Getting online promotion down to a science

Marketing
1

Here is my last month’s statistics of a website I have running for 6 months in its present state, and I’m not embarrassed of showing it here:

Right now I am mainly interested in creating more awareness of my website and aiming for more unique visitors per day. At least 100 per day would be good. I have launched many websites in the past and none of them came close to being 50-visits-a-day popular.

I’m a regular visitor in a very large forum related to the content in my website. That forum ranks PR8 in Google and I post frequently with my website url in the signature. That hasn’t done much to generate a lot of traffic.

Recently, though I had some videos on YouTube that have gotten the most views of all. I probably won’t be able to upload new videos that will get as many views, because those were spur-of-the-moment vids when the subject of them was a hot item of discussion.

I decided to post my link to my website in the video descriptions, because the traffic coming to that website would be a good target for what my site is about. That has probably contributed to the small surge of visitors in the past few days.

However I am at a loss as to how to continue. I don’t know how else I can spread link awareness in familiar websites without being accused of spamming.

How can I make online promotion my bread and butter for website skills, and stop falling into the beginner traps like being ruled out for spamming and loss of motivation? It seems to be a skill that is very catch-22 in understanding and getting right.

2

That forum ranks PR8 in Google

A misconception many people make. It’s not the forum that ranks PR8 in Google but it’s homepage. How well the pagerank is passed on to all other pages depends on the structure of the forum. Also, this is of no relevance if the forum has signature links set to nofollow as well as hiding them from anonymous users (like Sitepoint does).

Also is there any chance that you can team up with that forum, say advertising, sponsoring a contest, …

I post frequently with my website url in the signature.

Try a few variations of your signature, add some call to action, and compare the results.

I decided to post my link to my website in the video descriptions, because the traffic coming to that website would be a good target for what my site is about. That has probably contributed to the small surge of visitors in the past few days.

Doesn’t your statistics tell you that more precisely then “surge”?

I don’t know how else I can spread link awareness in familiar websites without being accused of spamming.

Don’t spam then. Some people say there’s a fine line between spamming and non-spamming. I disagree. Put yourself in the mindset of building long-term, win-win relations with whomever/wherever you post your links, add relevant content,…

The high bounce rate of yours should be concerning and indicates that you’re either targeting the wrong audience, provide the wrong content for the audience you think you’re targeting, or your site structure is poor. I’d suggest submitting it in the reviews section of Sitepoint and we can discuss those points there.

There’s a bit more I could say but don’t have the time right now.

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You’re right, and I noticed that PR is even less relevant than that for the forum, since your signatures are only allowed plain text. Meaning I just have typed the entire URL along with the site’s name and short description.

The forum’s website is owned by a huge media corporation, so no chance in that.

I’ll come up with different quotes and signatures.

That’s just a word I used to describe it really. I’ll wait a few more days to tell if the surge is really there or just temporary.

I’ll make sure to post my site up for reviews when I’m qualified to do so again. My content is much like Reddit’s content - a fast click in and out to a news article. I plan to add more interactive features for it.

Would purchasing advertising space be something you have in mind? I would be willing to purchase ads for the right niche and price.

4

How can I make online promotion my bread and butter for website skills

Focus on conversions, not awareness. Litterally pay for your bread and butter through promotion.

You know how companies go broke ramping up traffic with zero idea of how to monetize? Don’t do that.