I came across this quote So is it really worth doing the whole directory submission, how much are they devalued? Anyone got more stuff on this?
Its worth it. Wouldnt believe everything wrote in that paragraph. I have sites which their only backlinks are from directories and they do just fine.
I think that directory submission could even harm your site because there are some FFA sites among directories which might be seen as a link farm from Google. Especially if they employ reciprocal. But, niche directories (search on google "your niche resources", "your niche links", etc.) with decent PR should not harm you. dmoz and yahoo.
directories DO NOT contain just links, they also contain TITLES and DESCRIPTIONS, so their pages have content. that's why i am 100% sure they are not seen as link farms by search engines. i also confirm that just submiting to directories can get you good rankings. for example, this site has just been submited to directories, no other links, and it has got PR5 which is very good nowadays