First off, and what many webmasters fail to understand if perusing the various webmaster forums is indicative of the general consensus, is that first and foremost, DMOZ is not a listing service for webmasters. The purpose of DMOZ is to categorise and list suitable sites which are of relevant interest to the end user, the visitor, who uses DMOZ or the countless number of other websites that carries the DMOZ Data. This is the purpose of the directory, to benefit the end user.

The fact that many other sites including google utilise the data made available by DMOZ only goes to further strengthen the fact that human edited directories still to this day, hold a lot of relevance.

Webmasters need to bear in mind that no site deserves a listing in DMOZ. Below are  guidelines I made in a post on a forum recently, which I feel will help enhance the chances of your site being suitable and thus eligible for listing within DMOZ. I base this on my experience as an editor for DMOZ over the past six months:

The gambling branch of DMOZ is one of the more 'popular' category branches targetted by spammers. Hence editors who edit in any area of this branch have a lot more spam submissions to wade through than most other areas of DMOZ.

Submitting sites for listing is only one area where editors can find sites suitable for listing. Indeed, the majority of sites that are listed have been found by editors themselves, rather than the list of sites suggested by the public.

DMOZ is not a listing service for webmasters, if you do decide to submit your site, choose the most appropriate category and write a clear and concise description.

In my experience a webmaster that writes a promotional title and description to describe their site, raises a flag almost immediately.

In almost all cases however, the reviewing editor will rewrite the suggested title and description if the site in question is deemed listable. If a site has been submitted to the wrong category - an editor will move it to the most appropriate category for review.

Once you have submitted your site. Submit and forget. DO NOT SUBMIT AGAIN. By doing so, this could tag your site as spam. When your suggestion will get reviewed by an editor, no one can answer that. But if the site in question meets dmoz listing guidelines then it will eventually get listed.

If you are going to submit a site to DMOZ, make sure your site meets the listing requirements for the category you submit it to. Contrary to popular belief, DMOZ does list affiliate sites - but those sites need to offer something to the end user - ie the web surfer.

If your site is full of affiliate links and banners which far outweigh the content, then the chances of your site being listed are probably less than none. Also if the content on your site only features promotional adcopy fare, provided by the affiliate programs or something similar - then again it is very likely to never get listed.

You know what I mean - This casino is great, the best, blah blah blah.

The key to getting your site listed is to offer something which is unique to the category that you are submitting to.

Another misnomer is that sites have to have a fantastic design,. This is not the case. DMOZ is not bothered whether sites are using the latest cutting edge design technology or have been put together using MS Frontpage. The only criteria is the content.

One last thing. Even if a category does not have a listed editor, this does not mean no one can update the listings in that particular category. There are over 200 editors that can edit anywhere within the directory and there are many more who have permissions in trees directly above who can edit in all subcats.