Today we examine where sites on drumming might be found in ODP (or for suggested sites, how to find where isthe best place)

If a search for drums is done then we get something like this (Note that seach will not bring up every appropriate category - it’s just a starting point)

Open Directory Categories (1-5 of 7)

1. Shopping: Music: Instruments (131 matches)
2. Arts: Music: Instruments: Percussion: Drums (67)
3. Business: Industrial Goods and Services: Packaging: Crating, Boxes and Drums (30)
4. Arts: Music: Instruments: Native American: Drums and Rattles (12)
5. Arts: Music: Instruments: Percussion (35)

[ more… ]

Open Directory Sites (1-20 of 1063)
… followed by many sites, descriptions, and the categories where they are located. Each category is followed by a number indicating how many sites are in the category.

This says that there are seven categories which relate to drums - the [ more… ] linking to addtional categories beyond the first five –

• Arts: Music: Instruments: Winds: Bagpipe (24)
• Regional: North America: Canada: Arts and Entertainment: Music: Instruments: Winds: Bagpipe: Bands (21)

First we have to ignore the categories that to not relate to drums as musical instruments.
Business: Industrial Goods and Services: Packaging: Crating, Boxes and Drums - is not a good match

Of the rest, it may be good to click on the link and go to the category and then look at the descriptions
Shopping: Music: Instruments
Submissions to this category should offer online shopping in some form for a range of musical instruments, accessories, and/or recording gear.

Arts: Music: Instruments: Percussion: Drums
Online stores selling drums and accessories should be submitted to Shopping: Music: Instruments: Percussion.
Websites about drums, including instrument and instructional information, drum building, drummers, and organizations.

This tells us some valuable information - there is a difference between Shopping and Art - Shopping being for sites emphasing sales - Art more for information.

Arts: Music: Instruments: Winds: Bagpipe and Regional: North America: Canada: Arts and Entertainment: Music: Instruments: Winds: Bagpipe: Bands are not great matches - they are coming up in the search for sites relating to both bagpipes and drums, and also matches on Drum Majors in the site descriptions.

So if we are looking to buy some drums we can start in Shopping: Music: Instruments - but that’s pretty broad - more specific searching can be done by going that category and repeating the search - but only in that category - that gets

1. Shopping: Music: Instruments (99 matches)
2. Shopping: Music: Instruments: Ethnic and Regional (32)

In Shopping: Music: Instruments it makes sense to find good subcategories such as Shopping: Music: Instruments: Percussion which gives a lot of sites and addtionally subcategories for Bells, Steelpan and Taiko

In Shopping: Music: Instruments: Ethnic and Regional although some sites that sell drums may be clocated there, we might have to know the ethnicty of the drunm we are looking for. So for example, a djembe will most likeley be found in Shopping: Music: Instruments: Ethnic and Regional: African along with other African drums such as djundjun (dununs) and ashikos.

One might ask - why are Steelpan located in Shopping: Music: Instruments: Percussion - are they not Ethnic? Yes, but that is the way it was set up. However, if you do go to Shopping: Music: Instruments: Ethnic and Regional - note there is an entry Steelpan@ which cleverly sends you to the right place.

———————————————————————————
If we are looking for information about drums that we can do a search in Arts: Music: Instruments which yields:

1. Arts: Music: Instruments: Percussion: Drums (67 matches)
2. Arts: Music: Instruments: Native American: Drums and Rattles (12)
3. Arts: Music: Instruments: Percussion (35)
4. Arts: Music: Instruments: Winds: Bagpipe (26)
5. Arts: Music: Instruments: Makers (3)

that give us another usefull category Arts: Music: Instruments: Makers - but that begs the question - is not a Maker selling his product and should that not be in shopping? The description clarifies that:

For companies and individual craft workers making musical instruments.
Instrument manufacturers should be sent to Arts: Music: Instruments: Manufacturers
Sites selling online, but not building instruments ahould be submitted to the correct category within Shopping: Music: Instruments

Mirror sites are one of the biggest pains for editors, close to being spam. The question is: What is a mirror?

The suggestion guidelines say

• Do not submit mirror sites. Mirror sites are sites that contain identical content, but have altogether different URLs.
• Do not submit URLs that contain only the same or similar content as other sites you may have listed in the directory. Sites with overlapping and repetitive content are not helpful to users of the directory. Multiple submissions of the same or related sites may result in the exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites.

So technically a mirror site is one that contains identical content. Pure mirrors are ones that are exactly, dot for dot, letter for letter, the same as another site. In many cases, there are mirrors that are almost identical, the layout may be slightly different, but the wording is 99% the same.

The editing guidelines on identical mirrors say Sometimes identical mirrors are created to ease the load on the main site. Try to determine which of the mirrors appears to be the original site, and list that one, if it is not already listed. Then remove the remaining mirrors.

In many cases, there are mirrors that are similar, the layout will be different, the wording is different, but it’s substantially the same site. In some case, one site may emphasize a single product shown on the other site. ODP calls these fraternal mirrors. The editing guidelines {see Affiliate Reseller Sites (aka Fraternal Mirrors} say

Fraternal Mirrors have the same basic content, but usually different designs. Fraternal mirrors are harder to spot because the sites are designed and written to appear different, but a careful examination will reveal they offer the exact same product or service as another affiliated company. They are usually set up by merchants as affiliate, reseller, or lead generator sites. For example, sites which sell products or services provided by another company and make a small margin on the sale are affiliate mirrors. In general we do not list affiliate sites unless the affiliate has strong, high quality content of its own that end-users will find really useful.

The bottom line is that suggestions of mirror sites are a very bad idea, they make an editor question your motives, and can substantially delay the review of a site.

It’s late at night and I just wanted to review one site before bed. So what do I get - a freshly submitted site with a title:

“This is my website I plan to expand on to promote my business as a ….

Well that’s really nice, but why on earth would you want anyone to see a web site that consists of only three pages:

• Page 1 - Welcome to … website — yes that is it, nothing else on the page
• Page 2 - goes to the hosting sites and displays a page full of assorted junk and ads and a big title RESTRICTED - ILLEGAL PAGE - wow that’s cool
• Page 3 - starts my email client without warning since it’s not a page at all, but an email link - what a pain this guy is

I can’t type fast enough to delete this time wasting nonsense.

I doubt if this website will ever be finished but if it is ever re-submitted, the editor will see a note about this premature subbmission.

Lesson #1 - do not submit sites under construction - it will come back to haunt you

(He should thank me; if any potential clients ever saw this, they would run away as fast as I deleted it)

Here’s a great post from a user on an SEO forum on improving the chances of getting listed. I’ve never seen it put this way, but he has a great point.

John Douglas said:

If the purpose of the site is clear, the navigation and content obvious, then the amount of work a reviewer has to do is minimised. They are more likely to review your site as soon as they come across it.

For the full post see Make the site a ‘no-brainer’