NFFC - 9:08 am on Apr 16, 2001 (gmt 0)

This question really got me thinking Robert, thank you.

I don't have a scheduled submission program to any search engines at this time, I work on the basis that it is better to be "found" than to use the free submit option.

For the big two, Google and Fast, all that is required is a couple of links from sites already listed in those engines, they will come and grab almost everything you have.

The second stringers are more difficult;
AltaVista are penalising new submissions, pages are buried so deep [and I mean deep!] that I can see no other explanation. The only point of contention in my mind is whether it is the "new" or the "submission" factor that attracts the penalty. Being the cynical old fool that I am I can't help but see the similarities with Ink situation of last year, my feeling is that they are going to launch a pay for play scheme shortly and in the same way as Ink did, are prepared to damage their index in an attempt to leave webmasters with no other choice than to pay.

With Inktomi the situation is crystal clear, submissions are penalised in comparison with spidered and paid pages. Again in this case I'll wait to be spidered. The pay for play scheme is in my experience a sure fire way to kill a growing site, so far none of the sites that I have used this scheme for have received any spidering on pages not paid for. I will not be using the scheme in the future, it is too expensive, Ink are second rate traffic generators [at best!], some of the companies who provide the scheme are in direct competition with SEO's and as we have seen [webmasterworld.com] data is being passed to Ink from these sources. My real worry is that this outsourcing will progress into area's that should be no business, imho, of these "resellers", I am not prepared to give them my game plan on a plate. If I had a little more courage I would give Ink an entry in robots.txt, they are in my opinion getting to the stage where they are a waste of good bandwidth.

Excite, well you tell me! ;) Again I just let them find the sites, although I do give them an occasional prompt every now and then.

The third string, they need us more than we need them. If they want to build a good index they are going to have to come and look.

The main benefit I find with this approach is that it forces me to look at things from a different angle. It is almost like giving yourself a challenge "how can I get listed without submitting" and I think that medium to long term it is a more rewarding strategy.

Of course, your mileage may vary.