truthly, none...directories are now bad. don't invest your money in them. the best way to earn link backs is by manually doing them. as a wordpress blogroll, or even a sig. the chances of you getting viewers in a directory is 1/100 i believe.
if you ask, people will tell their own.. BTW i recommend dirjournal.com romow authoritydirectory greenstalk and so on.
One would normally fire up with a comment like that in a directory forum, but i see it as a positive in that if more of the QBC see directories as a dead option and link chasers who need to artificially chase links because they can not stand on their own feet and focus on building a quality site that builds naturally now see blog roles and sigs as the new in thing then what that leaves is a positive base for those genuine about the hard work involved in building a directory. If what you state is true then sooner or later it will be the blog roles etc that will face the crap as directories have endured, and then things will turn full circle and the next best option will be then mooted as the best way to manipulate quick bucks / artificial results. In regards chances of getting viewers in a directory % i am not sure where you get your numbers from, but we have people who list just for the link only but then those same people start crying my visitor return is less than 1% etc and they are not viable. It seems like many want their cake and eat it to, and for the icing they all want it for free or they cry foul. Even with that a 1% CTR in most directories i see would be a top effort, again what are people expecting if you want a higher CTR then pay for some spot advertising that is highly targeted, but the notion of listing in some unknown directory then crying foul with a low CTR is rubbish.
There are no "best" directories. The best are the ones that suit you in terms of your budget and their quality.
You want to buy links in a directory? (for example at partners section or recomended sites) or to pay for a review and a list of your site in the directory?If you want the first option better not to do it,if you want the second option just go to google and type in your main keywords and add at the end web directory and you find the best FOR YOU web directories.
check directories in my signature if you interested to buy link.. And directory submission is not a bad practice its increase traffic and pr but just submit to quality link directories with unique content and options. Do not choose duplicate or directories on same hosting company or ip with same database . cheerS!!
for me take a look they page before you submit... if that directory have 30 page for your business niche, so how long your listing will be index?
Checkout www.DirectoryRate.com also look at Aviva Directory's strongest directory list and you wont go wrong.
Choose the best paid directories is totally a hard time for me. Honestly im doing some study for certain directories that give me a good position as featured link. Eg, visibility and which page. Im start with top 10 directories ( been choosing by me according to my niche, directories PR,etc). I'm testing it with my new site. Each time im develop a new site i will choose another top 5 directories and stick with few paid directories. It will cost you but to choose the best suited for your site it really worth it.
we look at directories from a pr point of view , the better the pr and alexa traffic rank the better the chance of some traffic
Here's a list of directories that offer the most for the money. You can sort it by price, pr, traffic, etc. Or you can use the search to find the good value directories that meet your exact criteria.
I would say the top 10, top 20, top30 are all right here: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=web+directory&aq=f&oq=