Value in paid for review/inclusion directories?

Or is a Yahoo listing yesterday's news?

[RossWal]

Beyond any anticipated direct traffic, is there value to being listed in Yahoo Directory, Business.com, etc?

Do the the big Goog assign any additional trust for these listings? Do paid for inclusion directories still pass meaningful PR? Does keyword relevance flow to the listed sites?

[wheel]

Beyond any anticipated direct traffic,

Unless the directory is relatively decent AND niche, I wouldn't expect any traffic. here's a couple of data points from my perspective:
- I have a niche directory where I provide free listings. I've had listings call me and thank me for sending them clients. So it drives some small level of traffic. But probably not a lot.
- I've had clients get listed in places like Yahoo! and similiar. They either drive no traffic, or a level that's so low it's certainly not worth the cost just on traffic alone.
- I see Yahoo and similiar as strictly for use for SEO purposes. Personally I've not paid the $300 for Yahoo, I've generally got something else I think is better money for the $300. If I was doing it for something else, I might recommend it as an entry level link. For me, I believe I can get better links for free.

And I have a friend who has a directory in my niche as well, and I know his directory also drives some small amount of traffic.

So my experience, if you're looking for traffic, I'd keep the money in your pocket and go looking for high quality niche directories long before I'd look at a general directory.

[RossWal]

Actually looking for the juice more than the traffic. This is for an e-comm site that's been a challenge to obtain good links for. $300 for a strong link would be a good investment. $300 for vapor would not.

[wheel]

Well, juice is another thing entirely. I'd probably do the $300 for Yahoo, and do Dmoz, and do BOTW and a few other directories as well.

[edited by: martinibuster at 5:40 am (utc) on Dec. 23, 2008]
[edit reason] TOS & Charter. [/edit]

[JasonLee]

Forgive my ignorance but "juice" refers to...? PR? In this case it can help in the SERPS?

[wheel]

Yes, we're talking generally about the magic whatever it is that gets passed through links. PR, trust, authority, whatever metric it is that you believe helps in the serps and gets passed around through linking.