Where's the room for competition?

Hi,
I just received word from my enquiry regarding category change of my Website that it has been rejected due to lack of unique material. I was also given a link to see reasons a site might be rejected, none of which applied to my website. And my website is unique. I give out free identity kits to kids as well as email free personalized romance excerpts to those who want them.

But suppose I don't offer anything different. Suppose, I sell the same personalized books like dozons others listed in your Directory. Shouldn't I still get listed because perhaps my price or service is better? If only unique sites are listed, where is room for competition?

Also, I have revamped my Website recently and have added illustrated pages explaining what personalzied books are. You would be surprised how many people don't have a clue about personalized books. Can I resubmit my request for category change or are there certain rules against it?

Thanks, I would really appreciate some input on this.

Sofia

Website:
http://www.fun-personalized-books.com/

Category Listed in:

Regional: North America: United States: Colorado: Localities: F: Fort Collins: Business and Economy: Shopping

Category requested since I sell all over the world, but apparently denied:
Shopping: Gifts: Personalized: Books

To begin with, I don't edit in any of the categories in question, nor am I in the business, but....

My guess is that you're a reseller for a book personalization service. You don't license directly from DC/Marvel/Paramount or whoever has the rights to Spiderman, do you?

That service, if available on the web, is what we would prefer to list -- even if they don't sell directly to the public.

>But suppose I don't offer anything different. Suppose, I sell the same personalized books like dozons others listed in your Directory. Shouldn't I still get listed because perhaps my price or service is better?
If you can point to some significant thing unique about your service, then that would fall under the definition of "unique content." As for price, we used to consider that significant--if a site offered different prices, it was considered unique. But some of the big drop-ship doorway spammers started getting their affiliate doorways to put slightly different prices (more or less) on their doorway pages, to better conceal the fact that they were all promoting exactly the same goods and services, for no other reason than to better spam us.

Let's just say that didn't go long unspotted, nor did it go over well with the editors. So ... different price is now not considered "more information", it's considered "disinformation." If vstore, etc., ever wants to offer the item at the cheaper price, they can do it like an honest company, under their own name and reputation. (I can understand why that approach is unpalatable to them.)

>If only unique sites are listed, where is room for competition?
If there's nothing unique about a site, it's not competition, it's just imitation.

>Also, I have revamped my Website recently and have added illustrated pages explaining what personalzied books are. You would be surprised how many people don't have a clue about personalized books. Can I resubmit my request for category change or are there certain rules against it?
If the main purpose of the site is to market goods provided by someone else, then our rules say we don't list it.

The world is large, the net is large, and there are many advertising venues in it. We just aren't one of them. We're an information venue. The difference is sometimes subtle -- Walmart publishes information on store locations for promotional purposes. But there is a difference, and it is no part of our mission, not at all, to "promote competition" or even to "promote commerce." (Those are merely unpreventable side effects.) We index information.

hutcheson said:

>But some of the big drop-ship doorway spammers started getting their affiliate doorways to put slightly different prices (more or less) on their doorway pages, to better conceal the fact that they were all promoting exactly the same goods and services, for no other reason than to better spam us.

Let's just say that didn't go long unspotted, nor did it go over well with the editors. So ... different price is now not considered "more information", it's considered "disinformation." If vstore, etc., ever wants to offer the item at the cheaper price, they can do it like an honest company, under their own name and reputation. (I can understand why that approach is unpalatable to them.).

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First of all, let me say that I don't do drop ship nor do I sell products from affiliates. I print and bind each book myself. Each book is made for one special person so in that way, each product is uniques. It is a legitimate bussines with products that I create and service I provide. I have kids in gifted and talented program and it started with their love for reading so I also print articles about the importance of reading early and how to teach your child to read.

hutcheson said:

>The world is large, the net is large, and there are many advertising venues in it. We just aren't one of them. We're an information venue. The difference is sometimes subtle -- Walmart publishes information on store locations for promotional purposes. .

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I didn't want to get listed for advertising. My business has survived and doing quite well without being listed in your directory. To tell you the truth, I wanted in mostly for the prestige of belonging to the directory. Why am I wasting time complaining? The principle my website being rejected without justification sounded unfair to me and I have a bad habit of responding my voice against unfair. The editors are in a position of power and accepting some sites while rejecting similar ( and sometimes even inferior) ones without justification and then backing it up with allegations of spam and drop ship sound like abuse of that power to me.

hutcheson said:

>But there is a difference, and it is no part of our mission, not at all, to "promote competition" or even to "promote commerce." (Those are merely unpreventable side effects.) We index information.

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Funny, I thought I saw a "Shopping" category in the directory. What type of "information" do you index in there if not actual commercial stores?

arubin said:

To begin with, I don't edit in any of the categories in question, nor am I in the business, but....

My guess is that you're a reseller for a book personalization service. You don't license directly from DC/Marvel/Paramount or whoever has the rights to Spiderman, do you?

That service, if available on the web, is what we would prefer to list -- even if they don't sell directly to the public.

Click to expand...

Licensing is a whole different ball game. I am talking about actual products here, some licensed some not. Sites very similar to mine are listed. I have visited them. They sell similar, if not identical products. I just don't understand the basis for rejection for my Website. Someone will probably reply to this message saying editors don't have to justify rejecting a website. That again sounds like abuse of power. So be it. I give up.

Help me understand.

You are listed in the directory.

You are complaining because you do not have two listings?


In my opinion, you are clearly misrepresenting facts when you say that "My business has survived and doing quite well without being listed in your directory" because you are in the directory.

To tell you the truth, I wanted in mostly for the prestige of belonging to the directory. Why am I wasting time complaining?

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Great question. You are in the directory. It is a very private club with only about 4.5 million members, so what is your beef? That we won''t give you a second listing? That you cannot have a second piece of chocolate cake?

spectregunner said:

Help me understand.

You are listed in the directory.

You are complaining because you do not have two listings?

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No I am not going for a second listing or my "second piece of chocolate cake" as you put it even though both a second listing and piece of chocolate cake sounds decadently delicious.

I just recently got listed in the inner-closet category of Fort Collins, Colorado, Business. How many people can find me there do you think especially if they are not from Fort Collins, Colorado? When I asked to be moved to a more general category of just personalized books, I was told it was rejected because the Website was not Unique enough.

That's my beef. I sell my books all over the world. What the website offers is not limited to Fort Collins, Colorado.

That's my beef.

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So your beef is that:

You are placed in Ft. Collins, where your company is located, and since Regional listings are based on where a company is located, not based upon where they market, hope to market or dream of marketing -- you are unhappy.

And you are unhappy because you view being in Regional as some sort of second-class "inner-closet category".

Do you even understand how a directory works? Do you understand that more than 2,000 downstream search engines and other directories will take the websites listed in that "inner-closet category" you so despise, and make you searchable. And that you will probably get a Google listing out of it, which means that when someone searches for personalized books, your website will appear?

The bounds of civility won't allow me to say any more.

spectregunner said:

The bounds of civility won't allow me to say any more.

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Whoa! Cool it spectregunner. I don't have a beef with you. Hey, in fact I owe you a lot. Don't you remember giving me advice on getting my site listed? You suggested I try to list it under the current category and said I might get even a second listing out of it. I don't want a second listing, but don't remember mentioning it? Follow my old thread below. Your response is in #8. And I don't "despise" the category (did I even use that word?) It's just that I tried to find the place I am listed in by simple clicking, I I tended to get lost most of the time.

My old submission thread