I know recently there has been a feeling that there are too many general directories of low quality. I tend to agree with this, and I think we will see some of the low quality general directories fade away, especially those where the owner is not doing a good job adding value or maintaining them.

However, I'm seeing a lot more niche directories and regional/local directories these days. I am wondering if anyone has noticed this, or made submitting to these a part of your promotion plan. In my opinion, these types of directories are more likely to help you with search engines, as well as give you some traffic that is worthwhile, because the visitor is actually interested in the topic of your site in most cases.

Here are a couple of examples of directories I've seen fitting this area:
Niche Directory - Mixed Martial Arts, Delightful Blogs, big list
Regional/Local - GateUK, big list
I'm sure there are many more, but in my opinion, these are the sort of directories that would produce better traffic, and help with the search engines too. It takes a little more work to find these types of directories, but it may be worth the trouble.