2005, Google introduce a new submission system and quickly followed by yahoo. The sitemap is a page visitors can see and that search engine can use to find its way through your site.
Secondary System just like any service that help you to submit url.
Don't pay for submission.
That's a lot of dummy site for collecting info, do not use regular email.
You will not get much traffic for those service help to submit your site to 300 (any amount) of search engines.
Do it when really free.
Submitting to Directories
Yahoo Directory - costly for commercial site. It is crawled by others search engines such as Google, so having a link in the directory helps search engines find your site.
Open Directory Project - Yeah! It's free.
Other Directories (Second tier directories) - just avoiding payment most of the time.
Google Sitemap Setup
Generate your sitemap.
Place it into the root of your web site.
Log into your google sitemap account. (http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/)
Click add tab.
Select general web sitemap option (may go for others option).
Click Next.
Type Url of sitemap file and submit.
Notes: sitemap files can be up to 10 MB and contain up to 50000 URLs. So, solution will be multiple sitemap files.