Yes, in truth I have no idea whether search results are based on pay or traffic, or word mentions, or an algorithm combining the three.

With regards to the email idea, about a month or more ago I emailed a newsletter with regards to edig, and noticed the following week it was mentioned in the lucky picks newsletter. Of course this could be coincidental. I don`t suppose the same person emailing a bunch of different newsletters would be overly effective (as I would imagine many of them are ran by the same individuals). If a number of different individuals were to email over time, however, I think the response could possibly be different.