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Zeal Works for Nonprofits
There was a time when you could submit a Website to LookSmart
for editorial review, and expect to have your site listed
in the LookSmart directory within a few weeks.
Then LookSmart moved to a system requiring a paid editorial
review and bought Zeal.com, a directory built by volunteer
editors, who edited in exchange for credits toward donations
to their favorite nonprofit organizations. The rumors about
a Zeal-LookSmart merger began in late 2000, prompting many
Zealots to rush to add as many of their favorite commercial
sites as they could before the potential rule changes could
occur. Zeal-LookSmart merger occurred in July, 2001. Many
of the commercial sites listed by Zealots still exist in LookSmart
in noncommercial categories, but those that existed in "commercial"
categories were removed.
Since the merge, LookSmart has recruited many new Zealots,
as the editors are known. By the way, Zealots no longer edit
in exchange for credits toward donations to their favorite
nonprofits. They're just volunteers.
It is very easy to become a Zealot. You simply register,
read the guidelines, and take a member quiz. At first the
quiz was very difficult, but LookSmart has continued to lower
the barriers to participation, and now the quiz is a snap.
Plus, you can take it as often as you like until you pass
- there is no penalty for failure (a feature that LookSmart
removed late in 2001).
After you pass the member quiz, you begin submitting non-profit
organizations' Websites. When you've demonstrated competence
in selecting appropriate sites, suggesting the best categories,
writing good titles and descriptions, you may become a "zealot"
or editor of a category. Then, like in the Open Directory
Project, you have editorial control over that category.
Zeal Directory Analysis
URL:
http://www.zeal.com/
FREE ADD URL:
http://www.zeal.com/users/become_a_zealot.jhtml
Non-profit Websites and individual subpages of for-profit
sites which have not paid LookSmart for participation in another
program.
THE KEY:
1) Become a Zealot.
2) If you pay LookSmart, you will not be able to submit pages
from your site through Zeal.
DIRECTORY:
Become an Zealot and you can build it.
Entries to Zeal have the following editorial constraints:
Title must be less than 65 characters.
Description must be less than 170 characters.
You must use complete sentences to describe the Website,
not the product the site is selling or the business the site
is promoting!
ABSOLUTELY use no promotional or subjective language.
SEARCH RESULTS:
First, people search LookSmart, not Zeal. The purpose of Zeal
is to feed the LookSmart directory and search engine, not
to be a search engine in its own right. The LookSmart search
results come from the LookSmart directory listings, to which
Zealots can add directly in certain categories. The results
are derived from the titles, descriptions, Website quality
ratings, category names, and category descriptions in the
LookSmart directory.
RELATIONSHIPS:
LookSmart provides the directories for:
MSN, AltaVista, Excite/Webcrawler, iWon, CNN.com, Juno, Time
Warner, prodigy, and directories of hundreds of ISP's.
336-408-9075
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