Stacey..
I've never paid for any of the services your asking about. I've never even considered paying anyone or any service.
I use Meta Tags like cuhhhrazy...I know, I know, they're supposed to be on the outs. But I still use them. If you use clearly and well thought out meta tags..your site will get picked up.
What I do, is put my link out there everywhere possible and cross-link with other sellers.
(example: the 360 link in my sig)
The majority of my outside eBay sales come from my link on my ME page with eBay.
You need to always..no matter what you're using use sig tags. Signature tags. I have them in every selling board I belong to, every email that goes out, every page that I'm allowed to have a link on, etc. My links are there for anyone to see what I sell.
Another thing I did was open free ecrater stores. Ecrater feeds to Froogle/Google. That brings up my items in Google searches, too. The other day I checked on an item and I was number 2...not bad! Plus, I make sales out of ecrater so why not use a free store.
Gotta run!
Good luck,
Donna