How much time is a directory listing worth when you’re doing everything yourself?

I’ve been trying to get one of my sites verified on a startup directory for months. My other listings passed. This one keeps failing.

We checked it again today. The required link is there, but we still don’t know why their check fails. I’ve emailed them and am waiting for a reply.

The next suggestion was more diagnostic work. I decided to leave it alone for now. I don’t want to keep adding work around a listing when I don’t even know whether it will bring the right people to the site.

I’m building BubbaCode, a group of apps for small businesses, on my own. There’s always something else that needs attention. Today I also finished a blog for each site and wanted to get back to talking with people instead of troubleshooting the same listing again.

I’m not writing directories off. I just don’t have a good way to judge how much time this particular one deserves. After you’ve already spent hours on something, it’s easy to give it another hour.

For anyone who has used directories to promote a bootstrapped product, have they brought you actual customers, or mostly backlinks and a little traffic?