There is lots of discussion in the various SEO forums about the recent Google changes that are targeted at paid directory listings.

There is also a lot of confusion and uncertainty as it seems some paid listings are OK.. Yahoo for example.

Until the situation becomes a little clearer it would be a good idea to hold back on getting any paid listings, but if you can’t wait then do a quick check on the directory to see whether or not it has already been penalised by Google.

If it has then the listing is probably worthless and so you will need to get one from another directory.

So how do you check? Well a recent post at seomoz-What Makes a Good Web Directory, and Why Google Penalized Dozens of Bad Ones lists a few directories that appear to have already been penalized.
To check yourself just do a search at Google and Yahoo for the directory name. If it appears on the first page in yahoo but not in Google then it probaly has been penalized.

Take for example AliveDirectory.com . Here are the search results for the query at Yahoo. It is number 1.
:
Here is the result for Google .Notice the alivdirectory site is not on the first page except as references from other sites. A clear indication that Google doesn’t like the site.

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As soon as I know more I will let you know. You can find more background if you want to delve further here:

• http://andybeard.eu/2007/04/google-paidlinks.html
• http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-to-report-paid-links
• http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1729/1/Google039s-Paid-link-Smack-in-the-Face/Page1.html
• http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/nofollow-is-for.php