Pay directories question

Hello, I am curious if people actually pay to be included in directories? I notice there are several that have pay options. Why would someone pay to be in a directory vs. use say a free one, or just get listed in an SE?

Are there really directories out there that warrant a fee? Is it worth it?

-ivan

 

There are actually thousands of paid directories around.
I do pay submission fee to these directories.

Small Business Directory (annual fee)
Yahoo Directory (annual fee)
Incrawler (one time fee)
Ajdee (one time fee)

Why these directories?
- They have been around for a while
- They are professionally ran directories
- Great customer service
- Advertisement free
- Fast listings

 

With hundreds of free directories to submit to, I don't see a lot of value in pay directories.

And Yahoo, from the list above, no longer uses regular HTML links in their directory. This makes a Yahoo directory listing not worth $5.

 

I disagree, I paid off my small investment and actually made money on those directories. Especially Yahoo. It brought me more then a $1000 just this year alone, from direct hit customers.

 

As a tool for SEO, this probably does make it not worth $5

 

pay for the traffic. For SEO, try get as many free ones as possible.

 

I prefer to pay for directory submissions on sites that have good PR, good categories, etc. I mostly use free submissions, but I have paid for listings in UncoverTheNet, Bob Mutch's directories and some others. Money well spent, IMO.

As opposed to buying temporary links on a monthly basis from sites, paying for inclusion to good directories represents a life-time (or whatever that is, these days) investment and I don't have to keep up with those I've paid links for temporarily.

 

I spend a lot of money on quality paid directories that cost $20 - $50 one time. Bob Mutch directories are a great example.

Why? I believe that these help a new site's ranking. The primary reason I feel, is that if the big 3 SEs find you in a well defined, common category they now know a lot about you and will associate your site with known keywords related to that cat.

For example, I put some effort into optimizing for interactive meetings, but not much. I'm normally in the business services category, but do not use 'business services' at all on-page, or off. If I search G for 'business services interactive meetings' I'm #1.

While this is not absolute proof, it is the basis for my view that properly categorized in quality directories does help, new sites in particular.

/*tom*/

 

Bob Mutch directories ? first time I am hearing of this ... what are his directories ?

 

Bob is a member here. He keeps track of a lot of directories and shares his resources here. A very nice and helpful member. He offered a directory package a while back for these:

http://www.beaconpost.com/
http://www.directorymarker.com/
http://www.houndit.com/
http://www.seedirectory.com/
http://www.wizdirectory.com/

I've paid for inclusion on these as well. I'm always looking for quality paid directories, expecially package deals.

 

Bob really is a very nice person. I can vouch for that . He is ready to help out anyone with tips and suggestions if you ask him nicely

 

BTW, you can check out this list of paid directories here http://www.hedir.com/paid.pdf
I am going to update this list in a short while .Anyone having a good paid directory can PM me. I will add it to the list.

 

I always thought buying temporary links on a monthly basis is a bad idea. You may need some quality links from content pages besides paid directory listings.