Developing Link Partnerships and Mailings in Creating Commercial Websites

A method many people use to gain publicity for their site is to create link partnerships. It works like this: “Hey Joe, how about I put a link to your site on my page, and you put a link to mine on yours?”

You should only create link partnerships with companies that your viewers would be interested in (such as a service related to your product), and should always be aware of the possibility that they may actually go to that site, never to return to yours again. In other words, be careful.

Link partnerships have become so popular, companies have actually jumped in to facilitate the process, one of them being the Internet Link Exchange at http://www.linkexchange.com/.

 

The problem with trading links broadly is that you are often giving more than you are getting. Someone who came to your site specifically is more valuable than someone who is just surfing around and skipped over from another site.

In most cases, you are looking for customers, not surfers.

If you do decide to trade links, you should proceed with the same caution as you would in networking personally. You wouldn’t trade leads with someone who doesn’t share a client base in the real world, and you shouldn’t do it in cyberspace. If you’re selling Bibles, you probably wouldn’t get much business from a link on a XXX adult site (but they might get quite a few clients from you!) Remember, your resources are limited. You don’t want a bunch of looky-loos slowing things down for real prospects.

Usenet Groups

 

It may be beneficial to also post an announcement of your site on appropriate Usenet groups. This is a very sticky issue and may cause you to get some harsh responses if not handled responsibly. You should make your announcement as short as possible, and only post it to groups you feel would truly benefit and appreciate this information.

You can browse through a listing of Usenet newsgroups at http://miso.wwa.com/~boba/news.html.


Note

A news server is both faster and more accurate than accessing Usenet via the WWW.


Some people try to trick Usenet users by holding mock conversations. They’ll start a discussion string about a “cool new site,” and create different users to carry on the conversation. Usenet folks are notorious for exposing this type of scheme and rewarding the schemer with all kinds of not-so-fun prizes, like flames, mail bombs, and even viruses.

Mailings

 

E-mailings can be a good way to jump-start the traffic to your site. But how do you get an e-mail mailing list if you haven’t had any visitors yet?

Enter PostMaster Direct (http://www.netcreations.com/postdirect/), which keeps a mailing list database of more than 400 targeted topical lists containing a total of more than 1.7 million names, all voluntary. They offer a quick, affordable (e-mail addresses can be rented for 10 cents a name, and even less if over a certain volume), and PC (Politically Correct) way to distribute commercial messages to prospective customers via e-mail. Unlike other services or techniques that “spam” users with junk e-mail that they don’t want or need, PostMaster Direct sends messages to only those users who have specifically requested information about certain selected topics. Now, Internet marketers can harness the power of e-mail without fear of a recipient backlash (see Figure 21.9).

 

Quick and Dirty Guide: Register with More than 200 Search Engines in Under 30 Minutes

There are services on the Web that offer a free one-stop promotion page (and sometimes offer expanded services for a fee). You simply fill in a form with all the details of your page, and then a robot goes off and enters this generic information into the more popular search engines. If you are really busy, this can be handy. However, these services do not allow you to tailor your submissions for the individual engines, so your results will most likely not be as effective as they would if you entered the information into each system yourself. We often register with the larger search engines (Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, and so on) by hand, and then register with the smaller ones via one of these services.

Let’s go through this process step-by-step with Submit It, so you can get it done quickly.

  1. Gather your information. Writing this down and saving it in a text editor will save you time in the future. You will need
    • Your company’s e-mail address
    • The title of your site
    • The site’s URL
    • Keywords: (words or phrases separated by commas)
    • Your business name
    • The company’s address (including street, city, state/province, zip/postal code, and country)
    • Your name
    • Your e-mail address
    • Your phone number
    • Your fax number
    • A description of your site (a single paragraph, 25 words or less, that describes your site)
  2. Get online with Submit It (http://www.submit-it.com/).
  3. Decide which service you wish to use:

    Submit It! (Free)

    Includes 16 search engines and directories, for companies and individuals submitting URL(s).

    Submit It! Gold ($59.95)

    Includes up to 200 search engines and directories, provides access to the service for a year, organizes search engines and directories by category, saves your submission information, prints reports by URL with time/date stamp for each directory submitted, recalls information by URL to make changes and updates, submits to new search engines added to the service, and provides support via the Web for companies and individuals submitting URL(s).

    Submit It! Pro (10 companies for $199.95; 20 companies for $299.95)

    This service is for Internet service providers submitting URL(s) on behalf of their clients. It provides access to the service for one year, includes the same features as Submit It! Gold, and enables you to manage multiple customer URLs from one password protected area.

  4. For this example we use plain old Submit It! (see Figure 21.10). The next step is to fill out the Submit It! form, and click the “OK, move on to the submitting area” button.
     
  5. In the submitting area, you can view the information you’ve just entered. Make sure this information is correct.
  6. Move down the page to submit to the individual search engines. Use your browser’s Back button to return to this page (Figure 21.11) each time.
     
  7. That’s it! Now, if you would like to submit your URL to other search engines, you can either visit them individually, or try the other services of these types. Three other services like Submit It! are

    PostMaster http://www.netcreations.com/postmaster

    SubmitAll http://www.hometeam.com/addurl/

    Pointers to Pointers http://www.homecom.com/global/pointers.html

 

Summary

 

In this chapter we have discussed how to market your site online using the following:

  • Search engines
  • Banner advertisements
  • Paid links
  • Directory listings
  • Link partnerships
  • Usenet groups
  • E-mail mailings

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