Let's face facts - Search engines are starting to rule and dominate the way people advertise their products and services.

Gone are the days of low-cost, no-cost advertising. Now it's all about how much the major search engines can take from your wallet, without you noticing that your advertising costs are far outweighing your sales.

Let's be honest - It's all about greed. They know you need the advertising, so they place it at a premium and hold an auction on their keywords. So where and how does the 'little guy' fit in? After all, isn't this the land of milk and honey? Isn't the Internet business option the cheap solution to owning a franchise?

What's going on?

Well, I can certainly tell you one thing - Whatever is going on, it's not being done for your benefit! After struggling with Google Adwords and getting billed for not conforming to their stupid policies, (which by the way, were their own guidelines and resources used), I simply halted the account, never to return.

Now there's something else going on. I call it an inversion of the Google/Yahoo syndrome. The first peoples search engine. That's right. Now you can actually own your own piece of Internet Real Estate and charge others for advertising on the space that you grow and own. OK, so I was doubtful. I did the best thing ... I talked with the CEO.

Asking awkward questions concerning any Internet startup program or business model, is just one of the things that I do best. I crack most of these things wide open, expose the weaknesses and desecrate the very foundations that most are not built upon. In several years, just three have passed my stringent evaluation.

After an exhausting hour with the CEO, he actually showed me how he can guarantee top placements in the major search engines and described exactly how this new baby would integrate with the likes of Yahoo and Google. But it does more than that... You own your own portal and that means even more exposure!

I can only welcome this sort of activity, in the face of the adversity that the major search engines are causing the small business owner. Is this an Internet advertising solution?

I believe it is. I also think that in years to come, the rightful owners of the Internet, (the users), will take back their inheritance, as the greed of the major search engines will devour themselves.

Michael A Fowler, M.B.A. Author and Developer of 'The MBA Way' system. Group Trainer and Coach for FFSI. You can contact Michael at: Goldcard43@aol.com Website: http://www.the-mba-way.com