Thread: Free Or Paid Directories?

I have submitted my forum to a few free directories but Ive seen a lot of ads for paid ones.

Whats the difference in results from a free directory to a paid one? :sundecided:

Paid ones usually 'not always' carry a bit more link weight to them. Everyone hits free ones, making the links watered down. Paid ones 'good ones at least' the owner busts his/her ass promoting them, putting money they make back into them. Being paid there are less outgoing links in most cases, making the paid directory much, much more valuable.

This is not always the case...

Verily though sayeth a truth there grim!

And other points of a paid directory:
1. Life is usually way longer than a free directory. Free directories have a tendency to die out as the owner realizes it is too much work and no money.
2. Good paid directories usually have little or no advertising on them (no adsense, etc). Making it easier for visitors.
3. Paid directories are more apt to either accept or reject your link real damn quick. My directories, withing 48 hours maximum. Free directories is a crap shoot (I have seen some with thousands of links waiting for approval!).
4. Yes, paid directories are advertised more heavily than free ones. Most free ones are submitted to more free directories. Most free directories, the owners never spend money to advertise.

Great points Dawg..

Few months back, on one forum, there was much discussion about having adsense and other advertising on a directory.
Seems that those who eliminated adsense and banners, got higher traffic.
Good directories I have seen that have little to no advertising (no sponsor boxes, etc also) are better looking also.

Something to think about.

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Few months back, on one forum, there was much discussion about having adsense and other advertising on a directory.
Seems that those who eliminated adsense and banners, got higher traffic.
Good directories I have seen that have little to no advertising (no sponsor boxes, etc also) are better looking also.

Something to think about.

Big time, not only to those who buy advertisments but to the occassional visitor.

Just where I want to spend my money, a place who is going to try to direct any traffic to 'adsense' ads!

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Few months back, on one forum, there was much discussion about having adsense and other advertising on a directory.
Seems that those who eliminated adsense and banners, got higher traffic.
Good directories I have seen that have little to no advertising (no sponsor boxes, etc also) are better looking also.

Something to think about.

Oh ok Ill have to pay more attention to the ads.

Thanks for the tips. If theres no money in free link directories why do people bother with them?

Originally Posted by Jase

Oh ok Ill have to pay more attention to the ads.

Thanks for the tips. If theres no money in free link directories why do people bother with them?

There is money in it for the directory, selling links 'front page' and sitewides mostly.

Other ads, or premium placement above the free listings.

Some directories start out free to get some links in them quick.

ANd most directory owners who start the freebies, do rely on adsense to make some money (have yet to find one that is making more than a few dollars per month).
Then some rely on sponsored links (my big assed problem with some of my directories).

Aaaah ok gotcha. Way too complicated for me to worry about lol

Now go to my directories and buy LOTS of regular links and featured links.
:scool: :slaugh:

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Now go to my directories and buy LOTS of regular links and featured links.
:scool: :slaugh:

For 2x the normal rate!

Very rarely do I ever submit to paid directories. Not only because I can't afford it, but also because I get good traffic from the free ones that I do submit to.

IMO 95% of directories are a waste of time. They carry very little weight in PR terms, they have problems getting all of the pages indexed, or the owner doesn't promote it.

Write some articles, and publish them on your own site (not article sites) and if the content is interesting and useful people will link to it, and you'll find this improves ranking much quicker than directories.

I strongly disagree, I've gotten many sites to pr5 just from submitting to a hundred or more 'free' directories.
It however does partially depend on the niche of the site for how effective one method will be over another.

Of course solid links from a related site will be more important than a directory listing, directory listings though still can and do help.

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Now go to my directories and buy LOTS of regular links and featured links.
:scool: :slaugh:

Lol I would but I better not spend the competition money from my forum or my members wont be impressed :slaugh:

I had a list of about 1000 free directories. I submitted my site to all of them last summer. About 40% sent me email that the web site was accepted. Now I wanted to submit my new web site to the same directories. Only 5-6 months after my last submision about 50% of this free directories are already paid directories.
Submitting to free directories is worth!

Some of the best BLs I have ever gotten were from free niche directories I´ve found in Google, but generally speaking I find the paid directories more beneficial than the free ones. Of course, there is a list of only about 12 paid ones I highly recommend. Many new directories come out charging right away, and about 80 percent of them are NOT worth the submission fees, even if they charge as low as $1.99.

I submit sites using software, to 380 free directories.
Quick and easy way to get some backlinks.

Despite what may be said about mass submissions, it works, google does not penalize you, and you do get the backlinks quicker.

For a new site, it is great.

Ok, I wrote earlier "Submitting to free directories is worth!" but now I have to say:
"Submitting to paid directories is worth more!"
Paid directories give money for advertising. They are popular and you can only benefit from that.

Free directories simply don't have the money to invest!
My advice: Submit to paid directories (chose them carefully - backlinks, traffic, popularity). This is a good promotion!

How many paid directories are doing advertisement. Not all may be the popular guys do advertisements. I have seen some paid directories who have High PR ask for more money than the well established one and just sitting there to collect money. Compared to this there are still free directories where you can get good backlinks.

free directories are good to start off with but than you get what you pay for.

I will not submit my website to paid directory
I have time so I will SEO my website to get traffic.

Originally Posted by marblehost

I will not submit my website to paid directory
I have time so I will SEO my website to get traffic.

Consider, submitting to free and paid directories is an important part of the SEO.

I don't like the paid directories,and it will make no sense for your website.
And the free directories also do good effct on traffic for your website

Originally Posted by marblehost

I don't like the paid directories,and it will make no sense for your website.
And the free directories also do good effct on traffic for your website

A good paid directory is 10x more valuable than a free one.

A good paid directory normally puts alot of $$$ back into the directory to bring PR and traffic. Word of mouth, and people actually use them.

A free directory is watered down, has so many links it passes nothing. The paid directory on the other hand actually passes something on.

Both are good to an extent, but a good paid directory is by far more valuable than most any free directory. Besides maybe DMOZ and a few others.

It has been my findings that free directories start disappearing as the owners are not making money, getting too many submissions (I have seen some owners complain about being 2k to 5k behind on approvals!), and high maintenance.

Majority of paid directories, the owners do advertise and do promote to keep them growing.
Plus fewer submissions, and those are mostly excellent sites.

I do directory reviews for pay on my directory blogger, but out of 100 new directories that come on line, maybe one will want a review.
I even offered free reviews, but again, no takers.

Hello

I always mix with free ones and paid ones. But mostly I go for free ones and they are of Good PR to high ones and usually they approved my site in 2 weeks to 4 weeks. So its good to get good list directories always in your list which I have:twisted:

John

Originally Posted by Ohiosweetheart

Very rarely do I ever submit to paid directories. Not only because I can't afford it, but also because I get good traffic from the free ones that I do submit to.

You'd be surprised how much more, and or better traffic you would see if you actually submitted to some of the good paid directories...

You really do get what you pay for in most cases!!!

YMMV.

I agree with Grim where paid directories have more value compare with free directories. The keyword here is quality backlinks.

Paid directories normally with high PR and life longer compare to free directories.

Paid directories are promoted more extensively across all the networks & hence have a higher fees & only allow quality sites to get in. Free directories get huge traffic because they are free ! But are now a days spammed a lot.

You should consider paid and free. Paid is great particularly if your paying to have your site listed in a niche directory.

For now i think there is no needs to put your sites to paid directory. After PR update i'm notice that all pr in directories are very low. Even from DMOZ where page have pr6 and only 5 sites on page i've got only pr3 for my websites.

Really, my PR did not change either way with one directory.. The other one went up a notch...

Free Directories will help you lessen your cost though
you will need patience and effort when you used this.
While in Paid from the word itself your going to pay
to get traffic, though it will lessen your effort and time,
for they will be the one charged to all. And I'll go for
Free Directories. Lessen cost but same traffic can be
acquired:ssmiley:

I would say use free ones and wait for them to cary more weight in the future.

Originally Posted by Jase

I have submitted my forum to a few free directories but Ive seen a lot of ads for paid ones.

Whats the difference in results from a free directory to a paid one? :sundecided:

When you submit your site in free directories you will
need time and effort to get the accurate result. But
in Paid Directories it's the vice versa though there is
possibility that both result will be the same.

paid ones are good only if they have good amount of visitors on them.


I will go for free ones. Because we can get a free backlink for our website, and if it has some visitors then traffic too.

yea i agree that you should submit featured links to only paid directories that have a lot of traffic

Also niche directories are great