Are free backlink directory submissions effective for SEO?

[john]

Hey I am beginning to use free directories to submit.

Also I am wondering can you submit your website more then once to DMOZ?
Also does DMOZ always accept appropriate listings?

[Craig]

You can only submit once to DMOZ (except for a regional and topical listing). You agree to that when you submit, so to submit more than once is going to harm your sites chance of getting listed.

Most sites are not accepted into DMOZ and it can sometimes takes years before they get to your site. Editors are volunteers and more sites are created everyday (and submitted) than there are editors to review them, so the backlog gets bigger.

A DMOZ listing is not worth as much these days, so do not sweat on it.
Submit once, to the one best category and move on. There is nothing more you can do. You either get listed eventually or you don't and there is nothing you can do about it.

Also, free directories are not worth much if anything either. I do not bother wasting my time submitting to them anymore.

[Quieteducation208]

With the new Google Penguin Update, free directories are considered as cheap or low-quality backlinks and will now affect your ranking negatively if you try to get a lot of these links. The best way to go is to get only high quality links and avoid any kind of links that will look spammy to search engines.

[Hayley]

maybe try http://www.adsavailable.com