Directory Submission
Promotion of your website should start by listing your site at the most popular Internet directories. Because they can send you substantial amounts of traffic and affect your ranking in various search engines, it is wise to make sure that your site is present in all of the major directories before doing anything else.
Yahoo Directory
Yahoo! is still the most important directory to which you should submit your site. An optimum listing in Yahoo! can bring in more traffic to your site than all the search engines combined. However, getting registered by Yahoo! is one of the most difficult aspect of web site promotion. Even if you pay the $299 fee for their Business Express submission option, Yahoo! does not guarantee that your site is going to be accepted. It does guarantee that a Yahoo editor will review your site within seven business days, and gives you the right to appeal the editor's decision if your site is not included.
In practice, the turnaround time is 1-2 business days, and it's very unlikely for a properly prepared site to be rejected.
The Open Directory Project
"The Open Directory Project's goal is to produce the most comprehensive directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors."
Originally started in response to the difficulty of getting a site listed in Yahoo's directory. There is no charge for submission. Because ODP editors are unpaid volunteers, it can sometimes take a long time for a listing to be approved and included into the directory.
The ODP data is used by a large number of search engines and portals. For example, the Google Directory uses Open Directory data, as well as Netscape search. We recommend that all of our clients be listed in the Open Directory.