Web Directories - Sponsored Links Vs Regular Links
When submitting to web directories there are several factors to look at of course, and by all means sponsored listings are better. You might have to pay more, but the listings are way better. When you are doing a regular link submissions the links gets drop down to like page 5,10,20, and so on. Which this is not good for search engine purposes.
When your are submitting your link as a sponsored link it carries the pr, now take a look at Elegant Web Directory now you see at the top how the sponsored links stay at the top, but then you get to the bottom the links eventually disappear, so its practically a waste of money, granted sponsored links might be more, but when submitting to a higher end directory make sure you pick sponsored links.
The sponsored links stay on high end pr pages, now I’m not saying go pay for a sponsored link in every single web directory, but if there high quality directories take a shot, and the newer lower end directories just submit as free links, and then eventually if the directory becomes high quality update to a sponsored listing.
Another good thing about sponsored links is that most directories allow multiple links, so for example you can get 5-7 links on another page which can be very good for all around optimization for your website to different pages. As you build all these sponsored links up in more dedicated directories, typically your site will become more dedicated, and if the web directory is pretty dedicated then future plans for it are going to shoot up, so thats pr raise, trust rank, and etc.