Web site Submission

check out...

http://www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/index.php

http://spider-food.net/index.html

http://selfpromotion.com/

Giving $ to a search engine submission site is fruitless. Better to build your key pages correctly.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services on the other hand are often worthwhile. They work with your content.

Check your weblogs.  I use Livestats. Has a section on referrals by search engine and keywords used. Very useful to see how people who do get to your site are doing it.

FWIW - alt.www.webmaster has had quite a few people post complaints about getting ripped off by Yahoo. They have a US $299 program to get ranked in the Yahoo search results that apparently...

1. Doesn't get you ranked.

2. Automatically charges you for renewal, and doesn't seem to accept cancellations. Lot's of horror stories about people being charged another $299 for renewal after canceling and having to go though their CC companies to get a refund.

Just a couple of thoughts as an addendum...

 - Page titles should contain words that are in the meta tags.

- Engines check a little ways into the page - not always the whole page - have content towards the top of your page that contains meta tag words.

- Use alt and title tags for images that contain meta tag words.

- Long embedded javascript ot the top of a page is not good.

- Flash into's are not good.

- Figure out how people will find you (keywords). Adapt for the competition - keyword "hotel"  or "travel" or "games" will get you listed as number 2 billion.

- Spoofing the engine by doing things like repeating your keywords 100 times in white on white text at the bottom of the page will get you blacklisted by the engines.

- SEO is a moving target. Engines change their criteria, other peole do things that get them ranked above you. You have to review at least annualy or loose ranking.