Is there a way to get into dir.yahoo.com without submitting the payment? $299 US seems awful steep. Esp. for no guarantee of acceptance.
You don't need to pay to get your site submitted to Dmoz. At least I haven't needed to pay anything for my Dmoz listings lol.
If you website is non-commercial or non-profit organization or education institute then you may send a query for their free listing consideration. Otherwise you have to pay them for a listing. If I remember correctly - $299 for a regular website and $699 for adult website.
Yahoo always says it's not guaranteed (as they should say) but unless your site is egregiously violating their submission guidelines I can't see why they wouldn't accept it. The worthiness of submitting to directories like DMOZ and Yahoo would make a better (new) thread.
There is no chance of getting listed in yahoo directory without payment unless your website is non-commercial or non-profit organization.
I think non-commercial websites stand a chance of free inclusion in the Yahoo directory. But it is highly unlikely that the mods at Yahoo feel that the site suggested for free inclusion is a non-commercial one. Also, review time for a free submission is very long. The only suggested and a realistic option is to shell out $299 for a listing in Yahoo.
Just buy an existing domain with a Yahoo or DMOZ listing to avoid the Yahoo fee and the looooonnnnngggg wait for DMOZ.