Would the Snobs at DMOZ Ever Accept a Direct-Response Site?

Well, keep talking like that, and you may never get an answer. If your editor sees that, and connects the site to you, the answer may be NO WAY!

Steve

I have one site (13 years old) that's been on DMoz for over 9 years. I have a few others that seem to be grandfathered, but are not necessarily profitable. I'm about to finish the SEO that will get one listed eventually.

None of my sites are thin affiliate sites or DM sites though.

Seasoned, calm down brother.

You don't need DMOZ anyway. You can get indexed on Google within 24 hours and start driving traffic in one day. You will have thousands of visitors before DMOZ ever gets around to listing your site (if ever).

If the site is original and offers value, it should be accepted, even if it's an affiliate site or sales page. It just has to have something original.

My best advice to you is to submit a description that explains what's contained on your site in a third person, neutral manner. Editors can sometimes have hundreds, or even thousands of oustanding listings, and the ones that don't require their description being edited are more likely to be accepted, at least that's the way I do it. It doesn't mean your site won't be accepted if the description is wrong, it just gives the editor more work to do, and the less work he or she has to do, the easier it's going to be to just click accept after reviewing the site.

Using phrases such as "the best for" "the largest" "the only" are promotional and should be avoided from the description.

I hope this helps you with your listing getting approved.

Keep in mind DMOZ is a volunteer based project. Feel free to bash them all you want, but I can tell you that the majority of editors don't know about SEO and are not marketers, and genuinely do fantastic jobs for the good of the community as opposed to self interest.

Years ago I had no trouble getting sites listed in DMOZ and those listings were very helpful in getting listed elsewhere. Although I still submit sites to DMOZ (it's not time consuming) I think that I have only had two new listings in three years.

Our local area has been without any editors for ages. I applied and was rejected immediately on the grounds that I had interests in multiple websites. I know quite a few people in the same situation so they are probably running short of "qualified" editors!