I've got a new site in the health niche and I've been looking for relevant directories to get listed in. I've found lists of the top health directories but then I see that they all require payment for a one-way link from $19.95 on up.

Is this common? It's been a couple years since I've done this with another site of mine but back then most of the submissions were free or only a dollar or two.

Now I'd be happy to pay a fair price for listings in high-ranking directories but the ones I'm looking at are PR0 to PR2 max.

Is this as bad of a deal as I think it is?