Sorry to do this...

...but I just got listed for free!

[KMxRetro]

I've been trying to get any of my sites into Yahoo! for years and finally it has happened! Just HAD to tell someone.

And I didn't pay either. Seems that Yahoo UK and Ireland is processing free submissions now...

[chiyo]

We have had some luck with a couple of non commercial informational sites too in the last months. I think that Yahoo is realizing that good sites exist that dont make enough revenue to afford a listing. My feeling is that they are dfinately trying to improve their database for some reason.

[KMxRetro]

I would say that its more likely that Yahoo UK and Ireland have run out of paid submissions to process! :)

[Lisa]

My site got listed for Free in the Yahoo.com Directory this month as well. I submitted to the regular yahoo. I think they will freely list good resources especially if they are non-commercial.

[Axacta]

How long did it take Lisa?

[highman]

Yep me too, free listing and commercial.

[Lisa]

Under 2 days. It was faster then DMOZ, they took 5 days.

[Axacta]

I think I'm gonna cry...

[KMxRetro]

My UK and Ireland submission took around 2 weeks to get in.

[Hunter]

I just got one in too... last week. It's a non-commercial site and it took three try's over a two month period. I agree with Chiyo:

I think that Yahoo is realizing that good sites exist that dont make enough revenue to afford a listing. My feeling is that they are dfinately trying to improve their database for some reason.

you can just feel things changing slightly/lately for some reason.

[Big_Balou]

Highman,

a free commercial listing ? Where did you submit to ?

[EliteWeb]

One of my sites was just added, no paying either. I didnt submit to .uk or ireland. it was just the .com.

[whats up skip]

I think there are two keys to obtaining a free listing with Yahoo.

1. Site must contain useful, but not really commercial information. (Forget it if your site is all about selling a service or product.)

2. The site submission must be drafted in such a way that it requires very little effort for them to submit it.

I don't know if this applies to UK, but that is what happened with the Yahoo.

[highman]

>a free commercial listing ? Where did you submit to ?

to uk yahoo, submitted the site to its correct category which is in shopping, took a while of patient, not over zealous, resubmission but it paid of in the end ;)

[markd]

Blimey! I didn't even realise a 'Free Submit' option was available now. I thought that more or less every category went straight to the Biz Express form!

[diddlydazz]

Got one of mine in within 48Hrs through yahoo.com free submit

non-commercial (sort of ;))

They even emailed me to tell me :)

Dazz

[kfander]

Do Yahoo editors have assigned categories? And are there some that maybe aren't assigned to anyone? The reason I ask is that there seems to be some categories that are very well maintained while others have few listings and no descriptions.

I submitted a non-commercial site (in profile) to Yahoo about a month ago. The category that I submitted it to (reactive attachment disorder) has only eight listed sites, half of them without descriptions and, since my livelihood does not depend upon this site being listed in Yahoo, I submitted it via free submission, deciding that, while I can't afford the paid submission cost, I can afford to wait for someone to get to it.

But now I'm wondering, does anyone at Yahoo ever go there?

[DaveN]

I think they have closed the doors.

I'm only getting the express submission page

DaveN

[DaveN]

sorry my mistake

doors still open

DaveN

[ritch_b]

...people have managed to get listed in 48 hours?...

...damn - and to think how pleased I was at getting on in six days!...good number of referrals still!...

[brotherhood of LAN]

Yahoo won me over when they listed my non-commercial site within a week to their snazzy PR8 page :)

Now for DMOZ and their PR9 equivalent .....

I think it's right that Yahoo accepts some free submissions. 5 or more years ago Yahoo was only the cornerstone because it was a portal to all the free stuff :)

[Napoleon]

Hmmm... this is interesting.

One of my most high profile sites just got added - and I didn't submit it to Yahoo or any regional variant. It just appeared.

This obviously suggests that at least one editor is pro-actively seeking quality sites. This one is commercial, but does have quite a lot of useful (free) information on it, which is actually my usual style (I try to make the sites valuable with sellables as an extra).

The one thing it does do is make the search returns much more similar to Google. The site was #2 for its key search term and is now #2 on Yahoo as well. The sites surrounding it are pretty much the same as well.

The other question is why? September is looming (judgement day - FAST/Google/Ink) and I suggest that there could be linkage here. I've not got my head around it yet though regarding theories.

[austtr]

There may be a guideline in Yahoo! to give consideration to freebie sites if the category is low on numbers. I got a craft site (it sells products, so it is definitely commercial) accepted as a freebie quite some time ago, perhaps 8-9 months back.

The category only had a handful of sites and I wondered at the time if the site was accepted because the category gained by having the extra entry.

Just a thought.... no factual evidence to offer.