Psssst — GIVING away DMOZ Editor Accounts!
Posted Wednesday, October 26th, 2005. Filed under Google, Internet Marketing Tips, SEO Research.
Last week there was a big stir when someone put a DMOZ editor username and password up for sale on eBay, which was quickly pulled. I think DMOZ is highly overrated today — I doubt a link from DMOZ.org is treated any differently than any other link of equal value anymore.
That said, becoming a DMOZ editor is actually free if you apply the old-fashioned way. I got banned from DMOZ in 2002 for having two editor accounts, but I've helped several employees become editors over the years. The key advice: use a "resourcey" display name, not something that screams SEO. Don't disclose site ownership in a way that makes you look like you just want your own site listed. Apply for a small, local category first rather than your dream category, and plan to submit three good resource sites (not stores) to that category as part of your application.
Write descriptions in a clear, concise style without hype, matching the tone of existing listings in that category. If you're just trying to get your own site listed rather than become an editor, submit two other quality sites the same day as yours and watch which get approved to gauge whether you've been silently declined.
October 26th, 2005 at 10:30 pm
Great article.
I had given up hope on becoming an editor myself. But i guess i’ll give it another shot now.
Although i agree that Dmoz links aren’t that important today as they used to, i find it very important to be listed in google’s directory. And the only way thats possible it through Dmoz.
Btw i tried getting links from Wikipedia but they don’t seem to like non-commercial sites. Any advice on how to get links from them?
October 26th, 2005 at 11:28 pm
Good read dude. Very entertaining and really relevant links. You SHOULD be a DMOZ editor.
October 27th, 2005 at 10:32 am
Check this out - a journal called “Journals of becoming a DMOZ editor - they succedded on Oct 24th
http://becoming-a-odp-editor.blogspot.com/
October 28th, 2005 at 9:48 pm
great read jim.
>>banned from DMOZ in 2002 for having 2 editor accounts
ha - that’s too funny. though at least it shows you do have editor experience - maybe you’d be interested in a new gig?? Editors Needed
October 31st, 2005 at 4:49 am
[...] If you still want to get your site in but have been unable to gain acceptance through submission, however, the legitimate back-door is to become a DMOZ editor. Jim Boykin put together a great article outlining his past experience in getting accepted as a DMOZ editor. He details the steps you’d need to take: 1. Understand what DMOZ is looking for in an editor 2. Don’t fall for the “it’s alright to have business affiliations” line. Never reveal your intention of wanting to get your site listed in the ODP. Remember that they are looking for people to add value to the directory and not corrupt the category. 3. Select the local category, preferably a category small enough to start as a new editor. DMOZ editors require experience and track records before moving up to larger categories. 4. How to fill out the parts of your application form 5. Selecting 3 suitable sites to submit to the chosen category. [...]
November 11th, 2005 at 11:46 pm
[...] Giving away DMOZ Editor Accounts - Oct 26 [...]
December 25th, 2005 at 12:56 am
I am the plumsauce mentioned above. Just visiting places found with my nick. The comment I made was sort of tongue in cheek, but it’s nice to be quoted anyways.
December 28th, 2005 at 6:46 am
Wonderful article. It is very hard to dismiss the importance of Dmoz (not the directory itself per se) but the importance that other search engines put on sites listed in it. Google is surely giving more PR to sites listed there, and the fact that many many websites draw there links from Dmoz while many others are mirroring this directory. Google and more recently MSN are using the Dmoz title of websites in their SERPs. which may cause a lot of problems to some websites. So now it seems like it can cause more harm than good to some hard-working webmasters. When visiting the resource-zone where Dmoz editors hang, you can’t but help feel disgusted at their lack of humanity and their attitudes towards the most basic and important enquiries from webmasters.
January 2nd, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Great article!
If I had enough extra time on my hands to get accepted as a volunteer for DMOZ, I’d definitely give it a go. But unfortunately for me, the last 10+ times I applied for volunteership and was denied, and the last 30+ sites I’ve suggested were denied was enough time for me to know that throwing in the towel might be my best bet.
I can’t agree more with DmozSucks. I still can’t believe that MSN is jumping on the DMOZ bandwagon! And yes, this is definitely going to cause a LOT of problems to more than SOME websites.
So many people have worked very hard to get good placement in MSN, since Google uses DMOZ and Yahoo is just tough for a lot of people to get listed well, and all of that work has just been flushed down the toilet!
Not only is MSN using the descriptions from DMOZ in their results now (which are sometimes totally irrelevent to the sites main topic), but they are also using them as a deciding factor on top placement.
I run quite a few different websites on quite a few different topics, many of them being listed in the #1 spots for their niches. All of a sudden though, in the past couple weeks that MSN has been using DMOZ, many of my sites have dropped clean off of their SERP’s.
At first I wasn’t sure why this was… but then I was using http://www.uptimebot.com and noticed that most of the listings that used to be below mine, but are now at the top of the results, are listed in DMOZ.
I’m not saying that DMOZ is bad… I honestly feel that their mission is a great idea… but it’s just that there’s already a Google. So now that MSN is using DMOZ, there’s basically gonna be 2 Googles? No more relevent search engines, and no more webmaster-friendly search engines. What a sad time for webmasters that have spent so much time getting top se rankings the “right way”.
January 25th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
[...] When we created our Free SEO Tools, that was linkbait….the word linkbait just hadn’t been invented yet. Almost everything I write is linkbait…well kinda…maybe my papers on "How to Become a DMOZ Editor", or my "screw the sandbox, buy an old domain" are more linkbaitish type articles. I’m a link hound by nature….so yea, I’m always looking at things from the angle of "will this get me links?". [...]
February 1st, 2006 at 10:21 am
this site kicks ass! love ur article about DMOZ submission keep it up!
July 19th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
thanks for sharing this article.. help me a lot!
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:49 am
Although your articles are great and full of good and valid content, I disagree with this post (or article).
DMOZ is not worth the effort to submit your site, nor the effort to become an editor.
The juicy categories are already taken, and the non relevant not-trusted categories are where new editors are sent to burn their time and energy.
In my opinion, the link someone here posted to, about becoming an ODP editor, is a trap from John Doe, aka DMOZ meta.
http://becoming-a-odp-editor.blogspot.com/
It’s purpose is to have new naive editors submit applications and keep the noise up and running. Let the public think dmoz is still something, and let the little value it (still) has at Google survive. dmoz categories that aren’t well-established provide same value as any other link.
If your post is not for LinkBait, I would suggest you remove it. Otherwise, at least reverse your recomendation.
Why waste your readers time to apply for DMOZ editorship. 98% chance is they will NOT be accepted, and even if yes - they’ll gain zero from it.
Recommend on becoming a ninja instead.
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
John Doe II.
See my third paragraph in the article:
“To start with, I think DMOZ is highly overrated. DMOZ may have been a bigger factoring to rankings in Google in the past, but I doubt that today it’s worth any more than any other link of equal value - that is to say, I doubt that just because you’ve got a link from DMOZ.org that that’s treated different than any other link. There’s lots of people who haven’t changed with the times and are mistaken into thinking it’s a magical factor to ranking high in Google. “
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:49 pm
That is an awesome article! I had tried to get on there as an editor several times in the past and I had given up hope. Your blog has inspired me to give it another shot. Of course I always had only the right intentions in my requests but I see now how I must have looked like an SEO guy or someone with other intentions because I have worked on many websites in the past. In trying to show expertise I was apparently shooting myself in the foot I guess.
One other point I wanted to stress again is that you need to make sure you don’t pick too broad a category. I was shot down once for that and got a letter basically saying try again with a narrower category. After going through the whole process and then waiting and waiting I didn’t feel like doing it again.
I’ll be sure to let you know if I get in this time. Thanks for the great read!
February 1st, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Good article. I will keep this in mind if I apply to be a DMOZ editor.