As a directory owner I must admit that I am completely flabbergasted at the standard of submissions. I am the first to admit that the Deepyalla general directory has high standards but the guidelines for submitting a site are laid out clearly so poor submissions should never be received. But the figures tell the story, only 10 out of 4000 submissions have met the guidelines completely.

So why does it all go so wrong? After all, we do read constantly about the poor standard of web directories. I can understand when owners who are continually flooded with what I call SEOffal that they say enough is enough and either pull the pin on the directory or approve everything. Then of course, no one becomes a winner as a link in a poor quality directory is basically worthless and the directory owner can't attract the quality paying submissions that they need to keep the directory functioning.

I place much of the blame directly on the shoulders of the SEOffal firms that charge $15 for 1000 submissions. They don't care what they submit as long as they get the numbers up, and they submit to every directory that has a free option. Directory owners who care should reject them all, after all these submissions are easily recognisable.

And what of the poor "free directory" owner, why is he the only person in the world who is expected to work for nothing? They need to have a free option to attract listings while they promote the directory, but promoting the directory does mean parting with money to advertise on the better sites but with no money coming in, not only does he work for free but is out of pocket, time poor and frustrated.

Deepyalla has a free option. If you are one of the lucky twenty percent who get approved you will be notified within 24 hours. Then you will wait 9 months before the site is reviewed again and activated as a listing. Of course, that's provided the quality has been maintained. You can pay a low review fee to jump the queue for a regular listing. And for those seeking value a featured listing is the way to go. Not only larger size graphics to make your site stand out, top of the page listings, random listings on the front page and five deep links but best of all you get an in context link within the description for keywords. Something that search engines particularly like. Payment is no guarantee of a listing but as long as the Guidelines are adhered to everything should be ok.