I've been looking at some of the more higher ranking directories around such as stpt.com, avivadirectory.com, 2yi.net, allwebscape.com, urlz.net and so on. My question is are my marketing dollars well spent by paying for a listing, or even featured listing?
Intereting question. I've never considered directories to be of much importance. Most directories are built for the purpose of spiders and not for users. A directory gets you a backlink, but you are unlikely to find that it gets you any visitors. Apply for DMOZ as DMOZ's additions are used throughout the Internet - for instance, on other Netscape sites such as Alexa. Apart from that, you wil acquire a lot more organic visitors if you targeted your attention to some true marketing schemes.
I personally wouldn't pay for a directory link, unless it was DMOZ. I use directories strictly for the backlinks, for SEO purposes. I don't expect, and normally don't get visitors from directories, so I wouldn't pay for the links.
I never pay for for links in directories and don't intend to. I'm not too fond of them personally. I'd rather spend my time on more efficient forms of marketing like article marketing.
I wouldn't pay for a directory link unless it was on a niche directory that is popular. Someone mentioned that these directories are built mainly for purpose of the search engines, that doesn't include niche directories. For example, hotscripts can get you alot of traffic if you list your scripts there and is a directory. Personally I paid for some popular directories around 5 years ago and still have my site in them, but would say that the money could have been put to better uses.
Better spend the money/time on some quality linkbait quality content. Submit to digg and you'll get even better links.
I pay alot to for some directory before just want to gain higher PR but at the end i get nothing much. now my sites are in DMOZ and i only forcus on quality contents.
I have never really marketed with directories before.. Do people really use them? It seems like the links from directories would be from "bad neighborhoods"
i have listing the directories that you mention. in my experience , they worth every dollar and all of them are offering permanent listings
I have paid for listings in some of the cheaper directories, and found that the money was wasted, but at the other (more expensive) end of the spectrum, it might be another story.
I will vouch for this But - it is not all about the directory listing either. I have a few scripts listed in hotscripts directory (and don't pay for a listing) and now after 2 years I still get on average 20 vists/day directly from hotscripts. Now, I need the listings, but more importantly, I need the content that makes the directory listing valuable to back up the listing. If I was making money from my scripts then I would definately pay for a featured listing within the directory and probably get huge amounts of traffic. If a directory is popular and niche then it should be part of your strategy - and a small cost would not turn me off.
Don't ever pay for directory links, but I would outsource someone to gather a few hundred or so directory links for you, for a small fee. Its true, these links dont bring in traffic, but do build up your backlinks, which accomadates Google and Yahoo quite well when they start to rank your site. Again...just use free directory or reciprocal link directory listings. The only one I might pay for is Yahoo directory, depending on how soon you want your site receiving top 20 rankings.