I guess stick with directories who have a high PR like dmoz. CanadianEh already provide a good list. If you want more source of directories, you can try to visit directory critic.
It depends on what your website is about and your budget. dmoz - you can submit, but don't sit around waiting to be listed Yahoo, botw, and Business.com expensive $$$$ I am really surprised at some of the directories people are recommending for a "starter". I wonder if they themselves have the budget to spend on some of the directories they recommended to you. If those are in fact within your budget you could also submit to avivadirectory, romow, ezilon, etc. If you have limited budget, then go to some of the free and paid directory lists around here. Use the search function above, don't start another thread. Or just google for directories within your specific niche. Good luck PS @nowimhere --- I have no freaking idea what you are talking about, read the original question spammer.
very important question is whether you are looking for free or paid, also if you have a budge, also how competetive your market is
If I were limiting myself to 5, which is a very short-sighted approach, I would look for directories that are in my site's niche. I would then evaluate which ones seem to be the best resource and most likely to bring SEO benefits and direct traffic.
I'd start with directories in your niche. Then look to branch out to some of the better general directories.
1. Yahoo directory 2. Best of the web directory 3. Dmoz directory 4. Google directory 5. Bing directory
well for a top 5 paid directories i'd say yahoo, joeant, goguides, greenstalk, and site-sift. plus botw. they've been around for a while and many of their pages are cached and regularly indexed. And dmoz for the free directories is the most important one. there are of course many lists out there. i tend to use web-directories.ws the most, and then directorycritic.com and info.vilesilencer.com etc