WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A SITE HAS BEEN SUBMITTED?

Email notifications: 

One out of three directories send out emails as soonas a site has been submitted
confirming that a submission has been made, stating the category into which the
site was submitted and the details that were entered. A few directories also send
out email confirmation requests. These emails will contain a link that must be
clicked on, as confirmation that you have indeed made the submission to the
directory.
It is not necessary for you to open each and every email that you receive after
submitting your site to directories. However, it isimportant that you follow up
on all confirmation requests. Judging by the subject lines of the emails that you
receive, you can decide whether you need to open an email or not. The subject
lines of emails that require confirmation would read ‘Confirmation Required’,
‘Confirmation Request’, ‘Confirm your Listing’, ‘EmailVerification’ or something
along these lines. You only need to open these emailsin order to complete your
directory submission.

Keep a record of your submissions: 

It is very important to keep a file of all the directories to which submissions have
been made in order to avoid submitting to the same directories in the future. All
directories anyway maintain a permanent record of the URLs that have been
added to their database thus preventing resubmissions. However if some sites do
manage to get submitted to the same directory again, it  would not be of any
purpose. It is best to avoid this by maintaining a record of all the submissions
made so far.

Link approvals: 

The time taken for directory links to start arriving  will vary depending upon
each directory as well as the listing option you have chosen. Most paid listing
options promise to provide links within a specified period of time.
However, if you have selected the free listing option or have submitted your site
to a free directory, the directory links may take anywhere between a week to
three months to arrive. This is because each site that  has been submitted has to
go through a thorough editorial review before being  approved. Also, free
directories usually do not guarantee links and provide  links only to those sites
that follow all the guidelines and have relevant and unique content.
Some directories send out emails informing you about  your site’s approval. This
email normally contains the following information: the  name that was entered
during submission, the date of  submission, the password used during
submissions (if any) and the category in which the link is placed. This email is
definite proof that your site has been accepted into a directory.

Results of your submissions: 

After you receive links from the directory it couldstill take more time for search
engines to find and index these new links. Hence, you should not expect to see a
dramatic increase in your rankings immediately after receiving a few directory
links. Remember that this entire process is a gradual one.
It’s important to keep submitting to new directories.  Link buildingis a
continuous process which when stopped, would resultin a decline in rankings
and consequently, a decline in website  visitorsas well. Although directory
submissions are not the only means by which to build relevant links, they are the
most convenient and effective method. Hence, this process should be continued
and the results you see over time will speak for themselves.

LINK PLACEMENT 

As mentioned already, most quality directories have a manual screening process
to determine whether the sites that have been submitted actually match their
criteria for approval. If the sites are approved, the directory will place the site’s
link under the most relevant category (in all probability the category you have
picked to have your site submitted under).
Finding a site’s link after it has been accepted into a  directory can be quite a
difficult task. No one can know for certain where a site’s link will be placed in a
directory since each directory has its own set of factors to consider. There are a
few factors that have been observed to influence the placement position of a
listing. They are:
• Hits
• PageRank
• Alphabetical order
• Date and Time of Approval in the Directory
In many cases, one factor alone does not determine linkplacement. For example,
if several sites approved by the directory under thesame category have the same
PageRank, there would most certainly have to be another criterion used to order
them. For this reason, they could perhaps first be sorted on the basis of PR, then
alphabetically, and then according to the number of hits, or the date and time at
which they were approved, if need be.
There could also be several other as-yet unknown factors that influence link
placement.