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Estimate and compare manual vs. outsourced time and cost for directory submissions.
The Directory Submission Time Calculator by SubmitMatic is a free SEO planning tool that helps SaaS founders, startup teams, marketers, and business owners estimate the amount of time required to manually submit a website to online directories. Instead of focusing solely on submission fees, the calculator measures the real workload involved in planning, researching, preparing, submitting, and following up on directory listings. It also compares the manual effort with the significantly smaller amount of active time required when using SubmitMatic's done-for-you directory submission service, allowing users to make informed decisions based on time, productivity, and opportunity cost rather than assumptions alone.
The calculator is designed to model directory submission campaigns of different sizes. Users can select from several predefined campaign tiers that represent common submission strategies, ranging from smaller starter campaigns to large-scale submissions covering more than 140 directories. Every variable can be customized, including the total number of directories, the average time needed to complete each submission, the research time required before submitting, profile preparation time, available working hours per week, hourly value of the user's time, expected follow-up rate, follow-up duration, and the estimated amount of active involvement required when using the SubmitMatic service. These adjustable inputs allow the calculator to generate personalized estimates that closely reflect each business's actual workflow.
Based on the selected values, the Directory Submission Time Calculator produces a detailed analysis of the workload involved in manual directory submissions. It estimates the total number of hours required to complete the campaign manually, calculates the amount of active time saved by outsourcing the work, determines how many weeks the project would take based on the user's available weekly schedule, estimates the financial value of the time invested, and highlights the opportunity cost associated with completing repetitive submission tasks instead of focusing on product development, marketing, sales, or customer support. By converting both time and productivity into measurable figures, the calculator helps businesses understand the hidden costs that often accompany manual directory marketing campaigns.
One of the calculator's most valuable features is its detailed breakdown of where submission time is actually spent. Rather than treating directory submission as a single task, the tool separates the process into several distinct activities. It estimates the hours required to prepare marketing assets such as product descriptions, logos, screenshots, categories, and social links, measures the research time needed to evaluate directory requirements and submission guidelines, calculates the repetitive time spent filling out forms, creating accounts, uploading assets, and selecting categories, and includes the additional time often required for follow-up tasks such as confirming email addresses, responding to approval requests, correcting submissions, or checking listing status. This detailed analysis provides users with a realistic understanding of the complete submission process rather than only the visible form-filling portion.
The calculator also compares estimated workloads across several common campaign sizes. Users can review the projected manual hours, calendar duration, and estimated labor cost for smaller submission campaigns as well as larger SEO initiatives covering dozens or even hundreds of directories. Since the estimates automatically update whenever users adjust the input values, businesses can easily explore different scenarios by changing submission speed, research time, available work hours, or hourly value. This flexibility makes the tool useful for both solo founders managing their own launches and larger teams planning more comprehensive directory marketing strategies.
In addition to generating numerical estimates, the Directory Submission Time Calculator includes educational content explaining how to interpret the results. The accompanying guidance encourages users to account for every stage of the submission process, including research and follow-up tasks that are frequently overlooked during project planning. The platform explains the concept of opportunity cost by emphasizing that every hour spent completing repetitive directory forms is time that cannot be invested in building products, acquiring customers, creating content, or improving existing services. It also encourages users to compare manual submission with professional directory submission services before committing significant internal resources to large campaigns.
