an editor, were looking for information about cruises, the question becomes, would CruiseCheap.com be a company you would use as a resource? Would you recommend it to your friends? or family?


Please don't use DestinationOceans as a reason not to list us, because our relationship with AutoEurope is no different than the one that Orbitz / Priceline / Hotwire has with CruisesOnly and NLG.


Please allow me to resubmit and give due consideration for listing either under:

http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Travel/Specialty_Travel/Cruises/Consolidators/

or

http://www.dmoz.org/Recreation/Trav...l_Agents/North_America/United_States/Florida/


I realize I may have only dug my grave even deeper and further reduced my chances of inclusion for grovelling, but if I'm going to go down, I might as well go down in flames and out with a bang.

Thanks for your attention. And again, any advice on resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Uf Tukel
http://www.cruisecheap.com/why_cruisecheap.com.asp?PageID=295

Grovelling doesn't matter. All that matters is unique content. "Private branding" is the exact opposite of unique content. We're more likely to remove the other website (because we can't tell which mask the real wizard is behind) than to list both.

Thanks, hutcheson and everyone else who replied today . . .

CruiseCheap.com is the original website site and the content and booking engine for my travel agency. I get 99% of my customers from CruiseCheap. The other 1% comes from the private label "mask" of the site for DestinationOceans.com as promoted to AutoEurope customers.

If one site were to be removed from a category, I would hope it would be the private-labeled version and not my main, retail, store-front website.

At this time, neither CruiseCheap.com or DestinationOceans appears on the ODP. And per ODP standards, I don't think both should be concurrently listed.

However, I would like to resubmit only CruiseCheap.com for re-review, but unsure as to when it would be acceptable to do so. I'm very conscience of spamming ODP editors, and,as you can see, trying very hard to follow protocol. I'm also unsure as how to communicate all that was discussed here today or if that some how gets attached to my permanent record.

Again, any advice on properly re-submitting a previously removed site and communicating compliance would be greatly appreciated.

Uf

autoeurope is already listed though. Their cruises page directs to destinationoceans which has your Fla. Seller of Travel Reg. No. on the bottom. Forget whois, you can register your Uncle Fester's cross-breed labrador and its kennel as the owner and contact address and get away with it. I'm guessing the Florida authorities are a little more picky. When you start getting involved in travel-related affiliate business from one angle or the other it's a murky pond, and you can't be surprised if questions are asked.

Similar Relationships already listed on ODP

Click to expand...

The past does not = the future. Precedent is not a term we recognise when it comes to listing sites, standards rise by the day, sites that no longer meet the standard are weeded when an editor spots them. 70% of listed Chicago travel agents were delisted several weeks ago as a result of re-review. And originality ceases to exist once we have captured all the various variations on a theme such that the next one that comes along we're just not interested in, regardless of legitimacy of the business.

OK, pick your category - your site focuses on retail cruise booking and not on being a consolidator. So I would pick the Regional locality category. When you resubmit do so once only and check here in this thread a month later to make sure it has arrived safely. Thereafter it is down to an editor to review the site and make a decision at some point. The outcome of that review can't be anticipated here in this forum

When you resubmit make sure you put in the description the following words before entering your description:
[site under new ownership. See http://resource-zone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26511 ].

Make sure your title and description are 100% guideline compliant (see dmoz.org for these guidelines.)

Note: resubmitting is not a guarantee the site will be reviewed in the near future, nor a guarantee it will be accepted - judgement of original content will be up to the editor who does eventually review it. Travel agency site have a tough time proving originality.

oneeye -

You just made my day. Thanks to everyone for your input. I sincerely appreciate it. I really do.

Uf

You're welcome. Fortunately the previous owners of your URL made it clear on their site that they had sold the US business, which corroborates what you've been saying. So it's a second chance, without being prejudiced by the previous owners' record, though as I say this is no guarantee of acceptance.

You really don't get it. How to SUBMIT the site is not the issue. The issue is what's ON the site. COMMUNICATING isn't necessary. All the communication that matters is FROM the site. COMPLIANCE (whatever that means to you) doesn't matter. All that matters is whether the editor can find and recognize the unique content on the site ... in fifty-nine seconds or so.

See, travel-rezzing affiliate doorways are (these days) a dime a million, and any review is going to offer short shrift. We're going to be looking for a reason to list the site. Advertisements for companies already listed elsewhere won't count. YetAnotherBookingEngineFacemask won't count.

Unique content. Prominent enough to find in the first thirty seconds. Because that's about your fair share of editors' time allocated to all the travel-gateway sites on earth.

believe me, I get it. I just wish we had had this level of dialogue when I posted my first message in October. Back then, I left ticked off and cussing every editor on ODP. Not this time. I learned a lot today.

by the time I re-submit, I'll make sure my unique content is front and center and easy to find.

thanks again.