Forum Moderators: phranque
But now I have written a book on widgets and am making a website to help promote and sell it. I haven't had to promote a website in a LONG time. They say that 1 year on the web is like 10 years in real life, and so 1 year being "out of the loop" and I am finding that everything I thought I knew about how to get traffic to a new website has gone.
It's really depressing. :-)
I can still make a good SEO'd page with HTML, CSS and PHP and a sitemap and RSS feed. No problem with any of that. But then what? In the old days I'd have linked to the new site from any of my old sites, but those sites no longer exist! I don't really have any money for Adwords...
Could someone please give a brief run down of what the current thinking is?! :-)
How do I get human traffic to this new website? What is in vogue?
My plan at present is:
1) Press release about my widget book at PRWeb, with the $40 option so it gets onto Google news etc.
2) Submit sitemap to Google
3) Go onto widget forums and casually drop links
4) Make approx 10% of my book available as "content" on the website
5) Re-write some of the book as stand-alone articles and submit them to Ezinearticles
6) Get my credit card out and go to Adwords!
Are any of these ideas still valid?
1) Press release about my widget book at PRWeb, with the $40 option so it gets onto Google news etc.
2) Submit sitemap to Google
3) Go onto widget forums and casually drop links
4) Make approx 10% of my book available as "content" on the website
5) Re-write some of the book as stand-alone articles and submit them to Ezinearticles
6) Get my credit card out and go to Adwords!
2. And consider submitting to MSN and Y! too.
3. No No No! Them days are gone. Many forums now use nofollow, many others are so spam-sensitive you'll be suiciding. Much better to select a few related forums; join, and be an active member; give a bit, learn a bit and be welcome - your link is not only likely to stay, it will be spread by word of mouth - and a genuine 'recommendation' link is the best you'll get as we zoom towards 2007.
4. Is a good idea - I'd do it as few articles 'taken from' the book. The 'first half' of a chapter just gets up people's noses!
5. Personally, I doubt you'll get much link benefit or referrals from an article farm, but there are a few good 'uns - so if you know one that works, go for it.
7. Get listed a few Quality Directories - that field has changed markedly over the last year, and now the 'link exchange' and the 'made for adsense' and the 'we'll sell your email to every spammer on the planet' directories (90% of all directories) are an utter waste of time, space and effort; many niche directories get you real referrals and link value; as do a small number of general Quality Directories. But not many.
Good Luck - but while much has changed, an awful lot has stayed the same! :)
To paraphrase an American saying, "you can take the fellow out of the Web, but you can't take the web out of the fellow."
