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Zen and the Art of Website Promotion

Zen Secrets

Note: All external links on this page will open in a new window. yahoo tips Yahoo...the place everyone wants to be. You will get more hits if your site is well placed in Yahoo. Please note: I am not affiliated with Yahoo in any way. These are merely my suggestions to help you better understand Yahoo's proceedures. The weblinks in this "Yahoo Tips" section are all to webpages at Yahoo's site -- read them carefully. Yahoo's search has 2 basic components: Yahoo Search and Yahoo's Directory. If you go to Yahoo and type some keywords into the box at the top of the page the results you see are derived from Yahoo Search. You can submit your site to Yahoo Search for free... Submit Your Site to Yahoo Web Search Yahoo's Directory is separate. Your site doesn't have to be listed in Yahoo's Directory to come up in Yahoo Search results. But you may still want to pursue getting your site in Yahoo's Directory - it might bring more traffic to your site. Submissions work basically like this... For Business Sites If you have a commercial or business website, a site that sells a product or service, you can pay Yahoo a fee to have them look at and evaluate your site. This DOES NOT GUARANTEE that you will get listed. It only guarantees that a Yahoo editor will visit your site, evaluate it, and get back to you within 7 business days. This service is for commercial websites, but webmasters of non-commercial sites can use the service if they want to. Click on the link below to find out more and how to sign up for this service. Yahoo! Business Express All Other Sites (Private Homepages, Non-Commercial, Non-Business Sites) Ok, so you've submitted your site to Yahoo's Directory (if you haven't, learn how to do this here), now what? You wait. After at least a month has gone by and you still have not heard from Yahoo by email, then resubmit your site. They do not email you if you don't make it in. Make sure you have chosen the appropriate category and have written a concise description and title for your site. Before resubmitting, you might want to review your site and make improvements. Does your site contain unique content? Or is it just a bunch of links to other sites? Yahoo favors sites with unique content. Do not submit your site repeatedly in a short period of time -- you could be dropped from consideration to be listed if you do this. If your site still doesn't get listed after your second try, wait a month from the time you submitted and then email Yahoo's Directory Support Department -- be sure to give your site information (URL, title & description). Follow the instructions here... Yahoo Suggested Sites Help You may still not get listed, but it's worth a try. It can take two months or more for Yahoo's Directory Support Department to get to your request -- be patient. If you feel you may have already spammed Yahoo (submitted more than once in a short period), follow these guidelines... Yahoo Avoid Spamming Help the open directory project (aka "dmoz") So you've probably heard of Linux, right? Linux is "open source" software. And it is distributed for free. Anyone can download Linux, and they can also download the source code and make alterations to it -- then report back to the Linux community. Then those alterations may be included in the next release of Linux. This means a lot of programmers from all over the world are working on making Linux better. What Linux is to Unix, the Open Directory Project is to Yahoo. (Dmoz was even called "Newhoo" when it first started.) Tons of volunteer editors are working to build a web directory much like Yahoo's. But this one is free. Well, Yahoo is free to use also, but unlike Yahoo, anyone can download the entire Open Directory Project and put it on their website for free. No licensing fees. You have to credit the Open Directory Project on every webpage that is generated and link back to them. Of course this directory is huge so you probably won't be able to put it on your website. Now here's where your webpage comes in... did you know Google uses the Open Directory Project for their web directory? Lycos and Netscape use it, too. In fact, it is owned and run by Netscape, and Netscape is owned by AOL, who use it as part of their search engine. Lots of people use it. Cause it's free, and it's a pretty good directory too. So if you get your site listed at the Open Directory Project, you will then eventually be seen and perhaps better placed at Google, Lycos, AOL and other search engines too. Sites That Use the ODP So how do you get listed? Easy... works just like Yahoo's Directory. Pick your main topic, find the appropriate subtopic, click "add url" on the upper right side of the page and submit your site. Start here... The Open Directory Project Main Page And you know what else you might want to do? Volunteer to be an editor. No, you can't join and kick out all your competitor's sites, and put yourself at number one on the list. The Dmoz folks will give you the boot for that. But you can help build the largest human directory on the web. How do you become an editor? Easy... works just like submitting a site. Find the category you want to edit, see if an editor is needed (it will say, "This category needs an editor" at the bottom of the page), then click on "Become an Editor" and fill out the form. They'll get back to you.

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