I think people sometimes get the wrong impression about what it means to be penalized by Google for something. The outgoing links from a site might be penalized, or the site that operates a link farm might be penalized, but that means that the links would be discounted. It does not mean that negative PR is applied to the places that such places link to. As others have stated, no webmaster can control whether or not their site gets linked to by someone else, so web sites are not directly penalized for being linked to from someplace else. So far it seems that penalties apply to PR transfers for a link... with the worst result being that a link to you is useless. If you aren't talking about PR, suddenly acquiring links in an unnatural way to manipulate SERP results does appear to be something Google looks out for. Again though, unless you are going crazy, it doesn't seem that casually submitting to appropriate directories would be of any concern at all. Relax.
You will not get penalized for submitting your site to 10 directories, or even 1000 directories. If it was that easy id spend one week and destroy my competitors by submitting their links to directories. Point being is no incoming link will hurt you because you can control who links to you.
I agree and for sure the link submition will increase the number of visitors not only from directories but also from google...
What about paying a nominal amount i.e. less than $100 to have someone submit to directories for you.
This will not matter because Google can not know if you paid someone to do the work for you unless they use an automated software tehn it might be picked up.
Directory submission is the most reliable way to get one-way links. I don't think submitting to lower PR directories will do harm to you. Who knows these lower PR directories may be higher PR directories in the future?
Submit away. Paid services are a nice supplement, but make sure they are not submitting to ones you've already submitted to or visa versa. No one-way inbound link can ever hurt, as others have stated. The key to directory link building is using a system that works around your schedule. Get a good list of free directories and set aside a little time every day, every other day, every week, or whatever your schedule allows. There are programs that help keep it all together, help submit, track, etc. I've never found one that I like, so I have an excel file with potential directories. I use it to keep track of when I submit, what anchor text I use, and when they get posted. Because I work with several sites and more coming all the time, I use this list to help rank the best directories based on several criteria, expecially PR, swiftness of inclusion, and ease of submission. Once a link is up, I track it after a month or two to make sure it is getting indexed. If not, that site moves down my list, regardless of its PR and other factors. If the SEs aren't looking at my link, it is worthless. Directories change. Free today is recip tomorrow and paid the next day. I monitor the directories thread here to get in on as many "Free for 1 week" directories as possible. As someone stated earlier, a PR0 directory today could be a PR 4+ directory in a few months if it's run right. Bottom line, directories are a good asset (for now) because you can control your anchor text in most, they don't take a lot of time to submit, and you can usually get into a good neighborhood with related sites sitting next to yours. With the directory pump-up session done, I have to say that they are still a very minor part of a good link-building campaign. We spend about 10% of our time and effort submitting to directories. They are just the appetizer in a 7 or 8 course meal, so don't over-value them.