TheSnowman : Shopping : faq.html

FAQ - Dmoz/Shopping

Archive-name:	dmoz.org/Shopping
Posting-Frequency:	none
Last-modified:	2008-07-03 18:18:44
URL:	http://www.thesnowman.com/linkdir/Shopping/faq.html
Category:	Shopping

1	What is Shopping?

1.1	What defines "primary focus"?

1.2	What about sites that only list prices in local currency?

1.3	What goes to Regional?

1.4	What goes to Business?

1.5	What goes to topical categories?

1.6	Can sites be listed multiple times?

1.7	What about chain stores with multiple physical locations

1.8	What about buyers' guides and consumer information?

1.9	What about computer software and hardware?

1.10	What about Religious shopping sites?

1.11	Where do non-English language sites go?

2	Ontology Issues

2.1	What about sites that sell more than one kind of product?

2.2	What are "spanning sites"? I've never heard the term before...

2.3	Shouldn't popular categories be listed at the top level?

2.4	Where do Ethnic/Regional sites go?

3	Affiliate, Mirror and Redirect, MLM and Distributor, Dropshippers, and Template Shopping Sites

3.1	What is an Affiliate?

3.2	What are mirror and redirect sites?

3.3	What are MLMs and Distributors?

3.4	What are template shopping sites?

3.5	What is a Dropshipper?

What is Shopping?

Shopping contains sites of which the primary focus is to allow the consumer to select and obtain goods and services over the Web. Common examples include:

Integrated online shopping-cart systems that allow the user to order directly over the Web
Online shopping-cart systems that allow the user to generate an order form to be sent to the merchant via fax or snail-mail
Simple directories of products and prices that the user can order via mail or phone.

The key is that the site contains three elements: lists of products for sale, prices, and information on how the consumer can obtain the product from his or her own home.

1.1	Q:	What defines "primary focus"?
	A:	Sometimes it is obvious that the main focus of a site is to sell merchandise, and that informational content, if any, is only present to draw consumers to the web site, or to provide support and education to users of the product. Sometimes it is clear that sales are only a sidebar to the informational content of the site, for example a music band's home page with tour dates, discography, etc., that also provides sales of their CD, and no other merchandise. A good question to ask yourself is, "would this organization take the time and effort to make this web site available if they were not profiting off of the sales portion." - for the overwhelming majority of sites that have a shopping component, the answer would be "no."

by kokopeli at 2007-05-10 02:18:16

1.2	Q:	What about sites that only list prices in local currency?
	A:	It doesn't matter whether prices are quoted in US dollars, English pounds, or any other currency. Unless a merchant is only willing to ship to a limited area, the site should be listed in Shopping/ if it meets the criteria in item #1.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 02:41:30

1.3	Q:	What goes to Regional?
	A:	Delivery areas: A US-based site which meets the other Shopping criteria as given in sections 1 and 1.1 is eligible for listing in Shopping if it delivers to most of the US. A non-US based site which meets the other criteria is eligible for listing in Shopping unless the site delivers only within the boundaries of one country. In that case, the site should be submitted to the appropriate Regional/[Region]/[Country]/Business_and_Economy/Shopping category. Links to Regional categories can be found in Shopping/By_Region. A site which has a physical location but does NOT offer online shopping should also be submitted to the appropriate Regional category.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 02:39:44

1.4	Q:	What goes to Business?
	A:	See the Home: Consumer Information FAQ for information about corporate websites and brand name sites.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 02:40:47

1.5	Q:	What goes to topical categories?
	A:	Sites that have a substantial informational component of value to those interested in the topic, can be listed in a topical area (i.e. Society or Recreation.) Simply the fact that a site sells merchandise of interest solely to those interested in the topic is not sufficient reason.

by kokopeli at 2007-05-10 02:28:18

1.6	Q:	Can sites be listed multiple times?
	A:	A site for a physical store that also offers online ordering can be double-listed in Shopping and in the Regional category for the Locality that it serves. In addition, for countries other than the United States, a country-level Shopping category may also contain distance-shopping sites if the prices are quoted in the local currency and the products are shipped from that country. In general, a consumer retail store that incidentally offers wholesale pricing for bulk purchases will not qualify for cross-listing in Business/Wholesale_Trade. Because of the potential for abuse, multiple listings should be the exception, not the rule. Descriptions for shopping sites cross-listed in a topical area outside of Shopping should highlight the informational content of the site. For a site that offers shopping services to be listed outside of the Shopping category it must have a substantial informational component of value to surfers whether or not they purchase from that site. Multiple listings within Shopping, for multiple kinds of products, for example, are actively discouraged and will be very rare. See also 2.1 "What about sites that sell more than one kind of product?"

by chaos127 at 2008-02-18 09:00:13

1.7	Q:	What about chain stores with multiple physical locations
	A:	If the main site for the chain offers online shopping as defined in item #1, it can be listed in Shopping. Sites for the individual stores can be listed in Regional/.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 02:48:36

1.8	Q:	What about buyers' guides and consumer information?
	A:	They go to appropriate categories under Home/Consumers.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 03:28:39

1.9	Q:	What about computer software and hardware?
	A:	Computer software and hardware is an explicit exception to the rule that shopping sites go to Shopping. Sites selling these items reside in the Computers category. You can create subcategories for software as a temporary measure.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 03:29:06

1.10	Q:	What about Religious shopping sites?
	A:	This is the other exception to the rule that shopping sites belong in Shopping. Religious shopping is centralized in Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Shopping/. Most of the actual sites reside in other subcategories in Religion and Spirituality.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 02:47:00

1.11	Q:	Where do non-English language sites go?
	A:	Sites that are not in the English language should be submitted to the appropriate World/ category. If a site is multi-lingual, and its languages include English, it can be listed in Shopping. For a multi-lingual site to be included, it should have enough English content for an English-only shopper to use the site. It should not, for example, only include an English language description of the store.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 03:30:26

2	Ontology Issues

2.1	Q:	What about sites that sell more than one kind of product?
	A:	A company should be listed under its primary line of business - so a site that sells 75 kinds of chocolate, and 2 kinds of nuts, would go under chocolate. On the other hand, if we find that there are lots of sites that sell both nuts and chocolate, then maybe nuts and chocolate should be subcats of something collecting them, where the spanning sites would go.

by kokopeli at 2007-05-10 02:35:06

2.2	Q:	What are "spanning sites"? I've never heard the term before...
	A:	Well, it's a made up term; that's why you've never heard of it. A nice clear example is from Shopping/Food - there are more than a hundred sites listed that sell both coffee and tea, and (going by their descriptions) just coffee and tea. So, Shopping/Food/Beverages/Coffee_and_Tea/ was created to hold all the coffee-and-tea sites, with subcats for Coffee and Tea under it. Even though Coffee is a huge cat, more than 10% of Shopping/Food, it was pushed down a level to make a natural home for the coffee+tea sites. When there are lots of sites that span a group of products, they may form a natural group, and we should consider making those products subcats off a common parent - this will help remove the temptation to multiply submit or list sites, and make it easier to find sites that are multiply listed.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 03:22:33

2.3	Q:	Shouldn't popular categories be listed at the top level?
	A:	No, they should be listed where they make logical sense. Popular topics can be given higher exposure through @links at higher levels.

by kokopeli at 2007-05-10 02:36:25

2.4	Q:	Where do Ethnic/Regional sites go?
	A:	Shopping/Ethnic_and_Regional - this category is for shopping sites selling a variety of products that are endemic to a geographic region or to an ethnic group. It is not for listing Shopping sites by location or service/operational area. A site selling one type of merchandise goes in Shopping/Type/Ethnic_and_Regional, perhaps in a subcat for one specific ethnicity. A site selling an assortment of merchandise associated with one particular ethnic group goes in Shopping/Ethnic_and_Regional/[region]/[ethnicity] So, for example, a cat of sites selling Celtic jewelry can be found by three paths: Shopping/Ethnic_and_Regional/European/Celtic/Jewelry@ Shopping/Jewelry/Ethnic_and_Regional/Celtic/ Shopping/Ethnic_and_Regional/Jewelry@/Celtic

by tschild at 2008-02-19 13:56:00

3	Affiliate, Mirror and Redirect, MLM and Distributor, Dropshippers, and Template Shopping Sites
	Guidelines about the inclusion of these types of sites are covered in the "To Include or Not to Include" section of the Directory Guidelines at http://www.thesnowman.com/linkdir/guidelines/include.html#affiliate

3.1	Q:	What is an Affiliate?
	A:	An affiliate site gets a commission for referrals to another site. They can often be identified by the affiliate tag in the URL, AffiliateID=19555&ProductID=508. Affiliate sites, as a general rule, should not be listed. Some sites include affiliate links, often to online book or music stores. For a site with affiliate links to be listed it should offer unique content. The example given in the guidelines is a site about a band that also offers an affiliate link to purchase their CDs. As an informational site this would be listed in Arts/Music/Bands_and_Artists not in Shopping.

by kokopeli at 2007-05-10 02:41:50

3.2	Q:	What are mirror and redirect sites?
	A:	Mirror sites contain the same content as another site, but have a different URL. As an example, John Smith has a store so he sets up johnsmith.mystore.com. To get more traffic, he then puts the same content on johnsmith.anotherstore.com. The sites are identical except for the URL. Only one URL should be listed. Fraternal mirrors or subsites may look different from each other but offer the same or overlapping content. Some fraternal mirrors may only contain a subset of the content on the company's main site; others mirror all of the main site's content. Only the main URL should be listed. Redirect sites are URLs which take you to another URL. They are similar to a mirror, except that you go through the site to get to the information. As an example, when you go to johnsmith.anotherstore.com, you get taken to johnsmith.mystore.com. Only johnsmith.mystore.com should be listed. This applies to all kinds of redirects, independent of which of several redirect methods has been used.

by motsa at 2008-07-03 18:18:44

3.3	Q:	What are MLMs and Distributors?
	A:	MLMs are multilevel marketers, such as Mary Kay, Avon, and Rexall. The companies offering MLM programs are listed in Business/Opportunities/Networking-MLM/ . MLMs should be sent to the appropriate letter in the MLM category and should not be listed in Shopping. Individual distributors in MLM programs are not listed in the ODP. Distributors are similar to MLMs, but do not recruit other sellers. They also have their own category, Business/Opportunities/Distributors/. Distributors should be sent to the Distributor category and should not be listed in Shopping. It is acceptable to place @ links to MLMs and Distributors in the appropriate Shopping/ categories.

by kokopeli at 2007-05-10 02:45:44

3.4	Q:	What are template shopping sites?
	A:	There are a number of companies that offer online stores using templates and selected merchandise. These stores look very similar to one another and often sell variations of the same products. Template-based sites are permitted to be listed in Shopping if they contain substantial unique product content.

by kokopeli at 2007-08-13 02:59:34

3.5	Q:	What is a Dropshipper?
	A:	A dropshipper is a site selling products that are not under their control or inventory. They don't see, stock, touch, feel, own or ship the products they are selling. These sites generally offer products that are typically found on a large number of sites offering the same exact products from the same source.

by kokopeli at 2007-05-10 02:47:41

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