Is it worth it to submit to paid directories?

[Jade]

Is it worth it to submit to paid directories?

Do they help with PageRank?

What can I do to increase my PageRank? Can I use Digg? What social bookmarkers do you recommend? Are they any good? Thanks!

[Rob F]

Before I answer the question, you should ask yourself why you want to increase your website's Page Rank.

If it's to help with your rankings in Google:

Page Rank is only one of over an estimated 200 factors when it comes to your website's rankings in Google. So, working to increase your page rank alone does not, by any means, mean your website will rank higher in the search engines, or Google specifically.

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

If it's to sell links on your website:

Google is taking action against websites that sell paid links, and devaluing links that are purchased purportedly for the purpose of boosting a website's page rank.

http://searchengineland.com/070416-092314.php

So, if you are thinking of increasing your Page Rank to sell links, you might lose all of your rankings altogether.

To answer your question as to whether submitting to paid directories (i.e. paid links) is worth it;it's not for increasing your Page Rank. Though buying links may not help you in any way in regards to Google, buying links may help your site for other search engines.

The best way to increase your Page Rank is to make a website that is link worthy, i.e. provides content/services that that act as "link bait" and entices other people to link to it naturally.

Submission to social book mark websites is not generally beneficial for increasing page rank as many use rel="nofollow" for links, essentially telling search engines to not pass on any "link juice". Others tell search engines not to follow these links at all, meaning that you will get absolutely no benefit for these types of submissions.

I realize that this is not the direct answer to your question, but in my opinion, based on my history of working in this field, going after page rank is a waste of time, focus on your website and other optimization methods & the page rank will come naturally anyway.