It's a minefield for sure. I've tried several directory submit services and you never get the same thing twice. Some only complete half of the number they say they will. Some will complete all the submissions but you get a lot of rejections. Most of them still rely on you to validate (via email) the submission. You get a lot of incorrect categories. The worst part is the reporting which in some cases is non-existant. I want to know 2 things - the URL of the page where the listing appears, and the anchor text used (for the title) with the listing. Why is this so difficult? The whole point of paying someone is to SAVE YOU TIME and all of the problems above just add to your time :-(
I agree link submissions is very irretating, but yet we have to do them or pay someone to do it for us
Automation is definitely the way to go with mass submissions. Obviously, I'm a little biased here, but I also swore by Roboform before I created my own tool. I think Firefox also has an extension similar to Roboform - InFormEnter or something like that.
I just looked at SubmitNow! I didn't get very far. Those one page "Sales Letter" sites really turn me off. And yes, the FF extension is InFormEnter (I wrongly called it In Form Filler).
Guys,thanks all for your input. As I started the thread, three days manual submission only is very uninspired work. Following your advices, only few submissions per day by using some tools (not automated tools) is better for "long time strategy". Now my feeling is better , some time I even enjoy it. May be I will promote Manual Submission Service soon . Cheers.
this is a very informative thread, thanks for suggesting the tools and directory listing site. i was also tired after submitting to all these directories but now i hope it will change with this too.
I use inFormEnter. It's takes me about 45 sec to 1 minute for each site (average) when you use a good list, and there a a lot of them out there. You can a link to some instructions to setting it up in my signature.
It does if you're using keywords in your anchor text. Most directories require you to use your actual site title for the title/anchor text, so hopefully your official name contains your keywords. For example, if your keyword is "Widget" and you create links with the title "Blue Widget Company" because your site is called "Blue Widget Company", then your serp will increase for "blue", "widget", "company", and combinations thereof. On the other hand, if your link title is "Joe's Shop" and you stuff your description (which is not usually linked to your site) full of the keyword "Widget", then the directory's serp for your keyword will increase. Do searches on "By Request DJ & Karaoke Company" and various combinations of those words, and you'll see that my wife's website (www.byrequest.dj) ranks well for not only her business name but also combinations of her name like "DJ Company", "By Request Company", or "DJ and karaoke" even though those are phrases she doesn't exactly target ("DJ Company" is too broad and not really a search term that brides use; "By Request Company" is not a good search term either; and "DJ and Karaoke" is really just a combination of two popular search terms...no one searches for both at the same time)