However, as we all know, this philosophy didn't last. For better or worse, the Internet was destined to become the newest opportunity for commercial revenue.

After that, we all witnessed the rise and fall of the Dot Com craze. Since then, those with strong enough business models to survive have looked to more traditional and realistic ways of creating consistent revenue and offering products and services that truly benefit our customers and clients.

For many businesses, finding a revenue stream has been a true process of trial and error. This couldn't be truer for Internet search engines.

Search engines are Web sites that catalog and make directories of other Web sites across the Internet. Sites like Yahoo!, MSN Search, Google and LookSmart are examples of search engines where people can go and type in keywords in order to find Web sites that match what they are looking for.

In order to pay for the Internet connections, development, servers, maintenance and the staff it takes to run a major search engine, there needs to be revenue. At first, like many other Web sites, search engines sold advertising on their pages. This kept the service free to users and businesses wanting to be included in the site, and covered the costs involved with running the site.

But, like many other sites, the value of banner advertising was highly over-estimated and, eventually, businesses either pulled out or the cost was lowered enough to meet demand, which meant the banner ads couldn't continue to cover all the expenses involved with running the search engines.

Therefore, new revenue streams had to be developed. So, the next idea came from Yahoo! As they grew to be the top search engine, Yahoo! was inundated with requests to be added to their directory. Businesses knew that the moment they were entered into the Yahoo! database, the amount of traffic they would receive could easily grow by tenfold.

The problem was for Yahoo! to keep up with all these requests. So, they developed a system where businesses were able to pay a fee ($299) that would get them added to the database within a few business days. This started a trend, and new revenue stream, where businesses could opt in or be required to pay for premium search engine listings.

As the Web's popularity continued to grow and technology advanced, businesses wanted to purchase specific keyword results.

In other words, if you owned a flower shop, you could purchase the top search results when someone goes to a specific search engine and types in the keyword "flowers" and does a search.

Of course, there are many flower shops out there and every one with a Web site would like to be at the top of the search results when someone does that search. So, another new revenue stream was born and, usually through a bidding process, supply and demand would form a unique fee for every keyword combination that business were interested in purchasing.

At the same time, there are only a finite number of keyword results and banner ads available, and some business don't want to or just can't afford to pay for the extra fees. So, it is yet to be seen which pay services will last and what new opportunities are around the corner.

Keeping up with all the search engine trends required to get listed and be found when people do searches can be a tremendous task. Following is a breakdown of the current opportunities and requirements for a few of the top search engines.

Today, Yahoo! requires commercial sites to pay a nonrefundable, recurring annual fee of $299 to be listed. For the specifics on how to list your site with Yahoo!, visit this address: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/.

In addition, businesses can purchase specific keyword results through a third party called Overture. They offer this service through a bidding process and the highest bidders for each keyword show up in Yahoo! above all the other search results. The Overture results also show up in Ask Jeeves, Lycos, InfoSpace and MSN Search. Visit http://www.overture.com/ for more information.

Getting listed in MSN Search is also considered a top priority by most commercial Web sites. Because the default search engine programmed into Internet Explorer is the Microsoft Network search page, MSN Search can drive a lot of traffic to your Web site.

MSN has partnered with LookSmart to handle all commercial listings. Now, the only opportunity to show up in MSN search result listings is to have an account with LookSmart and purchase search results on a monthly basis. For more information on their policies, visit this link: http://listings.looksmart.com/.

The last search engine I'll mention is Google. Google has quickly grown in popularity and, if not already there, is rivaling Yahoo! as the number one search engine on the Net. They are accomplishing this by going back to the roots of the Internet and sticking to the old philosophies of sharing free information whenever possible.

By keeping their site free to the users AND free to businesses wanting to be listed, and providing search results that many believe offer more accurate and consistent Web sites relevant to the user's search, there is a growing trend for everyone to migrate to their services. For more information on getting listed for free, visit http://www.google.com/addurl.html.

And, if you have room in your budget to drive additional traffic to your site from Google, they also provide opt in keyword results purchasing. This is an effective combination of search results and banner ads they call Google AdWords. For more information on this, visit https://adwords.google.com/.