Status of http://www.italycharms.biz

Hi. I can't remember which category I submitted to (and it might have been several due to a 'less than respectable' SEO company that I was unfortunately referred to, but I would greatly appreciate an update on http://www.italycharms.biz if you can.

Thank you very much!

Regards,

Joshua Friedman

Difficult to find if you don't know where it was submitted.

However, most of www.italycharms.biz links to www.italycharms.com [which is waiting for review in http://dmoz.org/Business/Consumer_Goods_and_Services/Jewelry/Wholesale_and_Distribution ], and also links to www.heavenlytreasures.com, which is in http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/New_Jersey/Localities/A/Allenhurst/Business_and_Economy/

There are several other links to other jewellry websites, but this site does not have any real unique content of it's own.

In fact the title of the site is another reason why it's unlikely to get a listing in ODP.

You might also read http://dmoz.org/newsletter/2001Sep/spam.html

Hi Nicky. Thanks for the info and thanks for getting back to me so quickly. www.Italycharms.biz is meant to be the 'retail' portion of www.italycharms.com (which is meant to be the wholesale portion). That's why they are somewhat similar and have many links to each other.

I know that there's not too much content right now but I am constantly updating my two sites and hope to have more soon. If you follow the links at the bottom they do take you to content filled pages at www.italycharms.com. Should I host those pages at www.italycharms.biz instead? Would that help?

Do you think that with a bit more unique content and a better title (I take it that you don't like the notion of 'Free' in the title?) that there's be a chance of getting listed? Or do I need to better distinguish the .biz and the .com and not have so many links to each other?

I actually just changed www.italycharms.com today to show a split screen look with the retail and wholesale portions together. Do you think that's bad as far as ODP goes? Should I try and keep them more seperate?

It was probably submitted to the same categories as the .com but again it was done by an SEO company so I'm not 100% certain (boy oh boy do I regret having used them).

Sorry for all the questions and thank you again for your time and any further input.

Regards,

Joshua Friedman

italycharms.com is unlikely to be listed as the wholesale side of things is essentially just an email form. italycharms.biz is unlikely to be listed because it is strictly links to either some photos at italycharms.com or affiliate links to JJ Kent and Heavenly Treasures. In short, neither one offers unique content.

Thanks again for the quick response! As I mentioned I had just changed the www.italycharms.com site yesterday and I guess I made it worse (less contect) than it originally had. I have changed it back to the old site and was wondering if you think this has a better chance of getting listed? There is much more content regarding what the site is about, and what the charms are, and the various different types of charms available.

Regarding the www.italycharms.biz site I guess I'll have to work on that one to add some more content.

One final question: should I resubmit the sites once I make the changes or are they still in queue to be reviewed?

Thank you again!

Regards,

Josh Friedman

Hi again. I just noticed the link you posted for me earlier and I checked it out. I certainly didn't mean to spam the directory but I guess that's what it looks like. It's supposed to be that www.italycharms.biz is for retail customers and www.italycharms.com is for wholesale customers but I guess there is a lot of overlap and affiliate links (particularly on the .biz site). So I do understand if both sites can't be listed.

I've tried cleaning them up a bit so please let me know if I need to resubmit periodically when I update my sites or if they remain in queue to be checked.

Thank you again for your help!

Regards,

-- Josh Friedman

My previous comment about italycharms.com stands -- it won't be listed with its current content. Neither site is currently waiting to be reviewed.

Thanks again for the quick response.

One final comment and question if I may:

I work with importers of Italian Charms and sell them at wholesale to retail & online stores, gift shops, etc... That is the purpose of my website - to offer wholesale ordering information to retail stores. They send me their contact information and I send them wholesale ordering information. However, I get a lot of hits from 'regular' people looking to buy just a few charms which is why I set up the affiliate links, to give these people a place to buy their charms. So that's my comment and hopefully it clarifies what my site is all about.

Now for the question: is this sort of site simply not appropriate to be listed in the directory, or am I just not presenting it well?

Thank you again for any further clarification as to whether or not the 'concept' of my site (www.italycharms.com) is not suitable for listing or if it's just that i've done a lousy job creating the website and there's not enough unique content. I also realize that I guess I can't list both the .biz and the .com so we'll just try for the .com.

Thanks!

-- Josh Friedman

This is not a dmoz related comment, just a hopefully helpful hint.

Many wholesalers find it best to provide a link to one or a few independent retailers of their product instead of trying to be both wholesale and retail themselves. This keeps them out of the uncomfortable position of being competitors to their own customers.

Thanks for the comments!

Any further thoughts from the editors on whether my site in general is not 'right' for ODP or if it's my site personally (not well created) would be greatly appreciated.

I do offer some genuine content and information on Italian Charms, what they are, who wears them, etc... Mainly I am trying to get people to request information via an email form so i'm not sure if this sort of thing is totally wrong for ODP, or if it would be ok if I just keep adding more information and unique content.

Thanks again,

-- Josh

>Mainly I am trying to get people to request information via an email form

Yes, that is definitely a sort of thing that the Open Directory deprecates. A site that is mainly about collecting e-mail addresses for any reason, simply won't be listed, and will be rooted out if found.

This isn't a universal moral judgment: it is theoretically possible for a "lead generator" site to provide some honest, useful function for someone. But editors can't review such sites [what could we say? "collects personal information, makes unverified promises about what will be done with it" -- so we can't list them. We can only review the content that's actually on the site.

Thanks for the further input. I totally understand what you are saying about collecting email addresses, but I think that what I said earlier came out wrong. I'm not creating some sort of spam list or anything like that. I am a legitimate wholesaler of Italian Charms and the way I gain new customers is via my website. People send me, either via a form or regular email, their contact information including their store name, tax id, etc... So I am not just "collecting personal information and making unverified promises about what will be done with it..."

Stores and other retail operations contact me and I send them wholesale information and hopefully they become customers. I'm not just creating an email list which sounds like what you think I may be doing.

In addition, I do offer a pretty good amount of content regarding italian charms and the wholesale process. So if you were to ignore the email form and focus on the content how would my site look? Would it be advantageous for me to remove the email form and just have a spot for my email address which says, "Send us an email if you have any further questions regarding wholesale italian charms"? That way the site would be filled with useful content on italian charms and if someone wanted more info. they could then contact me. This way a more useful description could be something like, "Provides information on Italian Charms and how to obtain wholesale pricing."

Thanks again!

-- Josh

>Stores and other retail operations contact me and I send them wholesale information and hopefully they become customers. I'm not just creating an email list which sounds like what you think I may be doing.

I understand, and the business you're in makes this a credible claim. But my point is that it is not a claim that an editor can verify at the website.

However: information about a bona fide business, including its product line and contact information for customers, is listable. So if the editor can go to the site, see what line business you're in, have some way of checking that the business really exists (if necessary -- of course we don't always check), and see some information that customers might want (which would include contact information or procedure), then the site would be considered for Business. The category charter for Shopping is different; it sounds like Business is the place for your business, but (both by reason of the information not offered and the customers it's not offered to) Shopping is not.

Thanks yet again for the great information. I have further updated my site with a lot more content regarding the business that we operate, the products we offer, and how to contact us. I've added a bunch of links to information about the types of italian charms that we offer which should give customers a great opportunity to learn about what we do.

Please let me know if you think I'm getting closer to what you are looking for or if I'm still lost

Also, I do agree that it should go under a business, not shopping, category. Would this be appropriate:

http://dmoz.org/Business/Consumer_Goods_and_Services/Jewelry/Wholesale_and_Distribution

If so, should I resubmit?

Thanks again!

-- Josh

Hi again. Sorry to leaving so many posts but last week I was getting responses generally the same day, now it's been about 5 days since I've heard anything. I'm new to the board so I have no idea which is normal so I figured I'd write one more time just to make sure. If it is normal to take a few days that's perfectly fine, I just wasn't sure.

I've updated www.italycharms.com and was just waiting to hear if I need to resubmit it to the business category.

Thanks again!

-- Josh