Hi All,
I wonder if anybody is willing to share a list of directories I can submit my website to. Also, do you have any suggestions regarding back-links, I'm willing to pay if necessary.
Regards,
Sorin

http://www.TNproperties4sale.com

http://www.addurl.nu - How much are you willing to pay? I have done seo for other people.

Most of the sites listed in addurl.nu is crap.

There are directory submission services out there ($25 for a bunch of submissions). But botw.org, business.com, and yahoo.com are a good start. If you have a blog, try real-estate-blogs.com.

Directories have really been devalued lately. I would look elsewhere for quality links.

Dean I have a list of hundreds of directories. I sent you a pm let me know what you need.

"Directories have really been devalued lately. I would look elsewhere for quality links."

Yes, directories have been devalued; still, thousands of devalued links are better than no backlinks at all. Plus handful of the best directories are still worth submitting to.

Paid links are one good way to get your site noticed....by Google who will then strip you of your page rank and send you to Google Hell. Start here : http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
you will start to get a handle on what to do and what not to do.

It is the seller of paid links that Google penalizes - by devaluing the pages so the paid links are worth less or in some cases worthless. The buyer of paid links receives no such penalty.

Dean try other forum like Digital Point. You will find thousands of free directories there.

Good luck...

"Paid links are one good way to get your site noticed....by Google who will then strip you of your page rank and send you to Google Hell."

I don't recommend acting on fear and ignorance. There is a big difference between what Google tells you in its guidelines and reality. You get ahead by doing what works, not what Google tells you will work.

Right on Rooster!

Real Estate Webmaster was just put in Google jail for not abiding by their guidlines and had to make a public apology. I assume that you are not as big as that forum since you are on this forum. So if you can afford to lose your PR and SERP's go for it. Just let me know what your url is so I can actually find your website since I won't be able to Google it.

Real Estate Webmasters just assumed that they were penalized - there was no confirmation of an actual penalty. In reality many other sites suffered the same fate around the same time and came back without making any changes. It is not unusual for sites to disappear from Google for short periods - and then come back.

REW assumed that they were penalized and that penalty was for having a link directory and then expanded that theory to include reciprocal linking on their Realtor sites. If you had checked SEO forums around that time you would have found that others had also dissappeared - Google had been very unstable - and then came back the same time REW came back.

REW has no strong focus as they chase multiple areas. Google probably has a hard time trying to figure out what the focus of the site really is. Are they a web design company? Are they a real estate forum? Are they a real estate information site? Are they are blog community? Are they a real estate directory? Google likes to see some focus in my experience.

I too used to have a site that tried to be all things to all people and ranked for many different things too - web design, directory, forums, real estate in multiple areas etc. It disappeared one day and never did come back. I too assumed it was links that caused the problem but that did not seem to be the case...

REW was jailed for setting up a big contextual link hub. Which both REW was jailed and so were the sites involved. That maybe where you are getting other sites disappearing for no reason too. Though it may not be confirmed I find it odd that Morgan Carry would make a public apology if he was not being penalized.

I was referring to sites disappearing that were not related to REW and not even in the real estate industry - not sites in the "hub". (The contextual link = penalty idea was an add-on to their original theory of the penalty. It was cleaned up as a "me too" when they were washing their hands of SEO services for their customers)

REW began as an aggressive link schemer. One of their very first customers was penalized as a result and they have been changing tactics frequently ever since - and trying to control the damage ever since. Since they and their customers have suffered penalties in the past (the reason they have so many vocal detractors maybe?), they are very sensitive to the issue.

REW has been shifting the burden of SEO from themselves to their customers and re-inventing themselves as pure as the driven snow in the process - the public apology was public relations to seal that deal. I guess they have found that they now have a large payroll and can't afford any more experiments - this was a good time to put their past behind them.