Spreading the Word About Your Site

"So getting a good ranking is a slow process," Claude said, disappointed. "That's too bad."

"Well, if it were truly easy, everyone would be doing it," I said, "and nothing would be any different anyhow. Watch out for scam artists who'll promise you high rankings in exchange for a hefty fee. A quality search engine optimization consultant won't promise overnight results. You have to think long-term."

"What about the short term, then?" Stef asked. "Can you do anything to get more traffic while you're working toward a higher page ranking?"

"Sure you can," I said, "by spreading the word about your site."

"You mean publicizing it," Anita said.

"Yes," I agreed, "but not as formally as you might think. Actually, the term that's in vogue these days for what I'm about to describe is viral marketing."

"Viral? As in infections?" Claude asked.

"Exactly," I continued, "but without the negative connotations. The basic idea of viral networking is to use word-of-mouth recommendations and subtle or subliminal mentions to get people to visit your site."

"But why is it called viral?" Claude asked. "I still don't understand."

"I know," said Stef, "it's because the Internet makes it easy to spread the word about something. Like in a blog posting. Or by sending an instant message to your friends."

"You're absolutely right, Stef," I agreed, "the basic premise of viral marketing is to create a self-perpetuating buzz about a product or service. Get a few key people recommending your product and they'll tell their friends, who'll tell others, and so on."

"I've read about this before," Anita said. "Viral marketing is used to promote new pop stars, to get a buzz about them going in the chat rooms."

"Well, I'm not suggesting you hire people to flog your site in chat rooms," I said, "but there are some simple things you can do to get the word out."

Embed Web Addresses

A simple but effective technique is to embed your site's Web address in all your outgoing mail messages and forum postings. The easiest way to do this is by setting up a signature. A signature is a brief message (keep it between one and four lines) that is automatically appended to your messages or postings. For example, Claude might send an email like this:

Dear John:

Thanks for the email, I'm glad you liked the movie. We
really enjoyed it, too. Talk to you soon!

Claude
My site about Internet phoninghttp://www.VoIP-at-Home.com

The last two lines of this message are the signature. It's usually stored in a separate text file (Figure 9.7). You then adjust your email application's options to append the signature file to outgoing messages (Figure 9.8). You do a similar thing with online forums and chat rooms, embedding Web addresses in your signatures and/or profiles.

Figure 9.7. Creating a signature file.

Figure 9.8. Automatically appending a signature to outgoing mail.

Be sure to add the "http://" prefix to the Web address. Most mail readers use that as a cue to automatically transform the address into a link that the reader can click to jump directly to the Web site.

Be discreet when using signatures, and keep them short. If you've chosen a good domain name, you shouldn't need more than a line or two to mention it.

Create or Write for Newsletters

Once you develop expertise in a subject, consider either creating your own newsletter or writing articles for other newsletters. Newsletters are somewhat old-fashioned, but they're easily forwarded from one person to another and can be printed out for later reading as well.

Creating a newsletter is actually a lot of work, especially if you intend to publish it on a frequent schedule. You'll need mailing-list management software to maintain the subscriber list. Your Web hosting provider can often create a mailing list for you. The hard part is coming up with good content on a regular basis. Be sure to promote your Web site in the newsletter.

Ad Newsletter

Martin Lemieux's SmartAds newsletter (www.smartads.info/newsletter/) is an interesting example of a newsletter devoted specifically to Web ad trends.

Writing for other newsletters is simpler, especially if you're not expecting to be paid for your work. Mention your site in the author biography at the end of the articleif people like what you said, they'll probably visit your site to learn more about you and/or the topic.

Spam Ban Plan

Google has a plan to ban comment spam. See www.google.com/googleblog/2005/01/preventing-comment-spam.html.

Use (But Don't Abuse) Blogs

In some ways, blogs are the modern form of newsletters. If your site isn't itself a blog, consider adding a blog. You can do what Stef does and use a free blogging service like Blogger. Or your Web hosting provider may be able to add one to your site for you.

Once your blog is up and running, add an entry to it whenever you make a significant change or addition to the site. This lets people know what's happening on the siteit's another form of a "what's new" page. Add entries referring to news items related to your site's topic, things that otherwise wouldn't make it onto your site. It's another way to add content to your site (and don't forget to show ads!).

Search for other blogs that are related to your site and look for opportunities to comment on other people's blog entries. Do this only when you have something interesting or substantial to say; otherwise you'll be accused of comment spammaking spurious comments simply to promote your own siteand banned from making further comments.

Cross-Promote Your Sites

Once you have two or more sites going, be sure to cross-promote them by having them link to each other. You could do this on the about pages or by including them in the footers of certain pages.