I'm no dmoz expert by any means but I've read plenty in regards to how hard it is to get listed in dmoz.
Oddly enough, my main site was listed in dmoz within weeks of submission and to this day I'm not entirely sure why? I think I just got lucky and happened to submit at the exact right time or more likely, hit on a reasonably inactive topic that was easy to get added to.
A few things to check prior to submitting which may help (it seemed to work in my case):
- do not have "Under Construction" pages
- make sure your main page has plenty of informative content
- if possible, make it easy to find your "about us" page or similar content to your purpose online
- purchase a url for more than one year (minimum 2); this clearly shows you intend to be around for a while (Google likes this too apparently)
- if you have a doorway page, get rid of it
- disable any popups or popunders (shame on you if you have them anyway)
- do not cover your pages in ads, while everyone wants to turn a buck some are clearly more obvious about it than others
It may not hurt to put yourself in the shoes of a dmoz editor and try to look at your site as a visitor. If your unable to do so (yes it's possible to be blinded by your own greatness), have others look at it and give you honest reviews. Treat these suggestions as gold as it's your audience that determines your sites worth, not you.
...all vanity, pride, etc., aside, do you see honest value in your site and would you list it if given hundreds of other sites to list in the same category?
Either way, I'm listed but for those that put so much emphasis on getting in let me state clearly, getting into dmoz does
NOT translate to tons of targeted traffic. I'm lucky if I see more than 2 or 3 hits weekly directed to my site via dmoz or their "spin offs".
I'd recommend polishing the crap out of your dmoz submission and then leaving it to the powers that be.
Once submitted, take the energy you were going to put into your dmoz resubmissions and focus it on good, helpful, informative and unique content on your main page.
Anyway, this is all IMHO, maybe it helped, maybe it didn't; either way I got in by observing everything above.
Good Luck,
Ken