Yahoo: Directory worth the $299/yr?

[LinkBratwurst]

Is the $299/yr inclusion fee to be listed in the Yahoo Directory worth it? Being a "mom & pop" ecomm site considering it, it's all about attracting potential customers. Will it boost my Google PR rank? Does it boost SERP rankings in either Google or Yahoo? I haven't touched SEM/SEO in many months and I've gone stale on this stuff. I guess I'm looking to find out if there are any real SEM/SEO benefits to being listed in the Yahoo Directory for an ecommerce store.

[jestep]

The yahoo directory can be worth it. You will get some links counted in google, but the directory will not do a lot other than that. Your site will most likely get spidered, by all of the search engines, so that is a plus. It also adds some trust to your business, because you paid to be in the directory, and you have to have an actual presence.

The actual SERP/SEO benifits that I have seen are very small. If you have the budget, I would probably be worth it to try, but only after your site is up and running and substantially noticable. Otherwise dont bother. What are the search terms that you are targeting?

My opinion...

[red]

If you want to jump-start your ecommerce business it is most definitely worth it in my opinion. Make sure your site is up to snuff (no broken links etc.)prior to submitting.The $299 gets your site looked at by the human editors within a couple of days. While it's true that (in most cases) your site will eventually be found and spidered and listed it can take a long time for that to occur naturally. I paid the fee over four years ago and never paid again. This has never been a recurring fee. I've also chosen to be a sponsored site for $50 per month and that has helped tremendously particularly in the early stages when I had very little natural foot traffic.

[flood6]

I did a forum search for "yahoo worth 299". Here are two threads that might be of interest.

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=18212

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=12201

I don't think it's worth it. I see my sites adding value to their directory just like being listed there adds value to my site. I know it's a utopian outlook, but I'm not going to encourage the fleecing of webmasters by companies like yahoo.

How many click-throughs do you think you'll get in a year? Not many. It won't help your position in the Yahoo SERPs (any more than a similar inbound link).

All you get is an inbound link. If you are interested in buying links, you can find higher quality for much cheaper.

[LinkBratwurst]

Thanks for the opinions thus far. We are an established presence, but looking to open more avenues to be even more so. We're in joeant.com, dmoz.org, etc. I went from a PR4 to a PR5... now back to a PR4 again (did I say that my relationship with Google is love/hate?)
As an example, we do the AdWords 'thang'. We're looking to get more impressions and presence though. I'm considering Overture but I'm hemming and hawing over recommending it to the people that actually pay the bills. Some people I respect over at the Miva Merchant Marketeers site (http://www.merchantmarketeers.com if you're a Miva store and interested) and the Miva Merchant Users email distrib list go back and forth on Overture. "I do many times better with overture than adwords" and vice versa. I guess it really comes down to the market you're in.
The obvious search term I'd optimize for (currently playing with other terms in AdWords to find the 'sweet spot') would be 'sausage'. I know our competitors view this site and have already copied some of my techniques, so that's all I'm going to say. ;) I'm just worried about ROI. I was worried over Adwords too, but it's covered it's cost so far with the terms I've used... but Overture is more 'in your face' and more likely to get more clicks which = more $ and hopefully sales to cover the cost. Just paranoid the CTR and conversions won't cover the cost. ;) The site in question is linked in my www icon below.