sorry if what i said has been mis-understood. when i said blah blah blah i was refering to what i initially said, the "don't ignore them but don't spend much time on them" bit, it was easier to say blah at end rather then see exactly what it was i said initially. sorry for the confusion.
of course we both have our own experiences which is what i meant by saying neither of us will want to try the others as it's not worth the risk in finding out that another method doesn't work.
i'm simply saying to others in my opinion don't wasting loads of time on free web directories, though it has been pointed out about automatic ones that'll do this for you so it's up to you. as you have said gilbert you have 4000 at you at the moment, but it's hard to know if 4000 has helped, as you could have onyl 1 hundred links from quality sites, and the rest doesn't count for anything. what does google care that 4000 links are pointing to your website? when there is no proper quality in check with those places, and you paid for a automatic system to do it as well as everyone else that submits their website to those directories?
on webmaster/google forums, quantity of course will hold weight, but the quantity should come from relevant websites, e.g. a website that tlkas about cleaning tips linking to your cleaning services website is good, a website talking about how to join the army linking to your cleaning services website isn't so good as it's not relevant.
i think we are going in circles here any way, i'm just trying to say in my opinion there is better alternatives to gaining a higher pagerank, that google will respect more.