Related Article:

• Adventures of a GooEditor by rwkat

One of the things that makes the ODP special is that we do not rely on site submissions for our listings. In fact a forum thread called There's More to Editing than Unreviewed is full of good ideas.

By the way, do you ever wonder why it is called "mining"?
Is it because you have to dig through a lot of dirt and rubbish to find a gem?
Or because it's easier with tools?
Or because your search will lead you to places you wouldn't normally go?
.....Or because it's hard work, long hours and the pay is atrocious?

Fortunately, many editors have spent a lot of their time making this important job much easier, so next time you want to do a little category building, take advantage of the following resources.

Where to Dig

• There is more to searching than Google, as a glance at Search Engines will prove.
• Many editors in Regional/ categories make use of telephone directories, TV and print advertisements, billboards, and business cards.
• Most websites include a Links page, so if it seems to be a worthwhile list, try running it through GooEdit (see below) to see if they are already in the directory.
• Online news sources are often an excellent source of links, especially for current events.

Exploring Old Mine-shafts

Promising link pages have already been gathered for most branches of the directory, so it is worth seeing if any of them has suitable links for your particular project. (Remember that sites in these categories are awaiting a diligent miner, not just direct adding.)

• Directory-wide Links
• Regional Links
• Video Games for review
• Games Links
• KandT Links

Mining Equipment

There are two items I never leave home without, and in fact I keep them both in my browser toolbar for easy access: the amazingly useful GooEdit and a Bookmarklet called "Add to ODP (new window)".

I have a natural aversion to power editing tools but I was converted by an enthusiastic newsletter article written by rwkat entitled Adventures of a GooEditor, and since then I have used it nearly every day. However, you will get off to a much better start than I did if you take the time to read the Instructions for Link Mining which are included in the GooEdit documentation, but which I found only when researching this article.

If you do not want to try GooEdit, there are other tools which make adding a list of links much simpler, including Multiple Links Adder and Multi URL Add Helper.

- makrhod