europeforvisitors - 3:37 pm on Dec 31, 2001 (gmt 0)

>>would adding an affiliate program to our site improve the chances of getting listed in about.com?<<

No. The affiliate program is completely separate from the editorial side of About.com's operations. Guides don't know or care if a site is part of the About.com affiliate program. In fact, many guides have very little use for the affiliate program, which hasn't referred users to guidesites in quite a while. (FWIW, the affiliate program just changed to an advertiser-referral program: Affiliates are no longer paid for traffic; instead, they get US $25 if they succeed in getting an advertiser to buy "Sprinks" PPC ads.)

In a nutshell, you won't get listed on About.com unless:

1) The guide is still reviewing submitted Web sites now that About's focus has shifted to e-commerce; and...

2) The guide chooses to list your site.

Side note: The number of About.com guidesites dropped by approximately 50% in 2001, and many observers (including a number of current guides) are expecting further reductions or a network shutdown in the near future. The most likely scenario would be for the company, which is now owned by Primedia, to shed its independent guidesites and keep only those guidesites that have been integrated with Primedia's consumer and business-to-business magazines. Under that scenario, About.com would become an Internet application service provider and hosting service for Primedia's magazines, and the "non-integrated" guidesites would be either closed down or sold off (as the adult sites were sold off last year). So it may not be worth obsessing over getting a link from About.com unless your site involves babies and parenting, weddings, hunting and fishing, or one of the other guidesite topics that have been integrated with Primedia's magazines.