What is your experience with Blog directories?

The only thing I can tell you is that I am you'll like the next version of the expatriate blog directory! (that is all what I can say at the moment...)

Having it listed here has gotten me more hits than anything else because people coming here are looking specifically for the kind of blog I have!
I also am on Technorati but I don't think I get many hits from there at all.
Having good searchable stuff is probably the second most helpful thing - Google can be really great.  Give your post titles especially names that are search-friendly.
Good luck.

Having it listed here has gotten me more hits than anything else because people coming here are looking specifically for the kind of blog I have!

I fully agree with you! Expat-blog was the first directory I registered in, and it has been great.

One tip, if 'traffic to your blog' is what you are interested in (though listing in a directory can also be useful for other purposes), then check out one of the best backlink tools I have found on the web:
http://www.iwebtool.com/backlink_checker

Just fill in your domain name and it lists all the links to your site it can find. It is more thorough than any other tool I could find, PLUS it gives the pageranking of those sites also, AND when you hit the [+] sign behind the backlink, it shows a snapshot of the context in which your URL was posted. It even shows forum entries...

Have fun!

Peter
[2 months more in Belgium and then off again into the world!]

Here is some factual proof of the matter (about blogdirectories and expat-forum's ranking ).

My The Road to the Horizon blogspot has been up for almost 11 months.
Of the 75,000 visits, here are the top traffic sources, according to Google Analytics:

direct hits:    8292
boingboing.net: 7872 (Got lucky, they published one article of mine)
google.com: 6119 (the normal search engine)
digg.com: 5708 (Got lucky, another article I posted scored high)
blogger.com: 1763 (guess this is the 'Browse next blog' feature of google)
reddit.com: 1569 (outfall from one of the boingboing/digg articles)
on.net.mk: 1111 (ditto)
expat-blog.com: 1039 (ah, here you go! First directory and forum listed!!)
stupidsecurity.com: 786 (outfall from one of the boingboing/digg articles)
blog.fefe.de: 674 (ditto)
bloglines.com: 600 (second in line for blogdirectories)
jerrypournelle.com: 593 (outfall from one of the boingboing/digg articles)
flyertalk.com: 377 (third in line for a forum)
thorntree.lonelyplanet.com: 367 (also a forum)

Conclusions (for my site):
- expat-blog is the #1 forum and blog directory
- bloglines is the only runner-up blog directory to show up, even in the top 30 referral list. Shows that the relevance of blog directory to 'direct' traffic to your blog is far less important than writing good content

So, well done, expat-blog!

Peter

Thanks for your post Peter! I am convinced we can even become better

another rave for expat-blog directory!  It's also where I get the most hits.  Other than that, I've been writing regularly enough that I have been picked up by one of the Icelandic airlines that has a blog, and the main English-language news website.  It helps that there aren't a lot of other people writing about Iceland in English.

there are plenty of people doing searches for various things, but those don't seem to be the ones that "stick", since it's usually someone looking for a specific and odd item IME.

An update with some useful statistics.
My blog is now 20 months old, and after 170,000 visits,
here are the top referrals (I took out referrals from other individual blogs):

reddit.com    27996 (social bookmarking)
boingboing.net    7883 (social bookmarking - moderated)
digg.com    5895 (social bookmarking)
shoutwire.com    4050 (social bookmarking)
expat-blog.com    2476 (here you go)
google.com    2050 (search engine)
images.google.com    1524 (search engine)
popurls.com    1001 (automatic social bookmarking summary)
bloglines.com    768 (directory)
stumbleupon.com    542 (social bookmarking)
totalfark.com    253 (social bookmarking)

So expat-blog is the highest ranked directory service. Some of the referrals also come from its forum.
In the top 25, bloglines.com is the only other directory worth mentioning, and giving any significant number of referrals.

A comprehensive list of blog directories worth considering, you can find here. All these directories, are confirmed listings... I tried many others, but either they were practically impossible to get registered to, or bumped me after a while, for no good reason...

PS: writing good contents can not replace listing on blog directories... Proof of the matter is the high number of hits through social bookmarking sites. If the content ain't good or interesting, one would not get those hits.

PPS: blog directories only work to attract first time users. The real traffic is in people who visit your blog for one time, by accident (e.g. through directories), and keep on coming back.

Hope this helps.

Peter

How is the comment ratio compared with the clicks?

How is the comment ratio compared with the clicks?

Far less! I would think maybe 5 comments per day.

P.