Would this be an acceptable submission?

Hi

I want to submit my new site, http://www.CollegesandUniversities.org, but wanted to get your feedback to ensure I am doing the right things and will make it easy for editors to review. I think your feedback now would avoid future posts assuming my submission had an error.

I will post my site to:
Reference > Education > Colleges and Universities > Directories

Title: Colleges and Universities

Description: Directory of accredited schools which offer degrees, certifications, training, and online degree programs.

Is this correct?

Thanks in advance.

Dylan

In it's current form, I believe your site is completely unlistable in the ODP.

I pulled up several pages and saw that the "links" to the colleges were actually thinly-disguised affiliate links to who-knows-what (I'm not even going to click on them).

If you want that site to be listable, then you need to remove all of those and actually have links to the resources which aren't affiliate links.

Whether, even after that, the site would qualify as unique and valuable content to a surfer, I am not sure, as I am not an expert in the field.

Really? I'm not trying to disguise any affliate links but the info I am presenting is relevant to the user and I personally review each school description copy to ensure the info is correct and useful. But of course I have to make money from the site so I would have affliate links.

Two questions:
1. How do sites such as http://www.mba-bs-ms-online-degrees.com/ get listed if what you say is correct?

2. Should I disguise the affliate links better?

Thanks

Dylan

1. I do not see that site listed. If you could point me to the category, I would appreciate it.

2. No.

Like I say, this is my opinion, and my opinion alone, but once you take off the affiliate links from the site, there isn't much content there that I couldn't find on other sites, like the Open Directory Project.... <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

And you may well be reviewing every description personally, but the ones I looked at have been copied many, MANY times on the Internet.

Sorry, in it's current form, I stand by the unlistable viewpoint.

Hi

1. That site has a Page Rank of 6 so I assume it has been listed? Maybe being listed and Page Rank are apples and oranges but I would have suspected one is related to the other.

"Once you take off the affiliate links from the site, there isn't much content there that I couldn't find on other sites, like the Open Directory Project...."

&gt; Good point but what else can I say about a school than what I can research about the school? I think that the point it is a 'directory' makes it useful to the user. If a user is looking for an Animation School, comes to my site and sees a school they like then it is a helpful site to that user.

Thanks for the feedback.

Regards,

Dylan

The concept of Page Rank is completely unknown to the Open Directory - it is the realm of search engines. There is a big difference.

If a user is looking for an Animation School, comes to my site and sees a school they like then it is a helpful site to that user.
Yes, but the point is the same user could go to any one of a number of sites, all offering EXACTLY the same text for a particular school and all containing affiliate links to the same company's click-through site.

I would strongly suggest that before you continue this discussion on here you take a read of http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html noting especially the "Sites to Include" part. That should answer a lot of your other questions.

Thanks.

&gt;That site has a Page Rank of 6 so I assume it has been listed?
Olympic Gold Medal for unassisted broad jump to the most logically remote conclusion...

&gt;Maybe being listed and Page Rank are apples and oranges but I would have suspected one is related to the other.

There are lots of public forums that discuss this kind of thing. Here, we just do the Open Directory, which normally "lists sites, not pages", and does not rank _anything_ except cool sites (which so far as I know doesn't affect any search engine's ordering.)

That link shut me up <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the feedback

Dylan