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Becoming an Open Directory Project Editor
By Sumantra Roy
Getting your site registered by the
Open Directory(http://www.dmoz.org) is vitally important
as far as search engine positioning is concerned. In order to see how you can do that, see
my article at
at this location
However, sometimes, it may so happen that try as you might, you just do not manage to get
your site listed in the Open Directory. Or, it may also happen that the description under
which your site is listed is not optimum.
In this case, the only solution is to become
the editor of the category to which you want to submit your site. Here's how you should go
about doing it.
First, go to any category of the Open
Directory and click on the "become an editor" link at the top of the screen. If
that category does not contain such a link, simply go to a lower level category which does
contain such a link.
Now, read the third paragraph, which says that
the Open Directory does not bar editors who have business affiliations with the category.
In practice, however, it will reject just about any new editor who has a business
affiliation with the category. If you scroll down the page, you will find that the Open
Directory asks you whether you have any business affiliation with the category. If you
admit to having an affiliation with the category, you will most certainly be rejected.
Now, you may think that you can solve this
problem by not admitting that you have any business affiliation with the category.
However, the Open Directory also asks you about your experience or interest in the
category. For a category which deals with business related sites, it is very difficult to
project your expertise in it without admitting that you are affiliated with it.
Hence, your strategy should be to locate a
category in which you can legitimately show some experience and interest without having to
admit that you have any business affiliation. By far the easiest way to do this is to
become an editor of a regional category which deals with the city in which you live. Once
you can become an editor of one category, it is usually much easier to become the editor
of the category to which your site belongs. This is because when an existing editor
applies for a new category, the Open Directory does not ask for his/her experience or
interest in the category.
Here are the steps you should follow in order
to become an editor of the category applicable for your web site:
1) Start off by going to the Open Directory.
Click on the Regional category, then click on the continent in which you live, and then on
the country. In this way, drill down to the category for the city or locality in which you
live. Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page and see whether that category already has
an editor. If it does not, this is the category for which you should try and become an
editor. However, if this category already has an editor, don't apply to this category
because the Open Directory does not generally accept a new editor in a category which
already contains an editor. In this case, select a category below the current category
which does not have an editor.
2) Once you have selected the correct regional
category, click on the "become an editor" link at the top of the screen and fill
in your first name, last name, email address, username and password. For the
"Describe your experience and interest in this subject area:" text box, just say
something like "I am a resident of X.", where X is of course the name of your
city or locality. In the "What is your Business Affiliation with this category?"
text box, say something like "I have no business affiliation with this
category."
The Open Directory now asks you for 2 or 3
sites which you would have added to the category had you been an editor of the category.
The best way to do this is to let Yahoo! do the work
for you. Open a new browser window, go to Yahoo! and search for the name of your city.
Yahoo! will list several categories and sites for that city. Browse through these sites
and categories and select a site which is applicable for the category to which you are
applying. Now, open another browser window, go to the Open Directory's home page and type
in the domain name of the site in Open Directory's search box and note whether that site
is already listed in the Open Directory, either in the category to which you are applying
or elsewhere. If it is not listed, then this can be one of the sites which you should
submit. If it is already listed in the Open Directory, then ignore this site and select a
new site and check whether that site is already listed in the Open Directory.
In this way, select three sites which are
applicable for the category to which you are applying and which are not already present in
the Open Directory. Type in the URL for the first site in the appropriate text box. Now,
you need to select a proper title for the site. The title that you choose should always be
the official name of the site. If the official name of the site is not apparent from the
home page itself, browse around the site and look at the "About Us" or
"Contact Us" pages (if the site has those pages). Also, check out the bottom of
each page to see if the site has any Copyright notice. Once you know the official name of
the site, type it in the correct text box. Now, choose a proper description of the site.
Here are the rules for writing a proper description for the Open Directory:
i) Make sure that the description can tell a
visitor what the site is all about. Things like "Have a look at the site" does
not tell a visitor what the site does.
ii) Avoid using ALL CAPS or exclamation marks.
Phrases like "The best web site dealing with widgets!!" or "Offers the BEST
QUALITY, CHEAPEST WIDGETS you can find anywhere" are inappropriate.
iii) Don't capitalize every word in your
description - capitalize only the first word. Of course, if some of the words in the
description are proper nouns, then you should capitalize them.
iv) Write the description in the third person.
v) Don't make your description too long -
limit yourself to 15 words at the most.
vi) Check your description for typos and
grammatical mistakes.
vii) End your description with a period.
Once you have typed in the URL, Title and
Description of the first site, do the same for all the three sites and click on the Submit
button.
The Open Directory will soon send you an email
asking you to send a confirmation. Simply reply to that email to confirm your application.
3) If you have followed the above
instructions, within 2 or 3 weeks (if you are lucky, it will be sooner), you should get an
email saying that you have been accepted as an editor. Go to the Open Directory and log in
as an editor. Read the Directory Guidelines thoroughly and familiarize yourself with them.
Your objective from now on is to become an editor of the category which is applicable for
your site. When you apply to become an editor of this category, the Open Directory will
evaluate the quality of your editing in the category which you already edit, and will see
whether your editing meets all the guidelines. Hence, it is very important that you know
the guidelines thoroughly.
After this, check out whether there are any
unreviewed sites (i.e. sites which have been submitted to the category but which have not
yet been reviewed by an editor) in the category of which you are the editor. If so,
evaluate all the unreviewed sites, and add the sites which are applicable for the category
and delete the remaining sites which are not applicable. When you are adding sites, make
sure that these sites are really applicable for the category. Also make sure that the
Title and the Description that have been used are appropriate for the Open Directory. If
they are not, edit them so that they meet the Open Directory guidelines. Sometimes, you
may be at a loss to understand whether or not a particular site should be in the category.
If you are not feeling comfortable about adding a site, don't add it. There is no harm in
not adding a site which is applicable. However, if you add a site which is not applicable,
you will be at a disadvantage when you apply to become the editor of the category which is
applicable for your site.
Also, browse through all the sites which are
already present in the category. Edit the Title and Description of any site if it does not
meet the Open Directory guidelines. If you feel that a particular site that is listed in
the category does not belong to the category, post a message in the Editor Forum and ask
the other editors of the Open Directory as to whether the site belongs to the category. If
they say that the site does not belong to the category, delete the site.
4) Within 2 or 3 weeks from the time that you
are accepted as an editor, you should have cleaned up the category. By this, I mean that
your category should not have any unreviewed sites, and should not contain any site which
does not belong to the category. Also, the Title and the Description of all the sites
present in the category should follow the Open Directory guidelines.
Now, it is time to apply to the category which
is applicable for your site. Click on the "Bookmarks" link in the main Editor
page, scroll down and click on the "[Add @link]" link. In the "Category to
link to:" text box, type in the complete path to the category which is applicable for
your site. For instance, for the Computers: Consultants: Business Systems category, I
would type in "Computers/Consultants/Business Systems". In the "Link
name:" text box, type in a word or phrase which describes this category.
The Open Directory will now display a link to
the category in your Bookmarks section. It will also display the number of sites which are
present in the category and the number of new (unreviewed) sites. Note down the figure for
the number of unreviewed sites. If the category does not contain any unreviewed sites, the
Open Directory will only display the number of sites present in the category.
Now, go to the category which you want to
apply to and browse through all the sites. Generally, there will be some sites for which
the Title and/or the Description does not meet the Open Directory guidelines. Make a note
of these sites. Also note whether that category already has an editor.
Once you have gone through all the sites,
scroll down to the bottom of the category and click on the "edit" link. When you
are asked to explain why you want to apply to the category, mention the number of
unreviewed sites which are present in the category (assuming that the category does have
some unreviewed sites). Also, mention the fact that the Title and the Description for some
of the sites are inappropriate for the Open Directory. Give examples of a few such sites.
If that category does not already have an editor, mention that fact too.
Use the same methods discussed earlier to fill
up the remaining fields and click on the Submit button.
5) After applying to the new category, log in
as an editor every day or so, until you find that you are listed as an editor of that
category. Then, add your site to this category, or, if your site is already listed but
does not have an optimum description, change the description.
Wrapping things up:
Remember that other editors who edit higher
level categories will be looking at your category from time to time and may change your
site's description if it is not found to be appropriate. Hence, while you should try to
give your site an optimum description, you should not violate any of the Open Directory
guidelines.
Also, the Open Directory allows editors to
cool certain sites if they feel that these sites are the best in that category. If a site
is cooled, it is listed at the top of the category, even though its alphabetical placement
may have been a lot lower. Avoid the temptation to cool your own site. Because so many
editors try to cool their own sites, the Open Directory keeps a sharp look-out for this
practice. Cooling your own site will simply draw attention towards you.
Article by Sumantra Roy.
Sumantra is one of the most respected search engine positioning
specialists on the Internet. To have Sumantra's company place your site at the top of the
search engines, go to
1stSearchEngineRanking.
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