Submitting to niche article sites : Is it worth it?

The key to success for your site on the internet is linkbuilding. Increasing the number of incoming links to your site will aid promotion through the Search Engine rankings and, hopefully, draw some traffic of it's own.

After directory submission, writing articles is probably the next best free solution. Some may even say it is a better proposition. Now, with all the article submission sites around (here's a list if you need it - Article Sites) why would you need to consider a niche article site?

The answer is very similar to the advantages of finding niche directories. Visitors to niche article sites are looking for the specific content found there and are more likely to follow the link in your article than if they found it a general article site.

Take a look at EgyptBc.com, for example. There's some interesting content there that is growing daily which attracts search engine visitors. A great many of these people are likely to look at the visitor submitted articles when they have finished with the site's main content.

If you have a history or travel related site it should be fairly easy to write an article related to the topic of this site. Enter your url at the end and you have a good chance of attracting some quality traffic.

Of course you don't have to stop there, a niche article will still fit in well at a general site too, such as Article Depot, my personal favoutite.

In conclusion, I would say submit your articles to the big, general sites to gain link popularity and some small traffic. For better quality traffic, try niche article sites that match your site's theme.

Promote your site through Niche Directories.

Maybe you are a Doctor or a lawyer. You've built an excellent web site that looks good, has the potential to make huge sales and is well optimised for the search engines. You have arranged a large number of reciprocal links, you have submitted to all the free directories you could find and submitted articles wherever you could. Now it's time to sit down, relax and wait for the traffic to come flooding in? NO.

As the internet expands it is becoming harder and harder for even the most excellent of web sites to rank well with the search engines. These days it would appear that getting a large number of quality backlinks, with good anchor text, is not a do once and forget operation. Your competitors are out there building links daily so you must keep up.

With the huge and growing number of people online looking for goods and services amongst the mass of related websites, niche directories are coming into play.

Niche directories are usually much smaller and have far fewer listings than regular paid directories and are almost without doubt a lot slimmer than the mass of free directories on the internet. As a webmaster, this is great news as it makes gaining a good, relevant and visible link to your site a lot easier. For visitors, your potential customers, a niche directory offers a handy way of finding what they are looking for quickly and easily.

Although there may be a small cost in submitting to niche directories, their benefit to your site can potentially be huge, offering far greater ROI than, say, a Yellow pages advert or more expensive advertising on a large web site in your genre.

If you feel it is time to gain a Niche Listing for your site then here is a handy categorised list of Niche Directories

DMOZ editors - Does absolute power corrupt absolutely?

DMOZ editors are supposed to be professionals in the category that they choose to edit and review. They are also supposed to have high standards when it comes to giving the general public quality websites with content that pertains to the category in which they are editing. But, is this really the case or does the absolute power given by DMOZ corrupt these editors into making decisions based on just what they like or as favors to the owners of the websites they are reviewing?

When you submit your website to the DMOZ directory it is then handed off to an editor to review your website, all of your website pages and to intelligently write the description of your site. Whether your website is included is in their hands, they have the power to include, delete, and even ignore your submission. How the power that DMOZ gives influences their overall behavior is another subject. You will find that the thought of having absolute power does affect each editor and reviewer in various ways.

If the editor is honest and upholds the standards that are set by DMOZ then power has not gone to their head and they understand that working as a team member to create the largest directory with quality websites is the main goal then your website will reviewed on its own merit. This is the type of editor you hope will review your website. Your website will have a much better chance of being included and at a much faster rate.

But, remember, the editors and reviewers at DMOZ are also human. No matter where you go you will find people that are not honest in their dealings. DMOZ gives them power and many do not know how to handle this responsibility in a business like manner and have unscrupulous behavior, as with any group. When one of these editors, reviews a website, it may not be gone over with the DMOZ standards in mind. The “God Syndrome” as I like to call it takes over, and they will make their decision from their own standards and ignore quality websites.

This is kind of like putting a child in a room full of chocolate and asking him to only choose the best ones out of the bunch and leave the others alone. In his mind, all chocolate is good, no matter the size, the manufacturer, or the ingredients. He will of course not pay much attention to what he is really choosing and will probably choose the flashy and colorful packaging. As a DMOZ editor looks over a website, do they really look for quality content that is useful or do they just say “This one looks fine” and goes no farther than the front page. I believe this does happen quite often as many of the websites in DMOZ only have one page and no other content. As an example, you can check out under Home, Cooking, under Chili and you will see what I mean. Many of these only have one webpage, only one to three recipes and several advertisements. Is this really considered a quality website with original, unique and valuable informational content that contributes something unique to the category's subject?

I am not saying that every editor at DMOZ lets this absolute power cloud their judgment, but we are talking about human nature and it takes all kinds of people to create a large directory such as DMOZ, good and bad. The quality editors will do their best to include websites with high standards and will only be out to benefit the directory as a whole. But, you will also find editors that are out to make a name for themselves, get something in return for including websites or just don’t really care who or what they include.

So, does absolute power corrupt absolutely? I would have to say, yes, in certain individuals that do not have the integrity it takes to be a team player, only consider themselves or their own group of acquaintances, clients, or affiliates, and love the feel of absolute power over others. If world leaders can be corrupt when given power then you must agree that an editor of DMOZ can also be corrupted, absolutely.

DMOZ - Is it still worth the submission time?

DMOZ is well known all over the internet as being the largest open source directory online, but is it really worth your time and effort to try to get your website listed in their directory?

You must remember when submitting your website to DMOZ that this directory is one of the human powered directories, which means that a person must go over your submission, your website, and determine if your website is worthy of being in the directory from their own point of view. All of the editors at DMOZ are volunteers just like you and I that have applied to become editors and reviewers in their own special field of interest.

It does not cost anything to have your site listed in DMOZ, so that is a plus, but they do have certain standards that they expect but once again the volunteers are just people and they must also stick to these high standards to ensure that DMOZ keeps its high regard for submissions.

DMOZ wants to achieve a high quality, content rich resource in which the general public will consider useful and indispensable. DMOZ expects their editors and reviewers to keep this high standard and only allow websites with original, unique and valuable informational content that contributes something unique to the category's subject. So, before you submit your website go over this check list to ensure you have the type of website they include and then remember the rest is up to the editors and reviewers.

1. Do not submit websites that have identical content but have different URL’s.
2. Do not submit websites that have similar content to another website you already have listed in DMOZ.
3. Do not submit your URL with each page as a separate submission.
4. Do not submit websites that have pages that are not working properly, are under construction, have broken graphics, or broken links, or are redirecting to another website.
5. Do not submit websites with illegal content such as child pornography, libel, fraud, or violence.
6. Do not submit websites that are just a bunch of links to affiliate programs.

None of this will ensure your inclusion into the DMOZ directory but it will help. The wait to get into DMOZ can be a very long wait if indeed you are ever included.

I would not submit to DMOZ and then wait around for something magical to happen. DMOZ is not the only directory out there. I would submit and then forget about it. Submit to all the directories you can and do not worry if DMOZ does not include your website. I believe having your website listed in the major search engines is much more important than a link back from DMOZ. It would be nice to find your website in the DMOZ directory, but you are relying on the integrity of the volunteer editors and reviewers which have their own opinions as to what makes up a quality website. If your website meets the criteria of DMOZ and you do in fact get an editor that agrees with these standards then you will be lucky enough to have your website included.