Click on each hyperlink to view details of the subject.

• What type of Web sites should be added to Web-Beacon?
  
• The site is a sub URL?
  
• The site is an affiliate site?
  
• Hate, Illegal, Pornographic and violent sites?
  
• How many listings can a site have?
  
• What is the correct URL?
  
• What is the correct topic for a site?
  
• How to write a correct title:
  
• How to write a correct description:
  
• What is Spam?
  
• What are Keywords?
  

• Merriam-Webster Dictionary
• Language Translation
  
• Guide to Grammar and Style

What type of Web sites should be added to the directory?

Websites added to the Web-Beacon Directory should be quality sites that add original content and value to the directory. We are building the best directory on the net. Quality content is key. Sites which have one or more of the following qualities should not be listed:

• Any firearms, explosives, or weapons.

• Any food that is not packaged or does not comply with all laws governing the sale of food to consumers by commercial merchants.

• Any items that are indecent or obscene, that are hateful or racially, sexually, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, that contain child pornography, that are otherwise pornographic in nature, or are harmful to minors.

• Any controlled substances or pharmaceuticals.

• Any items that are counterfeit or stolen.

• Any dangerous items.

• Any goods or services that do not, in fact, exist.

• Any registered or unregistered securities.

• Any items that violate or infringe the rights of other parties.

• Any items that you do not have the legal right to sell.

• Any items where paying web-beacon.com any of the required transactional or listing fees would cause Web-Beacon.com to violate any law. Web-Beacon.com reserves the right to delete any objectionable sites.

• Any site which is a subURL or page that can be reached from the main page should not be listed. There may be some exceptions which will be decided on by the community. - See "What is a Proper URL" for more information.

• Sites that contain affiliate links, with content provided by the associated partner, should not be listed. Web-Beacon sites should have original content.

• Travel services or agents using partnered, affiliated, authorized agent or pay for usage booking services.

• Spam/Spamming is prohibited. With direction by Staff, sites may be refused listing if they are being spammed in our directory.

• Hate, Illegal, Pornographic and Violent sites which advocate violence or illegal acts against a person or group of people will not be listed. Sites containing visual representation of extreme violence or lewdness should not be listed, unless such material in its context has been deemed appropriate by this community. Sites that contain pornographic text or images should not be submitted. This includes sites that contain links to sites with such material via text links or banners. The majority of most non-pornographic sexual content sites may be deemed acceptable. Sites may include nudity, IF the nature of the material (as determined by Web-Beacon.com) is not to arouse the viewer. Examples of such sites would include those which are educational or medical in nature. For instance, sites which have the intent of training women how to perform a breast exam or teaching men how to check for testicular cancer would be acceptable. The placement of any sites which may seem questionable will be decided upon by Web-Beacon Staff.

• The site must clearly define its purpose, products, and/or services.

• The site, or its contents, must not already appear in Web-Beacon.com.

• The site must contain substantively unique content, as determined by Web-Beacon.com's staff (submitting multiple URLs to the same content is not submitting unique content).

• The site should not contain any parts or pages under construction.

• All links on the site must work with links to relevant content.

• The site must support multiple browsers and capabilities {e.g., no Netscape-only or Jave-only sites}

• The site must be up, running and accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

• The site must not contain any content, products, services or other information that, in Web-Beacon.com's reasonable determination, may be illegal to sell under any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, that may infringe or violate anyone's rights, or that, Web-Beacon.com believes, in its sole discretion, is inflammatory, dangerous, offensive, or otherwise inconsistent with the spirit of Web-Beacon.com and its affiliates.

The site is a sub URL

Sub URLs (deeplinks) or pages that can be reached from their main page should not be listed. There may be some exceptions which will be decided on by the community.

- See What is the correct URL for more information.

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The site is an affiliate site.

Sites that contain only affiliate links, with content provided by the associated partner, should not be listed. You can often recognize these sites by their links and by their URLs, which contain referral IDs.

Web-Beacon sites should have original content.

NOTE: Affiliate member sites may be listed for the public as well as our editors for a $7.50 fee in the 'Business> Opportunities' area of the Directory. (See the special link on our front page) These sites may be approved/added only by Staff and editors who add affiliate sites in the Directory may be terminated.

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Hate, Illegal, Pornographic and Violent Sites

Sites which advocate violence or illegal acts against a person or group of people will not be listed. Sites containing visual representation of extreme violence or lewdness should not be listed, unless such material in its context has been deemed appropriate by this community. Sites that contain pornographic text or images should not be submitted. This includes sites that contain links to sites with such material via text links or banners.

The majority of most non-pornographic sexual content sites may be deemed acceptable. Sites may include nudity, IF the nature of the material is not to arouse the viewer. Examples of such sites would include those which are educational or medical in nature. For instance, sites which have the intent of training women how to perform a breast exam or teaching men how to check for testicular cancer would be acceptable. Any sites that may seem questionable should be decided upon by Web-Beacon Staff.

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How many listings can a site have?

Considering the wide variety of topics that are covered and the topics that are continuously being added, most sites will easily fit into our directory. However, each site will be limited to one listing.

If a topic is not easily found, perform a search using keywords to find similar sites already listed in the Directory.

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What is the correct URL?

The URL must be in the 'standard' form which includes the use of "http://" , "www" and a backslash "/".
For example: http://www.web-beacon.com/

The overall principle is to submit the 'short' version of the URL
For example: rather than http://www.web-beacon.com/index.html just use http://www.web-beacon.com/

Do not use URLs that are deeper into the Site, if they can be reached from the Site's front page. http://www.web-beacon.com/info/help_desk.html would not be approved as a site submission as this page is accessible from the short URL.

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What is the correct topic for a site?

Deciding on the correct topic for a site may be a challenging task.

If a topic is not easily found, perform a search using keywords to find similar sites already listed in the Directory.

If you feel that a proper topic does not exist you can submit your site to the next level up, or you may contact Staff to suggest a topic be created

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How to Write a Title:

Use the correct title. You will usually find the correct title on the site itself. To assist with this peruse the top of the page, the copyright at the bottom of the page, and in a business or shopping site look at the contact details. Checking all these will produce the correct title.

If all these fail: IE users should check View > Source to find the correct title and Netscape users should check View > Page Source.

Some titles will need abbreviations in order to fit in the allotted space. Use proper abbreviations. Example: The University of North Carolina could be abbreviated UNC in a long title.

Do not use apostrophes in the title.
Example: Farmer's Almanac should be listed as Farmers Almanac. The scripts interpret an apostrophe as " \' "

Use initial caps in titles. Do not use all CAPITAL LETTERS. Example: Joy of Cajun Cooking, not JOY OF CAJUN COOKING. Using all caps is considered rude netiquette, and is difficult to read.

Capitalize the first letter of the first word and all main words, but not conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor, so, and yet), short prepositions (such as to, on, at and in), or articles (a, an, and the) unless they are the first word of the title.

The is capitalized if it is part of a proper name such as The Hague or The New York Times.

Do not use "The, A, An, or similar words" to start a title. If the title is a proper name, such as a book, newspaper, etc., - the title would be entered American Heritage Dictionary, The or New York Times, The. Otherwise, a site with the title The Joy of Cajun Cooking would be entered as Joy of Cajun Cooking.

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How to Write a Description:

• Write a brief, objective phrase or sentence about the site, and what it offers or features about the product or service.

• Describe a unique feature of the site.

• Remember that site design and navigation should not be part of the description.

• Chat, multimedia, and e-commerce may be part of the features described.

• Use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. Proofread your descriptions.

• Write out the meaning of acronyms, which may have been used in the title.

• Do not start your description with "This site" or anything similar, as it is obviously a site.

• You may start with "Features..." or "Offers...." or similar wording.

• Do not use the site title or in the description.

• Do not use all CAPITAL LETTERS.

• Do not capitalize the first letter of every word in the description.

• Do not use marketing slogans or offer subjective opinions, positive or negative.

• Do not copy descriptions from the site itself.

• If you use short phrases copied from the site, enclose the phrase in quotation marks.

• Do not cut and paste the same description for all the sites you submit.

• Do not use quantities in your descriptions, as they will probably change and your description will no longer be accurate. As an example, use "Features downloadable casino games..." rather than "Features 25 downloadable casino games..."

• Write descriptions in English, and notate in the description if the site is multilingual or only available in a language other than English.

What is Spam?

Spamming is prohibited. Sites may be refused listing if they are being spammed in our directory.

Most affiliate sites, multiple links to the same site, porn sites or websites that link to porn, hate sites, any sites which promote violence, and sites which violate international laws may be classified as spam. Below is a comprehensive list of what is considered spam by Web-Beacon standards.

• Multiple links to the same site, porn sites or websites that link to porn.

• Multiple submissions using different URL's; either unique or variations of one URL.

• Redirected sites including sites that redirect the main page and sites that redirect by clicking on any of the links on the main page.

• All affiliate, associate and authorized vendor or distributor websites.

• Hidden service website, the main page will display something totally different from what you get from the links. "Cloaked Page"
• Websites uniquely different with unique URL's but offering the same links or service. "Getting very popular and hard to detect" Excessive banners or popup advertising "over 1/3 of page displayed has banners or over 2 popup's on a single page". This includes the now frequently-used load-behind pages.

• Java bomb pages. Sites that load a page or pages every time you close a page. "Mostly used in adult sites"

• Sites that offer no original content. An example is a chat website that has no chatrooms of its own and redirects to other chat services. "The purpose of a site like this is normally to collect banner hits."

• Sites that promote violence or hate and sites that violate international laws.

• Websites that automatically change or try to change the users computer settings. "Auto download, make this your home page, and dial a phone number are the most popular."

What are Keywords?

Keywords are words or phrases that identify a document's contents. Words that may be used by viewers searching for information. Any word or phrase that has particular significance to the content of your website. When someone uses a search engine to find information you have, your website should be suggested in response to the search query when your keywords are used.

To find keywords for a site: Go to - View and source once you have the web site viewable. For example: Web-Beacon.com

Take at look and you will find this:

META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="search, web-beacon, go, free, engine, site, category, internet, directory, tools, searching, searchers, find, web-beacon.com, web, free submission, art, automotive, business, career, job, computer, education, entertainment, media, games, government, health, fitness, home, family, news, real estate, reference, society, culture, sports, recreation, shopping, relationship, lifestyle, world, regional, arts, careers, jobs, computers, sport, editor, editors, volunteer, volunteers"

These are all the keywords after: CONTENT="

NOTE: Keywords must not be duplicated, must not be someone else's copyright, and may be in singular and plural form.

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