If you ever search for anything online, you may be familiar with search engines.  In fact, you should be.  To be honest, how else would you be able to find anything?

Try a web directory.  Web directories work very much like a search engine, but instead of being a list of sites that have been scooped up while travelling the internet, a directory is a collection of sites, edited by a human being, that have been submitted by webmasters to promote their sites.  The advantage of a web directory is that the human editors filter out a lot of poor and spammy sites.  So, in theory, you should be looking at the best of the best.

Today I came across a web directory that I thought I should mention: Mitefind .  What sets this site out from the competition is that it is an old search engine that turned into a directory.  Why?  Well, talking to the owner, he pointed out that most third party search engines just show search results from other search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc.  By changing into a directory, he could show custom results without depending on the big boys.  The result:  a paid link directory .

Again, I had to ask, why make the site a paid directory?  Again, the answer related to content and time:  With so many free directories, the owners get backlogged with the number of free submissions that they have to approve.  In fact, I have another free directory that gets between 100 and 200 submissions per day.  I honestly do not have the time to keep up while approving sites for nothing.  This way, when someone submits their site and they pay for it, I know that they are serious - and I get their site approved right away.  

Is it worth it?  You bet.  I have promoted some sites on free directories that have taken up to a year to be approved - that really does not help me when I need traffic now.  So, check it out, pay for a link and I promise you will have no regrets.  My site was listed quick and even now, my search engine ranking has improved because of it.