Getting your site registered by
Open Directory is vitally important as far as search engine positioning is concerned. In order to see how you can do that, see my article on this topic. However, sometimes, it may so happen that try as you might, you just do not manage to get your site listed in
Open Directory. Or, it may also happen that
description under which your site is listed is not optimum.In this case,
only solution is to become
editor of
category to which you want to submit your site. Here's how you should go about doing it.
First, go to any category of
Open Directory and click on
"become an editor" link at
top of
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
third paragraph, which says that
Open Directory does not bar editors who have business affiliations with
category. In practice, however, it will reject just about any new editor who has a business affiliation with
category. If you scroll down
page, you will find that
Open Directory asks you whether you have any business affiliation with
category. If you admit to having an affiliation with
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
category. However,
Open Directory also asks you about your experience or interest in
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
easiest way to do this is to become an editor of a regional category which deals with
city in which you live. Once you can become an editor of one category, it is usually much easier to become
editor of
category to which your site belongs. This is because when an existing editor applies for a new category,
Open Directory does not ask for his/her experience or interest in
category.
Here are
steps you should follow in order to become an editor of
category applicable for your web site:
1) Start off by going to
Open Directory. Click on
Regional category, then click on
continent in which you live, and then on
country. In this way, drill down to
category for
city or locality in which you live. Now, scroll down to
bottom of
page and see whether that category already has an editor. If it does not, this is
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
Open Directory does not generally accept a new editor in a category which already contains an editor. In this case, select a category below
current category which does not have an editor.
2) Once you have selected
correct regional category, click on
"become an editor" link at
top of
screen and fill in your first name, last name, email address, username and password. For
"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
name of your city or locality. In
"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
category had you been an editor of
category. The best way to do this is to let Yahoo! do
work for you. Open a new browser window, go to Yahoo! and search for
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
category to which you are applying. Now, open another browser window, go to
Open Directory's home page and type in
domain name of
site in Open Directory's search box and note whether that site is already listed in
Open Directory, either in
category to which you are applying or elsewhere. If it is not listed, then this can be one of
sites which you should submit. If it is already listed in
Open Directory, then ignore this site and select a new site and check whether that site is already listed in
Open Directory.
In this way, select three sites which are applicable for
category to which you are applying and which are not already present in
Open Directory. Type in
URL for
first site in
appropriate text box. Now, you need to select a proper title for
site. The title that you choose should always be
official name of
site. If
official name of
site is not apparent from
home page itself, browse around
site and look at
"About Us" or "Contact Us" pages (if
site has those pages). Also, check out
bottom of each page to see if
site has any Copyright notice. Once you know
official name of
site, type it in
correct text box. Now, choose a proper description of
site. Here are
rules for writing a proper description for
Open Directory:
i) Make sure that
description can tell a visitor what
site is all about. Things like "Have a look at
site" does not tell a visitor what
site does.
ii) Avoid using ALL CAPS or exclamation marks. Phrases like "The best web site dealing with widgets!!" or "Offers
BEST QUALITY, CHEAPEST WIDGETS you can find anywhere" are inappropriate.
iii) Don't capitalize every word in your description - capitalize only
first word. Of course, if some of
words in
description are proper nouns, then you should capitalize them.
iv) Write
description in
third person.
v) Don't make your description too long - limit yourself to 15 words at
most.
vi) Check your description for typos and grammatical mistakes.
vii) End your description with a period.
Once you have typed in
URL, Title and Description of
first site, do
same for all
three sites and click on
Submit button.