Where do editors find NEW sites

if they can't be found in Google

[Powdork]

I am interested in where editors would find new sites nowadays since google doesn't provide them as in the past. Does it push editors back into the spam pile, or are links from other sites and niche directories as well as offline promotion more important than ever?

[gimmster]

Powdork, it's the same as it ever was, same as it ever was.

Leaving aside Google, et al

Good sources of new sites are local directories (it's amazing how many startups there still are), smaller ISP's still quite often have 'our customers' lists. Other quite common sources are offline - Radio commercials, billboards, business cards, flyers, brochures (basically any normal business advertising activities).

If you are really looking for a subject, you can always use the Google alerts tool, yes it will show the the dross with the quality, but it will narrow it down, and is much easier that wading through the 30 odd pages Google will let you see.

Obviously each approach works best for different category types. The local papers classifieds work in small Regional categories, not so good if you are looking for sites for recipes on using hamsters in a curry. Radio/TV advertising may have urls about current events, concerts, celebrations, health , travel warnings, government information, even (dare I say it) shopping.

Will this help you target somewhere to get your sites noticed? Probably not. But it should make anyone reading aware of some of the ways outside the 'suggest a site' link editors can, and do, find new sites to list.

[martinibuster]

AdWords. I've had one site picked up by a DMOZ editor that way.

[cbpayne]

Adwords
Links from sites already in category
Google web alerts for category keyword
Teoma (look at collection of links sites at right of SERPS page)

[victor]

Of the last 10 or so I added:

4 from flyers collected at a street fair

1 from a hoarding on a building site

1 from the back of a passing truck

1 from an ad on the radio

2 from a notice board at the Library

1 from the acknowledgments in a book

[kevinpate]

what victor said, plus several from passing references on discussion groups where I lurk and/or contribute.

[steve40]

Local Chambers of Commerce
and just old fashioned surfing the net
steve

[treeline]

Print magazines and newsletters are full on new subject-specific links. Sometimes the best ones are in the ads. Emailing lists are good, people with new sites often submit them directly to a directory. When you're adding a site, click on their links page. It can be very good on a small site.

[windharp]

Noone mentioned "submissions" and "other search engines than google" yet.

[kctipton]

News sites known for stable URLs are very good sources. NPR is one such site.

[Powdork]

what about written into the dirt on the back window of my subaru? The Adwords bit I never thought about. That sounds like a good one. I've never been comfortable completely with the right side of the results because (a)I feel bad clicking on something they have to pay for when I have no intention of paying for anything on the other end and (2)The whole listed URL vs the actual destination URL thing.
Thanks for the tips.

Is a hoarding one of the big plywood signs at construction sites?

[cbpayne]

Noone mentioned "submissions" and "other search engines than google" yet.

I mentioned Teoma!
I use it when looking for sites, as on the right of the Teoma SERPS page is a list of sites that Teoma calls "Links collections from experts and enthusiasts"

[victor]

what about written into the dirt on the back window of my subaru?

Given that Tim Berners-Lee defined the U in URL to be universal (he was overruled by some Internet committee with no imagination): then, yes.

A URL identifies a resource. The resource can be anywhere (a website is just one possibility) and the URL can be anywhere too (in Google is a very limited possibility in some ways).

If you want an OPD editor to notice a URL, you got to put it somewhere where they will see it. For many categories, the last place they look is the suggested URL queue.

A hoarding is another term for a billboard. I saw the sign that said "New visitor attraction opening soon....http...". The site was up and running, so I added it.

[treeline]

Is a hoarding one of the big plywood signs at construction sites?

I'd agree with this definition too.

[Shawn Steele]

Friends and or link pages of related sites will generally have some good references. :)

[podman]

Walking into a store, being happy with the service, going home writing a description, sending it to a category I cannot edit, having it published the next day by the editor there - since my description and title looked good.

Reviewing a site that was so totally bad it could not be listed, yet finding it linked to about 50 other sites that were good, 15 of those had never been submiited to ODP, and were then added.

Seeing posts in R--- Z---- where someone was asking about a site, but that person own sites had never been submitted.

Seeing an ad on TV.

Google alerts on very precise keyword combos.