Preparing a web site for submission is not inexpensive.

It requires hours of analysis and investigation by an optimization expert. But the results can be Great if done correctly.  It is not just about web site submission, but also about the use of proper HTML meta tag formatting, search word selection, the use of words in the web site and more. 

Manual submission can be performed, however, this is very time consuming.  Use of automation software tools have costs as well as take time to submit using them.  Once submitted using these tools, websites must be "looked at" by each search engine that has had a submission. 

It usually takes between 4-8 weeks for the web sites to start showing up in the search engine lists.  There is a much faster way to get submissions to mainstream search engines such as MSN, Google, Yahoo, Alta, etc.  That is a pay per submission and can range from a few dollars to nearly $50 for a single page.  Once the site is complete, it should reviewed to determine the appropriate Meta Tags, page text, etc., to make sure that the search engine position will have the greatest chance of being near the top.

The GroupWeb services already have support for adding Meta tags for search engines and the administrator can change the tags at any time via the administration pages - very powerful.

Note that is worth a thousand dollars:  What you use for key words in your meta tags, you really need to have those words one or more times in your front page.  You will get much higher rankings this way.

H1 and TItle Tags - stay away from load heavy and flash heavy sites.