Submitting to Blog Directories: Update

So it has been about one and a half months since we submitted our blog to a handful of directories. Did we gain anything? 

The RESULT

Well, checking the traffic on our site, we have had zero referrals from any of them. Logging into the directories shows us that they still haven’t been reviewed. You might remember that we opted to submit our blog only if the directory did not require payment or a backlink banner to be placed on our page. 

By doing this, the directories did not consider it a priority to add us. In addition, some directories, like http://www.blogarama.com, seem to be completely down, and don’t even show up in Google SERPs anymore. 

Hmm.

All has not been lost however. In the original post, I referenced two lists that I found which I based my research off of. After publishing our post, I contacted both of the websites with versions of the following email: 

Hello!

While doing research on blog directories, I came across your blog post about blog directories. This one:
http://XXXXXX.XXX

I found the information very useful and informative, however I realized that some of the information was out of date. On my company’s blog, I was inspired to write a post about what I had found, based off of your list. You can find it here:
http://www.growthlabs.eu/blog/how-we-submit-our-blog-to-blog-directories

if this is a post that you think your visitors will find useful, please feel free to link to us.
I just wanted to let you know that I found it helpful, and to keep up the good work!

cheers!

The Blog Press responded and asked me if I would like to write a guest blog post for their site, updating the post I had used for reference. In return, I could add a few backlinks back to our page.

(You can find my guest post here : 10 Blog Directories Actually Worth Your Time)

From this guest post, we have received a handful of traffic, making it more effective than the directories we submitted our blog to. 

SUMMARY

Directory listings haven’t worked for us so far, but honestly, we could have put more into them, particularly by paying for listings. Personally, I do feel the prices are quite high for what you might get, especially considering that I am not impressed by how most directories organize their listings.

However, what we learned from this was that in building backlinks it helps to reach out and collaborate with others on the web. Spending a few hours researching and writing a guest blog post that gets you backlinks can be more productive than spending a few hours researching. 

My guest blog post got them a piece of new and updated content for free, and in return we got some traffic and were able to get our name a little more face time on the web. 

While there is still time for the blog directories to do something, I am not holding my breath. My takeaway from this experiment was that working with others for mutual benefit is fun and a great use of time.