Paid directory submission...most bang for your buck?

I usually pay for submission to a few directories, but it is not a top priority in my optimization strategy.

In your experiences, what pay for submission directories have provided a good return on your investment?

I've had good experience with Business.com if you can get into a cat with a high PR. $99/year helped raise one of our new sites to PR 5 within a month, PR 6 within 4 mos.

Do you also get traffic from Business.com?

Dave

Not really. I usually don't count on directories to send traffic, only PR. The PR helps with regular Google rankings, so they get more traffic from that.

There are some unique cases though...
Sometimes I come across a nice niche directory that will send some traffic, but it depends on the site subject.

For my clients that optimize for local search I suggest paying for listings in Verizon Superpages and Switchboard. These sites usually do drive traffic to the business (not necessarily the site). Also, I find that Superpages and Switchboard listings sometimes turn up in the Google SERPs, so they get a triple benefit from the listing.

business.com is a good one.

What about these pay for inclusion directories that seem to pop up on a monthly basis (like bluefind.com)?

Have you guys come across any niche directories that are worth paying for?

We submitted and paid for 2 tight niche directories in my industry. EACH INDUSTRY IS DIFFERENT. Before paying we noted the page rank and SERPs from the directory page for industry competitors from those directories.

The directories together have delivered about 2% of our search traffic. They rank 7th and 11th as sources for traffic. G, Y, and MSN account for most traffic by far. Both directories have delivered conversions which have more than paid for themselves. We also get conversions from tightly themed backlinks to our industry. Before spending the money we saw how they impacted competitors.

When we were low in the SERPs the tightly themed backlinks delivered more traffic than they do now. Currently its easier to directly find us through SERPs. Qualified traffic is the key.

We just submitted to the Ajdee directory. For our category it gives out PR4. Business.com would have been 3 for us. For a one time $25 fee that is nothing. I spend so much time looking for qualified back links that I waste the value of that every day. I believe that Ceylon (sp?) in this forum referenced that her niche directory delivered hundreds of visitors to an entry in her directory.

We submitted to lots of directories early on and they haven't delivered traffic. Only a few give passable PR.

The big thing is we looked hard before paying. Marketing $ are always tight. At least off the web you have some form of measuring the impact of money spent, in conversions (1st), traffic(2nd) and PR(3rd).

I pretty much agree with everything that you said. The only real difference in my case is that my firm operates various forums (i.e. information sites) so we aren't concerned with traditional "conversions". We earn most of our revenue from advertising. So our main concerns are SE ranking for target search terms, traffic, and PR (even though Google explicitly states that advertising should not be sold as a means of increasing PR or search engine rank, most large networks such as Business.com or even seochat's network are able to charge extremely high advertising rates because they garner such high PR and search engine ranking).

Thanks again for your contribution. It just helps to affirm my own observations.