Thread: Anyone Tried to Get Listed in DMOZ

Has anyone had any luck getting listed in DMOZ since they started allowing submissions again?

Not as of yet, reminds me one more thing to add to my work list!

There was one site waiting to be approved when I was able to get back in. It got approved.

I noticed that despite the fact you've been going for a fair lenght of time David, phpld isn't listed in there directly? Is it a case of selective editing I wonder?

Annie over at DP basically told me they will get approved now. I submitted two of mine, been keeping an eye on it.

Originally Posted by Zap

There was one site waiting to be approved when I was able to get back in. It got approved.

Awesome. I am going to submit a couple right now.

I gave up long ago, although I do know a lot of editors!

I think most of them know me for wanting to get them all fired though!

This goes way back to the start of all the DMOZ wars on DP before the forum became popular with DMOZ editors, strangely most of them are my friends, they understand it is not personal against them, at least most of them do.

I tried a while back before it went down. I put a simple blurb for a description, they said it was "commercial". wtf? I'm pretty sure one of the moderators on a competing site is the editor for my category.

Bah! I've gotten this far without a coveted DMOZ link, I can keep on going without it.

I don't bother. DMOZ is about useless IMO

I don't like DMOZ either, but I still want to submit for the SEO value.

Originally Posted by Ohiosweetheart

I don't bother. DMOZ is about useless IMO

Who does like them is the question but the fact of the matter and dduval is correct, you need to be in there for the value. Google and the other biggies value them and that's what counts.

One day there'll be a rival, one will always come out of the woodwork, because they are that little bit bigger to target it will just take that little longer.

If you want to get in and take your time to follow the DMOZ Title and Description Submission Guidelines when you submit, you have a better chance of acceptance. Although there are still no guarantees as there are too many variables to consider.

Your site should be current, be on topic, look clean and be easy to navigate and find information. Don't even think about having an "under construction" or "coming soon" page in the mix. Don't have links with default titles that go to no where left over from the creating and tweaking of your template.

Don't try to get in top level cats with a lot of links. Find sub-cats that fit your topic more specifically rather then generally as a top level topics can tend to be. The lower level topics are usually less crowded and sometimes edited by people with more time that want to expand their categories.

Believe me, the insiders at DMOZ are encouraging editors to add sites. Your's has a chance too. Remember to describe in the third party.

I hope some of those tips help and you are encouraged to submit quality sites with quality titles and descriptions.

Thanks for the tips, noppid.
I hope the editors will become active again and add my sites.

The editors are very happy to have editing abilities back it apprears to me. I'm sure that many are spending time sorting out older submissions in anticipation of a huge surge in submissions that have stacked up during the outage that people want to get attention to.

Originally Posted by Ohiosweetheart

I don't bother. DMOZ is about useless IMO

Yup! Useless, arogent and they completely do not understand that the only reason they are around is becuase of webmasters and Google. I visit their forums now and again and you can see how highly they think of themselves in their posts and responses to questions...Especially that Hutcheson person, what an ass...

***Foot note: I am listed so it is not a rant because I cannot get a listing

I have a few listings too.
The list of problems with DMOZ goes on and on.
I really wish they would charge for listings in commercial areas, and then use some of that money to pay editors to service the directory, rather than having editors (not all) whose main motivation is to list as many of their own sites as possible.

Theres an idea! Charge for the listings, pay the editors. Don't know if they would ever do it but it would 1. make editors not just put their own sites through (not that any editors on here would do that :-) ) and 2. Get the process done more efficiently with less spammers clogging it for the rest of us with their submissions!

Maybe I'm naive sometimes, but the reason I applied to become an editor was NOT so that I could add my own sites.
The reason I applied was to try to gain some experience and add something positive to DMOZ.
I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I put forth a few applications before being accepted as an editor and then I finally put forth a serious application.
I followed the application rules as best I could and got accepted.
I see plenty of people on different forums complaining about DMOZ and how bad, corrupt, dishonest, slow (insert your favourite insult here) they are.
But none of that does anything to solve the problems.
I think if people really want to fix it, then they should be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. I'm not trying to single out anyone here. As I said, I see complaints like this all over the net. But, the best way to fix a problem is to get involved. Make a serious application to edit a category. Make more than one, if you have to. Then, edit that category to the best of your ability.
That is the only way that DMOZ is going to get better. Just my 2 cents. Take it for what it's worth.

The DMOZ application is like a resume and cover letter in one. You have to sell yourself. You are applying for a job, a serious one at that.

You will need to have good grammer and be experienced in the subject matter of the catagory you apply to.

As for editing, it is very difficult to write unique descriptions for a set of websites that are similar in topic. Editing is hard work. It takes a lot of thought, research and obviously time. It's not just clicking an approve button.

Consider site submissions like a cold sales call. You got one or two sentences to hawk your site, not sound spammy, and get someones attention.

Adding one site yesterday with the research, editor diaolog and actual edits took about an hour. It's hard work.

But as I said, the goal is to add sites.

What do you think of the idea of paying editors Zap? Do you think that would have any impact on the process positively or negatively? I know it really is changing the premise of what DMOZ was originally about to a certain degree, but wouldn't his help not only the editors from that fact that they wouldn't be so overwhelmed with the backlogs of spammy sites, but also allow an incentive to keep up on your categories. Don't take this personally, I in no way mean to imply that you aren't doing the best for your category, I just mean on a whole.

(On a side note, I have applied to be an editor multiple times without avail)

Money introduces a lot of things that we can foresee and some we could not, I'm sure. It also implies some sort of guarantee. So if you think the spam guys, who have money, will be curbed as a result of fees, I think you are mistaken.

I think anyone that submits to directories, especially highly credible ones like yahoo, etc and DMOZ are aware there are no guarantees. I see the worry of listings being bought but thats already a rumor out there anyway. People love a good conspiracy theory LOL

Originally Posted by kdemonte

What do you think of the idea of paying editors Zap? Do you think that would have any impact on the process positively or negatively? I know it really is changing the premise of what DMOZ was originally about to a certain degree, but wouldn't his help not only the editors from that fact that they wouldn't be so overwhelmed with the backlogs of spammy sites, but also allow an incentive to keep up on your categories. Don't take this personally, I in no way mean to imply that you aren't doing the best for your category, I just mean on a whole.

I think, in the long run, that has huge potential for abuse. I can envision a time where the accepted practice is to start only listing paid sites, then followed by only listing sites that pay $XX or $XXX. The people who can afford placement will get placement and those who can not, won't get listed. There would be a lot of great websites that wouldn't get in, just because they didn't pay. My DMOZ includes great sites, whether they WOULD pay or not. To me, that's what makes a great resource... great websites in the listings.

Originally Posted by kdemonte

(On a side note, I have applied to be an editor multiple times without avail)

I would say that if you're serious about it, keep trying. I applied a few times over the past 3-4 years and never got in. Then, one day, I decided to treat it more seriously, answering the questions in the application AFTER doing the research on the website examples I would include. I can honestly say that I treated it seriously and that's why I think I got accepted. It wasn't a case of me knowing someone "on the inside" or anything like that. This is just my story. I'm not in any way, implying that you didn't make a serious effort or anything like that. It's just my own experience. Only after I decided to get serious, was I taken seriously.