I have never submitted to a directory before, and am wondering which one is the best? Let's leave cost out of it! With which directory will I get the most value?
Ummmm, I am not sure if you plan on submitting the keywordsandcopy site. If you are, you should consider making it pretty before submitting to directories so the accept rate will be higher.
It all depends on what your goals are. If you are looking for traffic to your website then that is a tough call. If you are looking for page rank and backlinks then you want to stick to the ones that are 100% seo friendly. I recommend that you take a look at http://info.vilesilencer.com/ which provides a great resourse of seo friendly directories. But again it all depends on the goals that you have set for your business. Check out the directory in my sig, great for pr and backlinks.
http://info.vilesilencer.com/ - Cool. Also u can check: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=seo+friendly+directory+list
How can you judge value without knowing the cost? The fact is that most free directories get hundreds of submissions, most of which are spammy. So the acceptance rate is usually low, it could take a long time for your site to get reviewed, and in some cases you may be sharing a page with a lot of other sites. The cost of submitting may just be your time, but you don't necessarily get the best value out of submitting to free directories, especially if you don't have the sort of site that editors are crying out to list.
Submitting to the newer directories increases your success rate because the acceptance rate is higher.
Rather than looking for that one best paid directory - try out some of the services that will submit to free directories. Several members on DP do this type of service - it will get you up and running with some good links and then you can go for a paid directory at a later date.