Have no idea if they are free or paid or if the page rank is real. In any event, check out the directories for submitting your site.

Now here is a directory I like a lot! You do have to register and become a member, but it is free and once you are a member, you can list your website and start exchanging links in minutes. The directory link and article exchange services are all free and they say it is incredibly effective. The main page is not cluttered, though it seems like it, with all the recently featured websites, articles and more. Well worth reading the main page to get a nice feel of what you will be getting into when you sign up as a free member.

I joined, and I must say, after I activated my account, I found my site right in the proper category and sub-category. It is free to submit your website, or websites, and the same with articles. Easy to navigate around this site. I did find out that to get onto the main page as a featured site, etc will cost extra, on a monthly basis. Now the link exchange seems pretty straight forward, you just browse the directory and when you find a site you want to exchange links with, just tick off the box and wait for that website to approve. But from what I gather, you have to pay for this privilege. This directory is so loaded down with options, that it is hard to figure out what is what and why should I pay. For starting off saying it is free, then once you register, the whammy is the cost of being a member on this site.

Anyways, this is a nice looking directory with a good plan to help webmasters. You should go by and register free, and work from there. It may be a super way for you to get exposure and some link exchanges. The directory is called Professional Link Building, the Free Link Exchange Directory.

One way to get some great exposure, backlinks and visitors to your website is such a simple thing. Write an article relating to your website! Or get an article writer to do so. And this article should have no more than 2 links back to your website in the body of the article. Plus again, no more that 2 links back to your website in the resource box at the end of your article.

Now that you have your article ready to go, what to do with it? Simple thing again, you submit it to article directories. Like this nice article directory, Digital Ezines, that is ready for your article. You do have to register at this article directory, but it is fast and free to do so. Once your article is submitted, and approved, your exposure starts with having your article on the main page and on the latest articles page. Now hurry up and get some articles for your websites and submit them to this nice article directory.

Looking for a nice general directory to submit your website? And want your submission to be free? Go by and check out the Nesler Free Link Directory soon.

This directory is very nice looking using a nice fairly dark template. Navigation is simple and the speed of searching or going to any page on this directory was fast for me. Even the limited banner advertising on this directory is not an in your face experience. Clean to the point of no obnoxious adsense blocks or any other blocks of advertiser text links. Just a simple banner shown at the top of each page, and 5 small banners at the very bottom. If you are an advertiser looking for a directory for your banner, check this one out and contact the webmaster for his advertising rates.

Today I am seeing more and more directories going a particular niche. General directories are still out there and still coming online every day, and those are good for most websites. But I see that people tend now to search more for a particular niche when it comes to finding websites on directories. If someone is looking for blogs of interest, they are more apt now to search for blogs or blog directories.

Now if you are looking for a blog, or a particular blog in a subject of your choice, there really is a better way to find that blog. And that is going directly to a blog directory, like the Blog Directory. This directory has a good category tree of main blog categories, with nice blog sub-categories. Makes it so much easier for visitors to pin down the exact page to find a blog they want to visit.

Do you have a blog? Then you do need to advertise it and advertising your blog on a blog directory makes so much more sense. Visitors to a blog directory are looking for a blog and you miss out if your blog is not on the directory. The Blog Directory of course is where you want your blog to be listed. They have free listings so you can have your blog on at no cost, providing it meets the guidelines set out for this directory. Featured listings are by the year, and if at the end of a year you do not wish to pay, your listing automatically drops down to a regular free listing, a neat feature found in very few directories.

What I like about this blog directory is that the template is nice and clean, with a nice woodsy background and colors that do not overwhelm a visitor. Navigation is pure and simple with links shown at the top for the submission page, linking page and the popular blogs listed. And at the bottom of each page are the links for contacting the blog owner, and his privacy page. Do go to this directory today and submit your blog. Or visit often if you are looking for a blog to read.

There is now a rumor floating around that DMOZ may sell out to BOTW!

Shoemoney has posted this on his blog: http://www.shoemoney.com/2008/09/13/botw-in-talks-to-take-over-dmoz-from-aol/

Jeremy Shoemaker, of the popular Shoemoney blog, posted that the owners of Best of the Web Directory are in talks to buy Dmoz from AOL and that a “deal could be reached fairly soon.”

It is unknown whether a sale would change Google’s use of Dmoz for its own directory or would prompt Google to reconsider how much weight it gives the sites linked within Dmoz. For those who don’t know, Google is still relatively cozy with Dmoz in that it maintains a Google Directory that is a duplicate copy of the dmoz.org content. Dmoz also is still considered a great place for your site to be listed to gain premium Google link power that helps your PageRank.

Over the last year Google has made it clear they don’t like the selling of links from anywhere, especially directories. Google has also made clear that it considers the selling of inclusion in a directory tantamount to selling links. Many directories have experienced a severe lowering of their PageRank that have effectively made links (and inclusion) less valuable to potential buyers.

Since Dmoz is a free directory with moderators who decide whether a site is included or not, Google still gives their coveted Google juice to sites listed in Dmoz.

A listing in BOTW.org is not free. It charges a hefty $249.99 review fee which is a prerequisite for inclusion. BOTW makes the point in bold font that their review for inclusion is not a guarantee of inclusion in their BOTW Submit Terms of Service. Apparently Google believes there is enough editorial value in these reviews because BOTW.org still has good PageRank within its categories.

However, Google has penalized many other directories that charge for inclusion reviews. Many website owners feel that even the appearance of selling links leads to PageRank reduction. BOTW is an old, established directory with lots of quality listings similar to Yahoo, which also sells inclusion reviews and suffers no repercussions from Google either.

So how do you feel about this? Is it for the best for both directories? Will they merge and only be one directory? So many questions and few answers so far!