[GuyFromChicago]

Interesting thread. For what it's worth, I take a pretty light approach to evaluating a directory. Even if it's a $100 listing fee, if I spend 1/2 hour trying to determine what a link in that directory is "worth" then I've already spent more in terms of my time investigating than it would have cost to just pay pay the $100 and move on.

I quickly check to see if it has indexed pages, inbound links, no nasty outbounds and a clean design that makes sense to it's users (or potential users). If that stuff is on the up and it's a one time fee here's my $$$.

I don't think there's a uniform set of criteria you can use to evaluate directories - or any site for that matter. You have to look at everything on a case by case basis. Trying to force such an analysis through a template will fail as often (if not more) than it succeeds.

edit/add - I have read that many check the serps for certain pages/sections of a directory and see if they rank for certain terms and use that as their criteria for deciding if it's worthwhile to list there. I think that's a short sighted way way of thinking. Serps change constantly - just because something isn't ranking today doesn't mean it won't be next week or next month.