I've submited to open directory a couple of times over the past year with no success. I review my site statistics and I have received hits from DMOZ, so I assume an editor has at least reviewed my site. But, no listing that I know of. My address is: http://www.900foot.com Please, let me know if I'm doing something wrong.
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Before your creature creator Flash made my computer crash (and crash hard), it looked to me as though the site was a little thin on content for a listing in Illustrator portfolios.
Mind you, maybe that was just because the navigation doesn't really give a good idea of what you have on your site -- unless someone rolls over and clicks on the pictures, they're not going to know that you include samples of your work; and when I saw the Links "button", I certainly didn't expect it to include links to more examples of your work. The "Buy Stuff" button also doesn't immediately jump out as being a way to buy some of your work (especially since it redirects to something that seems unrelated to you) -- it looked at first more like a nonrelated affiliate-type link that many people include on their homepage.
It kind of all gives the impression that this is just a personal homepage. I realize that isn't the case (in fact, I quite like your artwork) but that's how it comes across. Do you do any other kind of art besides the cartoony drawings I see on your site? If not, http://dmoz.org/Arts/Illustration/Cartoons/Portfolios/ would have been a better place to submit, rather than the more general Illustrator Portfolios category.
Mind you, maybe that was just because the navigation doesn't really give a good idea of what you have on your site -- unless someone rolls over and clicks on the pictures, they're not going to know that you include samples of your work; and when I saw the Links "button", I certainly didn't expect it to include links to more examples of your work. The "Buy Stuff" button also doesn't immediately jump out as being a way to buy some of your work (especially since it redirects to something that seems unrelated to you) -- it looked at first more like a nonrelated affiliate-type link that many people include on their homepage.
It kind of all gives the impression that this is just a personal homepage. I realize that isn't the case (in fact, I quite like your artwork) but that's how it comes across. Do you do any other kind of art besides the cartoony drawings I see on your site? If not, http://dmoz.org/Arts/Illustration/Cartoons/Portfolios/ would have been a better place to submit, rather than the more general Illustrator Portfolios category.
As motsa says, it's not that dmoz hates you, but rather that your site doesn't give the impression of having much content.
The first thing I see is a "Buy Things" link, and I immediately think 'oh no, another poor quality site cobbled togther to get people to buy things'.
Next there's a "Wall Paper" link which contains four images. OK, so that's content, but not very much. Under that is a link to "galleries" which appears to go back to the front page. I realise now that it doesn't actually do that, but I thought it did the first time I went through, making it looking like a broken/misleading link.
Then there's "Games" which pops up a small window with a black screen saying "loading". There are no flashing progress dots and, since it opened a new window with no nav bar, no throbber to tell me if it's doing anything. I got bored after 30 seconds and closed it.
All that's left now is "Links", which I would assume leads offsite, and a "Mail Me" link.
From a reviewer's point of view that gives me 4 images in return for you trying to sell me things, a broken link, a 'game' which doesn't do anything, and nothing else.
I realise that your site isn't really like that, but that's what's found from a quick glance. All the other images on your site fail to show up as links to me because your mouseover code doesn't work in my browser (Mozilla 1.1) so I wouldn't have clicked on them if I hadn't read motsa's post above.
I think if you want to get your site accepted in the category you chose, you'll need to make the content more obvious. I'd put all your work onto a page clearly labeled "image gallery". Even adding the text "click on the pictures for samples of my work" would help. I'd also move the "Buy Things" link to somewhere less prominent. Seeing that as the first item on any site leads editors to think that the purpose of the site is to sell things, and I dare say that ordinary surfers might feel the same way too.
To sum up, dmoz doesn't hate you, but if its editors can't easily find good content, they soon give up and move on to a more promising site.
The first thing I see is a "Buy Things" link, and I immediately think 'oh no, another poor quality site cobbled togther to get people to buy things'.
Next there's a "Wall Paper" link which contains four images. OK, so that's content, but not very much. Under that is a link to "galleries" which appears to go back to the front page. I realise now that it doesn't actually do that, but I thought it did the first time I went through, making it looking like a broken/misleading link.
Then there's "Games" which pops up a small window with a black screen saying "loading". There are no flashing progress dots and, since it opened a new window with no nav bar, no throbber to tell me if it's doing anything. I got bored after 30 seconds and closed it.
All that's left now is "Links", which I would assume leads offsite, and a "Mail Me" link.
From a reviewer's point of view that gives me 4 images in return for you trying to sell me things, a broken link, a 'game' which doesn't do anything, and nothing else.
I realise that your site isn't really like that, but that's what's found from a quick glance. All the other images on your site fail to show up as links to me because your mouseover code doesn't work in my browser (Mozilla 1.1) so I wouldn't have clicked on them if I hadn't read motsa's post above.
I think if you want to get your site accepted in the category you chose, you'll need to make the content more obvious. I'd put all your work onto a page clearly labeled "image gallery". Even adding the text "click on the pictures for samples of my work" would help. I'd also move the "Buy Things" link to somewhere less prominent. Seeing that as the first item on any site leads editors to think that the purpose of the site is to sell things, and I dare say that ordinary surfers might feel the same way too.
To sum up, dmoz doesn't hate you, but if its editors can't easily find good content, they soon give up and move on to a more promising site.
Thank you for your help. I will try to make my site more user friendly.
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