dmoz

is dmoz really worth the effort? they probably have so much editors that proper communication is lacking. I am listed there and they dont even bring more then 1 - 2 uniques a day. Thats hardly anything impressive. now Yahoo! argh, thats a whole different story.

Ravi

I was mainly getting hits from AOL when listed in the appropriate category on dmoz, I have a small shopping site HOWEVER I have found out where they put me and a few others. They have listed us under our wholesaler under multi-level marketing which is not what we do but others may do some subwholesaling with their product and there are about 4000 various products so very few have any sort of duplication. So I am at a loss, I can't show up anywhere or under any keywords this way. It is completely unfair. I am currently waging a war.....

dmoz is worth it. other search engines use dmoz's db to return search results.

what if you were in my position, what would you do, I am feeling desperate. Either I am going to quit the site altogether, go with other products for home and garden and create a whole new site. Think about how many hundreds of hours you spend trying to promote and ending up in this position. But honestly, tell me. thanks

I suggest you e-mail one (or all) of the category editors. At least one will likely reply with an explanation. I've done it before, and they got back to me quite quickly.

Yahoo, however, was a different story...

Adam

I know that Fairhousing, I know AltaVista uses their directory and Netscape. There are other big ones too but even then the referrs a day don't amount to more then 5 - 10. Im sure the directory is more popular in certain directories but I am listed in a catergory that is considered one of the most popular online.

Ravi

my host/wholesaler has given me, they say they will change the server that dmoz picks up my site on - drop my site from the directory then, when I resubmit, open directory will not know it is the same server?? possible? they are putting me on a different server from the others is what I am thinking....

ODP is definately worth a listing as the data is used by lots of other search engines. Over time a good ODP listing will appear in AOL, HotBot, Lycos, Google and a hundred other smaller engines and web sites. An ODP listing also influences search engines like Google to list your site higher in their results.

However, it is important to differentiate between MLM and affiliate sites which only point users to the main supplier, and businesses which do their own fulfilment. If the site sells to earn a commission from the supplier then ODP treats them as an affiliate and the lists them under MLM.

Swapping and changing servers, etc won't help as editors soon recognise what to look for to identify these sites. If the site is not an affiliate type then an e-mail to the appropriate editor explaining should help.

I saw in my log that there were a lot of people came from AOL, but I'm not sure by which SE or whatever

We fulfill our own orders just like what - any department store would and so there is no commission, it is a business like any other....anyway odp has apparently dropped the listings that I complained about and to them also and I think it has been completely unfair as I told them, so what if Walmart bought all there supplies from one supplier, you know, would that make them an mlm? We have some things from other places. The whole thing is ridiculous, I am probably getting out of the wholesaler's site anyway by the end of the year because their layouts stink. thanks for the replies Julie

I second talking to the category editors. I have successfully done this several times.
JP

Yea its worth the effort, I suppose.

Its very frusterating to get into. (nowhere near as bad as yahoo though)

Alot of category editors just become volunteers, list their site, and then never look at it again. Then it might take a couple months or more for a higher level to step in.

The other frusterating thing is when they edit your title to the point where it dosent have a single decent keyword.

however I have decided that after the holidays, we are going to drop our wholesaler/host and their website layout and go with our own that we create, too much prejudice going on in this for me to tolerate. Once I get somewhere then the editors not only of open directory but buyers index also say, "Oh you are an smc person, we don't want you" I wish I could sue our wholesaler for taking not only us in - even though we were naive - but about 500 others in the same boat.

I think that's a good idea; droping your current host and their "pre-made layouts" and going for a real host and original design. I'm sure if it's good enough then DMOZ will accept you.