Submitting a shopping directory site

Hi

I'm currently putting the finishing touches to a shopping directory site. As part of my research for building the site, I have been avidly reading your submission guidelines, especially this page.

As my site will be a searchable directory of links to different shopping sites, many of these links will be affiliate links.

The category I will be submitting to will be http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Business_and_Economy/Shopping/Directories/, and I was just wondering considering DMOZ's rules regarding affiliate links, would a site such as mine still get into this category (in theory at least, I understand that you still will still have to view my site to consider it's merits)

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

As you are aware, the ODP is itself a searchable directory, and so in order to merit listing your site, it would have to provide something that the ODP doesn't. If it's just a collection of links to sites that we already have listed, it's not adding value to the directory.

An important consideration is going to be how many of your links are affiliate links. If it's 90%, you won't be listed, sorry. If it's 1%, we'll just ignore them so it won't have an effect. If it's somewhere in between those two, the editor involved will have to make a decision as to whether you site exists to give people information, or to drive people to your affiliate links. This sort of decision is difficult to make when you have the site in front of you, but it's impossible to give a general description of the process.

I have to say that few of the sort of site you are describing ever get listed. Most people creating them concentrate on getting more affiliate links in, and they fail to ensure that the rest of the site contains anything original.

Thanks for the reply dfy <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

I had a feeling that would be the case. The affiliate links will mainly be advertising banners (arranged kinda like Google's adwords) whilst the rest of the listings will in text form ranked by popularity and users's votes.

I want the site to be a useful resource, and hopefully I will be able to realise this goal.