If you’ve read The Plan, TMP Primer or the Master Plan itself, then you already know that directory submissions are critical to developing your site. And if you’ve personally gone through this task manually, you’ll quickly learn how time consuming it can be. I decided to bite the bullet and get software to help me out.

In the past, I simply did them by hand. Each and every submission. It didn’t like the work, but I did it anyway. I used a Firefox extension called InFormEnter to assist me in my directory submissions. InFormEnter saved me time from cutting and pasting my information and site details. It was okay, but my work wasn’t done a whole lot faster. Additionally, I had to separately keep track of the sites that I had already submitted. If you’re just starting out, use the extension until you can afford to shell out some cash for your site.

Now, the ideal goal is to outsource all your directory submissions. However, there is a stepping stone between doing them yourself and outsourcing — and that’s through the help of directory submission software.

If you’d like a free submitter, head on over to marketersos.com/popper.htm. You can download Directory Submitter Elite for free. No emails, just a link to download. Be careful when using this tool. Read the tutorial (all of it), as you can inadvertantly get Google to block your queries. To fix this, you’ll need to enter the text presented in an image to invoke a human response ala CAPTCHA. I’ve never been blocked, but the tutorial mentions this (as well as some other users). One thing I didn’t like about this tool is the lack of a reporting mechanism. Regardless, this tool is free. Why is free? It’s loaded with several tabs full of advertisements and sales pages. Can you say viral marketing?

After reviewing the free tool, I decided to take it up a notch and purchase a tool that had more features. I looked at 3 different submission tools (all of which I found through SEO2020): Link Directory Submitter, Submit Eaze, and Directory Site Submitter. The first two have already been reviewed at SEO2020. In a nutshell, both accomplish the task nicely and differ in price. The first is $97 and the latter is $79.

The third one, Directory Site Submitter (DSS), I decided to review myself. What did I find? It does exactly the same thing as the others, but for only $34. Check out the DSS video and see how it works.

In the end, my primary goal was to submit my site to around 250-500 directories. All 3 products above can do this primary task for me. So why pay extra for the same banana?

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