Get Listed on the VMOptions Free Directory List

[snowbird]

Revised 12/19/2012:
Revised: Further revised banning information for those that think they will receive a favorable response from us when announcing their directories with spam. In general, spamming announcements results in an immediate and permanent ban of the domain that is involved in such incidents of spam.

Directories which follow the guidelines on this page, and are currently listed in the VMOptions Directory or any of our lists, may display one of the badges below on their directory. Please note that our badge also helps our list editors determine who has read these guidelines.

The above badges have a transparent background so that they will work just about anywhere. They are standard sizes of 125 x 125 and 100 x 100. If you choose to display a badge, please serve it from your server with a link to http://www.vmoptions.com.

Please note that we only add new directories to our list. Established directories may read below on how they may be listed.

How to Get Added to Our Free Directory List

There are a few ways to get your free general directory in our free directory list.

1. Submit your free directory for inclusion in our directory. This is by far the fastest way to get listed. Once your free web directory passes the review process, it will also be included in our free directory list.
   
2. Announce your directory in this forum New Directory Announcements if it is a web directory or at New Social Bookmarking Announcements if it is a social bookmarking website. We will do our best to list your website. Important: When announcing your directory in the forum, please list it either linked or unlinked with the full URL including http and www if applicable in lower case.
   
3. If we come across your directory elsewhere, we may list it - providing it is a quality free general web directory.

To be in our free directory list, your directory must comply with the following:

• Working - If the directory does not function when we look at it, then it shall be banned.
• A general directory written in the English language.
• Ready to accept listings with plenty of categories and one active listing at a minimum.
• Free - No reciprocal link, payment and/or PageRank requirements for a permanent listing.
• Using a URL structure that is easy for search engines to index and people to navigate.
• Reviewing free submissions in a reasonable time.
• Free from registration requirements.
• Free from forced incentives (newsletters, surveys, etc.)
• Free from excessive ads or tricks that make it difficult to submit.
• Free from full page ads or techniques that make it difficult to navigate/submit.
• Free from frames or iFrames which display a different URL in the browser then the actual page.
• Free from techniques that place windows/ads over the submit buttons or are distracting.
• Have unique listings - not from a DB dump or a DB shared among other domains.
• Does not use nofollow on any of the listings within the directory.
• Carries desired submission category data to the submission form.
• Is not installed on a subfolder (domain.com/directory/)
• The only directory on the domain.
• Allowing all countries to submit (no blanket IP bans, etc.).
• No restrictions on submitter E-mail addresses

Another important requirement to appear in the VMOptions free directory list is that the directory must not use nofollow in any of the listing URLs. If you are spending the time to review submissions, and believe they are good enough to appear in your directory, then using nofollow is inappropriate. Remember, people are submitting to your directory to get some added exposure, not to preserve your Pagerank by giving you a unique listing!

How to Add Old/Established Directories to Our List

Our list contains the newest directories available. We have daily visitors that want to submit to new directories, and these people do not want to submit to directories they submitted to a year ago. Because of this we have not listed older directories because our sorting defaults to the newest listings. However, we will permit older directories to appear in our list providing they go through a thorough review process during a fully paid submission review process to our directory. Old/established directories that meet editorial and listing standards will appear in our directory and in our list with a previous listing date. At the present time that is the only way we can appease both visitors and owners of directories that have been around a while.

Why We Remove Directories From Our List

If any free directory turns paid, requires registration, URL does not resolve, domain is parked, etc., it will be promptly removed from our list permanently. We list many free directories at no cost, and being forced to deal with the significant number of directories that bounce from free to paid, slow/no loading, among other things is too much of a burden for us. If you want your directory to remain in our free directory list, we strongly urge you to follow our rules and to use a stable host.

Because confirmation E-mails from directories are now being abused, we shall not list any directory found that provides deceptive or otherwise improper confirmation E-mails. This includes, but is not limited to fake URL confirmation E-mails designed to artificially boost Alexa rank and confirmation E-mails that prompt users to click ads. If we find a directory that is doing this, we will remove and ban that directory from our list. We may, at our sole discretion, ban every directory on that IP address as well.

Some directory owners try to be sneaky and will add full page ads, pop-ups and other intrusive revenue generation technologies to their directory after it has been listed. Rest assured that our visitors will report this and we will remove the offending directories from our list. We are not against ads, but be reasonable. Use Adsense, upsell a service in confirmation E-mails, etc. There are ways to monetize a directory which do not drive visitors away.

And as a side note, we do not list directories which are heavily promoting competing directory lists. We've seen a number of these using pop-ups and other intrusive ads. Advertising options exist for those that may fall into this category.

Directory Networks

Many directory networks reside on unstable servers and do not actively edit/approve submissions. Because of this, we will continually evaluate the value of directory networks. Should a network become unstable, inactive or otherwise violate any of our other guidelines, the entire network will be removed from our list.

Information About .info Domains

Without question, .info domains are preferred by directory networks because they are inexpensive to purchase during the first year. However, trends indicate that many directory network owners are not renewing these domains after the first year. We will only list .info directories on a case by case basis. Should past abusive trends reappear, we will remove every .info directory from our list.

Banning

We immediately ban those domains which are involved in spamming our forum, E-mail, directory and contact forms. This forum is the only place where we accept announcements to be included in our lists, with the exception of those directories that are reviewed for inclusion in our directory and abide by our directory submission guidelines. Hijacking other announcement threads, multiple forum posts, etc. typically result in an immediate ban of offending domains.

Relisting Free Directories

Because of the number of requests we receive each day regarding adding directories back to our list, we will permit this only after a through review. This review must be paid for during a submission to our directory. Therefore, one would go to our free directories category and use the suggest site option to reach the submission form. Complete the form accordingly, submit it, pay for the review and that directory is well on its way to being added to the list and our directory providing that directory meets editorial and listing standards.

It is important to note that going through the relisting process does not guarantee your directory will not be removed at a later date. Therefore, it is your responsibility to see that compliance issues are addressed before having us review your directory.

We maintain a record of additions to our directory list. Should any directory be removed then added to the list again, it will be properly positioned in the list for the date it was initially added.

Forum Announcement Notes

When announcing new directories in our forum, do not stick old directories in the same post in any form of list format. If we have to cherry pick the new directories out of such lists, don't expect it to happen. In some cases we will outright ban any and all directories on that IP and/or which are related to the poster.

Linking to Our Directory List

Although it is not required, we ask that you please consider providing a link back to our free directory list in your directory. You may also use one of the graphics at the top of this page to link directly to VMOptions. But if you do link to our list, please use the text Free Directory List as the name of your link and please point it to: http://www.vmoptions.com/directory-list.php