inbound - 10:44 am on May 4, 2008 (gmt 0)

I'm assuming that you mean submitting to local directories such as Internet Yellow Pages.

Yellow Pages sites tend not to help much from an SEO point of view as many 'nofollow' the links or use tracking URLs that negate any PR-passing.

Also they are general directories, so won't carry as much topic-specific weight as a dedicated resource that's close to what you do.

I would look at directories and sites that are related to what you do and try to get listed or featured on those as a start. Link building is very important but getting harder, I would suggest that you try to create something really useful for free that give people reason to link to you because of that (but leave enough information/features out of the free product so you have room to upgrade people to paid if that's your aim).