Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend 5th Edition

Description

These days, everyone seems to have a home page or a Web site. However, just because you create and publish a Web site doesn?t mean anyone will visit it. Competition to attract visitors is extreme. The reality is that of the millions of Web pages out there, only a handful actually attract a steady readership; and these same Web pages are the ones that attract advertisers. In order to compete, you need to develop and implement a Web site promotion plan.

 

What can you do when you build a home page that no one visits? What can you do to earn money on your Web site? Is there an easy way to attract readers and advertisers without spending a fortune? There are low-cost ways to attract readers and advertisers to your home page or Web site, and Increase Your Web Traffic In a Weekend, Fifth Edition shows you how. The book lays out a cost-effective, comprehensive plan that both Web beginners and experts can use to build an audience for a home page or Web site. The techniques covered are the result of the authors? years of practical experience, but you can put them to use in just a weekend!

CONTENTS:

Introduction

Whats This Book About?

How Is This Book Organized?

Who Should Read This Book?

What Do You Need to Use This Book?

What Do You Need to know?

Conventions Used in This Book

Friday Evening - Promoting Your Web Site to the World

You Built It, But Will They Come?

Can You Really Promote Your Web Site without Spending a Fortune?

Making the Web Work for You

Leveraging the Power of Search Engines and Directories

Crawler-based Search Engines

Human Powered Directories

Hybrid Sites

Paid Inclusion and Paid Placement

Promoting Your Web Site to Joe Web Surfer

Determining Who Is Visiting Your Web Site

G. Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

Saturday Morning - Putting the Motion in Promotion

Capitalizing on Search Engine Fundamentals

Millions of Users Are but a Search Away

Indexers, Spiders, Crawlers, and Other Web Beasties

Working with Search Engines

Comparing Search Engines and Directory Lists

Who Power Whom?

Search Engine Fundamentals

What Do Search Engines Look for?

What Does the Indexed References Look Like for a Real Page?

What Happens After Your Web Site Is Indexed?

Determining Popular Keywords

Keyword Creation Tips

Researching Popular Search Engines Keywords

Free Keyword Generation Tools

Be On Guard Against Accidental Spamming

Boosting Visits with Ordinary Descriptions

a. Understanding Summary Descriptions

b. Understanding Relevancy

Using Page Titles to Your Advantage

Getting Your Frame-Enhanced or Graphics-Intensive Page Noticed

a. Handling Problems with Frames

b. Working Around Scripts

c. Preventing Problems with Your Tables

d. Working Around Your Graphics and Image Maps

Getting the Most from Keywords and Meta-Information

a. Working with Meta-Information

b. Using Meta-Information in Your Web Page

c. Meta Tag Generators

d. Analyzing Your Meta Tags

Leveraging Your ALT Tags and Comments

Inspecting Your Web Pages Body Text

A Last Look at Search Engine Fundamentals

Taking a Break

Registering with the Top Search Engines on the Planet

Submitting Your Site to a Search Engine

How Does Indexing Work?

How Can You Exclude Directories and Pages?

How Often Is Your Site Reindexed?

Why Wont This Search Engine List Your Site?

Search Engine Tricks to Avoid

a. Title Tricks

b. Hidden Text and Fields

c. Setting Up Multiple Version of Your Pages

Increasing Your Web Traffic with the Top Search Engines

a. AllTheWeb

b. AltaVista

c. AOL Search

d. Ask Jeeves

e. Excite

f. Go.Com

g. Google

h. HotBot

i. Lycos

j. MSN Search

k. Netscape

l. whatUseek

m. Yahoo!

Metasearch Engines

a. The Mechanics Going on Behind the Scenes

b. Dog Pile and Mamma and Other Options

i. DogPile

ii. Mamma

5. Targeting Shopping Search Engines

Submitting Your Web Site to the Top Guides, Lists, and Directories

1. Submitting Your Site to Lists and Directories

2. The Open Directory and Yahoo!

3. Submitting Your Site to Web Guides

4. How Do People Find Your Listing in a Guide or Directory?

5. How Often Is Your Sites Listing Updated?

6. Increasing Your Web Traffic with Guides and Directories

a. Alcanseek

b. CANLinks

c. CentralDrive

d. EuroSeek

e. Galaxy

f. Gimpsy

g. Illumirate

h. Jayde

i. LookSmart

j. Mavicanet

k. Nerd World Media

l. Open Directory

M. Scrub The Web

N. Skaffe

O. Yahoo!

E. Offline Marketing

1. Promote Your URL on Everywhere

a. Business Cards

b. Letter Heads

c. Offline Advertising

2. Promote Your URL Alongside Your Products and Services

Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

Saturday Afternoon: The Coolest, the Hottest, and the Best

The Best Business Search Engines and Yellow Pages Directories

Submitting Your Site to Business Search and Directory Sites

Increasing Your Web Traffic with Yellow Pages Directories

a. BigBook

b. BizWeb

c. Superpages.com

d. Where2Go

e. SMARTpages

f. Yahoo! Local Yellow Pages

g. AnyWho

h. TheYellowPages

i. AOL YellowPages

j. MSN Yellow pages

k. Yellow Book

l. AskMrYellow

Directories by Industry and Category

Getting the Most Out of Industry and Category Directories

Community Guides

Creating a Listing in EscapeArtists

Submitting a Listing to the MetroGuide Network

Yahoo! Country and Metro Guides

Real Estate Directories and Guides

Getting Listed at REALTOR.org

Getting Listed in Estates Today

Getting Listed in the International Real Estate Digest

Other Real Estate Directories

Travel and Tourism: Guides and Directories

Getting Listed in Hotels and Travel on the Net

The Excite City Travel Guide

Other Travel and Tourism Directories

5. More Guides and Directories by Category

C. Take a Break

D. Childrens Directories: Getting Noticed by One of the Webs Biggest Audiences

E. Getting More Mileage Out of What's New? Directories

Exploring the Starting Point Directory

Finding Out Whats New at NerdWorld

Other Whats New? Directories

E. Getting Your Site Listed As the Cool Site of the Day

Wandering the Maze of Web Awards

Finding the Right Award

Submitting Your Site

Cool Site of the Day

Wild, Hot, and Zany Awards

Best of the Web

a. NerdWorlds Nifty-Fifty

b. The World Best Websites Award

c. The Webby Awards

F. Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

Sunday Morning: Attracting the Masses

A. Registering with Many Search Engines and Directories Simultaneously

Introducing Web Registration Services

Using Registration Services

Working with Registration Services

i. 1 2 3 Add Masters

ii. Add Me!

iii. @Submit!

iv. Easy Submit

v. Metanet

vi. Submit It

vii. Submit it! Free

viii. Submit Express

2. Checking on Your Listings

a. Determining Whether Your Web Site Has Been Listed

b. Finding Out Which of Your Web Pages Are Listed

B. Selling Your Web Site Through E-mail

Web Site Promotion Through Direct E-mail, Newsgroups, and Mailing Lists

Establishing a Privacy Policy

Promoting Your Web Site Directly

Sending Promotional Material

Tips for Direct Mailings

Promoting Your Web Site Through Newsgroups

Finding Newsgroups You Can Use to Promote Your Web Site

Posting Tips for Newsgroups

Promoting Your Web Site Through Mailing Lists

Finding Mailing Lists You Can Use to Promote Your Web Site

Posting Tips for Mailing Lists

Tell a Friend Marketing

Announcing Your Web Site, Products, and Services by E-mail

a. Announcement Newsgroups

b. Business Newsgroups for Making Announcements

c. More Newsgroups for Announcements

Setting Up Autoresponders

Creating a Professional Image Using Multiple Email Accounts

Creative signature Files

Developing an On-line Business Card

C. Take a Break

D. Advertising on eBay

E. Setting up a Cybermall Shop

1. Benefits

2. Finding the Right Place for Your Web Site

F. Get Access to Millions of Customers Working with Amazon.com

1. Become an Affiliate and Set up Your Own Store Front

2. Sell Your Products Via Amazon.coms Marketplace

G. Attracting the Masses with Giveaways, Contests, Sweepstakes, and More

Cant Get 'Em Any Other Way? Give it Away!

a. Free Samples

b. Free Articles

What to Watch Out for: The Legalities

Disclaimers for Age and Residency

Other Disclaimers

Putting the Rules Together

Boosting Traffic with Giveaways and Sweepstakes

Creating a Giveaway or Sweepstakes

Looking at an Actual Sweepstakes

Gaining Readers with Contests

Running a Contest

Looking at an Actual Contest

Using Games, Puzzles, and Teasers to Attract Visitors

Creating a Game, Puzzle, Teaser

Finding Free Online Games to Add to Your Web Pages

Looking at an Actual Treasure Hunt

Sites That Promote Your Freebies

Promoting Your Freebie at FreeStuff2000 and Playhere

Promoting Your Freebie in ThefreeSite.com

Promoting Your Freebie at Virtual FreeStuff

Other Places to Promote Your Freebies

Other Ideas for Attracting the Masses

a. Providing a Tip of the Day

b. Adding External Content to Your Web Pages

c. Setting Up a Survey

d. Generating Repeat Visits with a Whats New Page

e. Keep Your Visitors Informed with a Calendar of Events

f. Using Video to Promote Your Web Site and Products

g. Reward Loyal Visitors with a Free Members Only Area

Setup Up Your Own Affiliate Program

Sponsoring a Virtual Web Site Launch

H. Generating Traffic Using MySpace

1. Networking with Others

2. Sharing Content

3. Linking Back to Your Web Site

I. Free Banner Advertising: No Joke

What the Heck Is a Banner Exchange?

How Do Banner Exchanges Work?

Exchanging Your Banner

Creating a Banner Advertisement

Selecting a Banner Exchange

Banner Exchanges for the Masses

Exchanging Banners with LinkBuilders

Exchanging Banners with Exchange-it!

Using CyberLink Exchange

Other Banner Exchanges

J. Analyzing Off Page Factors

Building Strong Ranking Through Links

Avoiding Link Farms

K. Sharing Authoritative Information Through Wikipedia

1. Tips for Creating a New WIKIPEDIA Page

2. Providing Authoritative Content

3. Linking to Other Wikipedia Pages

L. Increasing Your Traffic with Web Rings

How Do Web Rings Work?

Working with the Major Web Rings

M. Reaching Out to Users Through Online E-zines

N. Post Company Job Opportunities on Your Web Site to Attract Visitors

O. Short on Time? Try Paid Inclusion

Locating Sponsored Links

Google AdWords

Yahoo! Search Marketing

Other Paid Inclusion Programs

P. Keepem Coming back

Q. Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

Sunday Afternoon: Discovering Who's Visiting Your Site and Why

A. Using Web Stats to Understand Your Site's Visitors

Options for Collecting Web Site Statistics

Selecting Your Web Traffic Analysis Tool

Web Site Stats Are a Necessary Evil

Discover Popular and Unpopular Resources

Learn More About the People Who Visit Your Site

Find Out When People Visit

Learn More About Banner Advertising

Obtain Information on Referring Sites, Search Engines, and More

Determine the Browsers and Platforms Being Used

Zeroing In on Visits

a. Putting Visits Together

b. Tracking Visits

c. Getting the Big Picture

B. Taking a Break

C. Gaining Lost Readers from Error Analysis

Errors: We All Hate Them

Missing Files

How Can You Fix File Problems?

Lost Connections

Time-Outs

E. Improve Your Web Site with Visitor Feedback

1. Setting Up Your Own Blog

2. Creating a Guestbook

3. Creating a Bulletin Board

4. Collecting and Posting Positive Customer\Visitor Feedback

F. Redirecting Lost Readers

Redirection Basics

More Redirection Techniques

a. The META Refresh Tag

b. Scripted Client-Side Redirection

c. Redirection Using Your Web Server

No More 404 - - File Not Found

Taking Advantage of Free URL Analyzers

A few Last Words on Errors

Finally, You Know What to Do - So Whats Next?

Web Site Analyzers

Directing Users to Popular Areas

Cleaning Up Unused Pages

Avoiding Dead Ends

Understanding Your Niche

G. Reviewing Your Progress and Planning More for Next Weekend

What Have You Done This Weekend?

Planning More for Next Weekend

Keeping Up With the Latest Web Promotion Techniques

a. Web Marketing Discussion Forums

Keeping an Eye on Your Competition

Giving Your Web Site a Facelift Using a Web Site Template

A Final Note

Appendix: Additional Resources on the Web

Site Management Programs

AccuTagger

FastStats

LinkProver

MozillaTracker

NetTracker

PageStats/HitCount

PowerMapper

Search Engine Commando

SERanker

SEPopular

Surfstats log Analyzer

TopDog Pro

WebSpeed

Site Submission

1. AddWeb Website Promoter

2. Dynamic Submission

3. Exploits Submission Wizard

4. SubmitWolf Pro

5. WebPosition

Web Authoring

1. HTML Power Tools

2. MetaWizard

3. SiteXpert

4. TagCheck

Connectivity

1. Connection Keeper

2. Magic NetTrace

3. MySpeed Server

4. VisualRoute

Glossary

Index