I was reading a forum where someone was asking if JoeAnt was still accepting poker (gambling) websites for listing. The answer is yes but there are some restrictions.
First, all gambling sites may only be submitted through Speed Pass (paid review) and must be submitted to the appropriate topic in the Independent Business section. That will be in Gambling or one of its subtopics.
Second, we already have many, many listings for casinos and casino directories. There are close to 100 listings for online card games. Any new site that is added has to offer something to our visitors that they are not going to find on a bunch of these other sites.
Some of our listings are almost ten years old and we expect more now in both design and content than we did years ago. A site with a few affiliate links without any new and original content won't get accepted for listing. JoeAnt is not a search engine that has a goal to list every site possible. We want to only list sites that will be of value to our visitors.
When our reviewers look at a site they ask, "If I were interested in x would I bookmark this?" "Would I recommend this to a friend?" If you want to be listed, the answer to at least one of these questions has to be "yes".
One hint, if a site is on the bubble - to list or not to list - a submitter that followed the guidelines for title, description, and topic has a better chance of being accepted than one who stuffs the title and description with keywords.
I was reviewing a website and saw something that really irritated me. Up in the righthand corner of the online store's site was "no sales tax".
It seems like false advertising to me. Yes, the store won't charge you sales tax if your purchase is going to another state but you are still required by your state to pay the tax when you file your income taxes. Implying that you are not responsible for this seems like shady business practices to me. If they are willing to encourage you to cheat the government out of the taxes you owe* then why would you think that the store/company wouldn't cheat you when/if they could?
I think we (me!) are taxed too much but disagreeing with it doesn't mean we shouldn't pay it. It's better to elect politicians that will decrease the size of the government and its spending.
I have gotten emails from SEO companies recently that ask me to delete listings for businesses that no longer employ those SEO companies. As long as the site is still active and meets our guidelines, I leave the listing in place. I consider the request to be petty, bordering on unethical.
I haven't shared any information from these emails with anyone yet but I'm tempted to write to the businesses that the SEO is trying to get unlisted and let them know what is going on. That way, if anyone asks about their experience using that SEO service, they can take this behavior into consideration. Maybe I should say "behaviour" since, if I recall correctly, all the ones that have requested this have been British.
Another problem that I've had lately is with site owners and (believe it or not) SEOs trying to buy backlinks and demanding a topic that is inappropriate for the site listing because they want the backlink to have a given PageRank. These requests are refused and frequently the listing will be deleted.
I usually ask them to reread our guidelines that they agreed to when submitting the site. I explain to them that we do not sell listings, that whether they join as editors or use Speed Pass, there is no guarantee the site will be accepted for listing and that the reviewing editor determines the best placement for the listing. Sites must meet a basic standard of "good" to be listed and any that do not meet our standards will be rejected.
Often during these email conversations the other person says that they have anywhere from one to "many" other sites that they will submit if I give them what they are asking for. The last one said, "But if you tell me I'm stuck on the (Appropriate Topic for the site) page and that's that, then I'll spend my money elsewhere."
I replied that he should do just that. He may be looking for directories link farms that are unethical but I prefer doing business with companies that don't think the way to do business is by trying to bully the other person. If someone sells you a link and promises a given PageRank, you are getting cheated. Whatever you think it's worth now, it won't be worth anything before long. If you are paying someone to do your site promotion that doesn't understand that, you are getting cheated.
Someone using the editor name "SECCOhome" (Jason Harshbegrer 209.74.12.195) joined JoeAnt as an editor but instead of submitting his site(s) for consideration for listing, he spammed the forum.
Mon 01 June 2009 14:17:47 I was curious has any heard of this HVAC, Plumbing, Air conditioning, Electrical, Solar, Wind, Duct Cleaning, Carpentry, Home Improvement Company? http://seccohome.com
Mon 01 June 2009 14:24:07 Has an heard of this awesome site called http://prontotoday.com its all about a plumbing service company in harrisburg pa 17011, check them out and make your comment.
Mon 01 June 2009 14:26:20 Has anyone ever heard of any Harrisburg PA Home Improvement Company called Carpenter TODAY?? check out there site http://carpentertoday.com and leave me your thoughts, I thought it was a great service company in harrisburg pa 17011
Mon 01 June 2009 14:27:46 Quicktricity Electric is a harrisburg residential electrical company, I really liked their service check into their web site and let me know what you think of them. http://quicktricity.com
Mon 01 June 2009 14:31:00 Harrisburg PA 17011 Home repairs and Home Improvements check them out online at http://carpentertoday.com
Mon 01 June 2009 14:29:56 WOW check out this site: http://sungenuity.com now they look like a great service company that you can depend on for solar PV solar thermal and Wind energy installations in the Harrisburg PA 17011 area. Check them out at http://sungenuity.com
Anyone who has been online for more than 10 minutes knows that spamming forums like this is wrong. How crappy must a business be if you resort to this kind of behavior to get your site noticed?
If I lived near Camp Hill, PA and needed electrical work, plumbing, duct cleaning, HVAC reapir or carpentry, this is the last place I would call. Anyone who is unethical enough to spam (and to write the spammy posts as if he were not connected with the company despite having an IP that belongs to SECCO), why would I trust anyone from his company in my house? People rarely keep a lack of ethics confined to just one aspect of their life.
There are only a couple of listings in this topic but both are for services in the UK. In the US we usually leave this sort of nonsense to morning radio talk show jocks.
Chris Muir's sister Cathy is being treated for cancer and he has asked people to link to the cancer center's web site. (See the cartoon for August 10.)
I was going to link to it as soon as I read the cartoon this morning but decided to wait until I had time to add it to JoeAnt too. I added American Cancer Ablation Center to the Cancer Centers topic. (It will show in the public view after tonight's database update.)
Note: Right now, it's number one on Blogs Now.
Update: I sent Jerry (the main man behind JoeAnt) an email letting him know about this and he added the site to the Sites of the Month on the index page and changed the listing of the site to show "sponsored" which means it will show at the top of the topic.
Thanks, Jerry!
Webpronews has an article about attracting search engines to your site along with suggestions on how to benefit from the crawls. I found the article through a Google Alert on the keyword "JoeAnt".
It's like seeing my child's name in the news.
A third way to invite the spiders into your website parlor is to by submitting your website to the many internet directories available. Whether you choose, DMOZ, Yahoo, JoeAnt, Gimpsy, Zeal/Looksmart, or one of many lesser known directories, inclusion in them will get your website crawled by a spider. Since the various internet directories are crawled on a very regular basis, you can be almost certain a spider will travel to your website.
It's getting to be that time of year when I expect the submissions to JoeAnt to increase as businesses try to optimize their exposure in preparation for Christmas. Sites may be submitted by editors (make sure to join the correct topic for your site's listing) or through Speed-Pass (one-time $39.99 fee). To use Speed-Pass, find the best topic for your site and click the "Add URL" link.
Lately I've been adding sites to the Regional topic of JoeAnt for a few specific cities. One thing I keep noticing is that some businesses with Web sites don't really seem to understand that it's a World Wide Web. They will have just a street address and/or phone number without any clue on the site as to the city, state, or even the country that they are in.
I understand that they want a Web site to attract and provide information for local customers and including the city in their address may seem (to them) to be stating the obvious. It may be obvious for people who have lived their for years but for ones researching the city before visiting or relocating, that little bit of added information is important.
It's also helpful for those of us trying to build an Internet directory.
JoeAnt editors can request new subtopics for the directory. When I have time (and I remember) I try to let the person making the request know when the new subtopic has been added. Good intentions don't always translate into deeds. Now we have the JoeAnt Topic Guide.
It's a weblog with listings of new subtopics. It will also cover some of the topics which may appear similar but are intended for different types of sites. For example, we have one topic for Web Design and another for Web Design Companies. The first is for those who want help learning Web design themselves, the second is a resource for those without the time or inclination to do it themselves.
圣诞节快乐
One of our JoeAnt editors from China left this message in our forum. (I used an online translator, it's translation is the title of this post.) I liked it so much I thought I would share it.
The JoeAnt Site of the Month, Editor-Owned SOTM, and Blog of the Month have been listed on the index page since this weekend. (Thanks, Hugo, for the suggestion for Editor-Owned SOTM.)
For me, getting this done before mid-month is a real accomplishment. I didn't get it done at all last month. One day I'll surprise everyone and have it done on time.
I'll probably be the most surprised of all.