Is this classed as an authority link. The link has a redirect in the directory, so is it counted at all? Thanks.
I've seen them "counted" by Google. As to how much they "help", your guess is as good as the next guys
Out of five new websites that I have launched this year, all of them were in the yahoo directory. Hasn't helped them get out of the sandbox at all. So I would say no, but the yahho directory doesn't hurt, it gets you steady bot flow to your site and some page rank. In additon, yahoo likes to list its own sites.
Like any link they take time to mature in Google's algorithms and yes as entries are reviewed prior to acceptance they are seen as an authority. I have several similar sites and after a few months there are noticeable differences between those inside and out of the Yahoo directory.
They do help. Not for Sandbox but nothing seems to help that. Yahoo is seen as an authority as others have mentioned. It's worth it if you can afford the yearly fee or if you can get in for free.
Practically i have seen couple of sites which were included for free were rated much higher in yahoo compared to paid submissions Kindly correct me if my "personal" assumption is wrong.
Non-commercial sites are allowed to submit for consideration ... and wait, and wait, and wait - good luck
Has anyone tried to write an article, submit it to one of these free article resources online ( like ww.ezinearticles ) to get a link back to their website from them? Is this effective for builing up page rank?