Archive for the ‘Site Promotion’ Category

A little bit about Social Networking

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Social networking is a good thing to keep your site running smoothly. It also helps to pull in members that would not have found your site otherwise, and helps to keep the members you have updated.

Twitter:

Twitter is an ever growing option that many of your site’s members already use. You can utilize Twitter to get the word out on the better topics running on your forum, and can quickly give status updates to the site. It only takes a few moments to set up a twitter account, and only takes a minute to give an update!

ACP > vBulletin Options > Social Bookmarking Options > Add New Social Bookmarking Site

The input that’s needed is: http://twitter.com/home/?status={TITLE}%20{URL}

Then once you find a worthy thread, simply click on the Twitter Icon (You can easily find one for upload via Google Images) and the rest is pretty straight forward.

You can also log into Twitter itself to give tid-bits about your site. Warning people of upcoming down time (or worse, let people know of existing unexpected down time).

Facebook:

I know you already have a facebook account, these days everyone does! Now all you need is a page dedicated to your forum. Setting that up is not hard at all, just follow these simple instructions: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/help/?page=175 .

The input for social bookmarking is: http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u={URL}

The page can be a way to connect with your members on a deeper level then other bookmarking and social sites can never achieve. It allow your to not only give the best site updates, it allows for you to share banners and linking information, and when people “like” your page all of their friends and family see it! This can pull in other like minded people.

There are other great ways of integrating Facebook into your forum as well.

Adding a LIKE button:

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like

Put this on the main index to encourage people to share their ‘like’ of your forum. Once implemented watch the number rise…

Letting people see your forums Facebook Activity:

http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/activity

Once that is added you can create a custom page for your forums to list it. If you are using vB then you follow the instructions found here: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124749

The Activity feed will show who has linked or liked what on your forums. This will show which friends have done what, but is otherwise pretty anonymous, so it’s safe according to most privacy policies, but test this out before keeping it implemented to suit your own terms of use.

Del.icio.us.

Not many use this bookmaking site, and it’s not very good at keeping others up to date on the goings on of your forum, but it is a VERY handy site to help keep things organized on an administrative level. I use it to keep track of important threads on the various vB sites out there, such as how to add custom pages (as seen above), as well as the APIs of other sites (like the facebook links I just gave). Forum users can use it to keep track of important threads, so it’s really worthy of making sure they can use it.

The input for social bookmarking is: http://del.icio.us/post?url={URL}&title={TITLE}

Stumble Upon:

Over using this site will surely get your banned, so use it wisely… but also make sure your members can use it! This is a fun way to find new members and to get the word out to random strangers about interesting threads.

The input for social bookmarking is:  http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url={URL}&title={TITLE}

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Posted in Site Promotion, forum, link building | No Comments »

Promote your forum with a Street Team

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Set up a street team on your forum to help you get the word out about it. Setting up a street team is fairly simple.

Setting up the Street Team:

  • Get the word out that you want members of your forums to help you promote it.
  • Set up a board specifically for the team to discuss the various ways of promotion
  • Set up a usergroup for the team that will allow them to have a few extra perks (bigger inboxes, larger avatars, etc. Though keep away from making them truly stand out. You don’t want people clicking through their links to find out they have been had).

Ways a Street Team can help promote

  • Have them install the Alexa Tool Bar, though you should let them know it’s spyware… that way every time they visit the site they help up the ranking.
  • Have them join social networking sites like Stumble Upon and Digg. It is important to note here that they need to stumble a lot more then just your forum of your site will likely end up on the banned list. The same applies to Digg. One of the extra things they can do here is to promote the sites that link to yours. Read more about this here: Promoting Links and Linkbait.
  • Have them start basic pages on freepages sources like  GooglePages. This sill provide additional links to your site and can generate some decent content if these pages are promoted through other means.
  • If any of them are good with graphics then they can help to make new banners for the forum that the rest of the team can use to in their promotion, like placing them in sigs and their created pages.
  • Have them join a few related forums. They can link to your forum via their signatures and can post related content that can link back to your articles. Tweak this out by reading the previous point. Have them follow the rules I give in this article: Link Building with Forums as it’s important that they are not coming across as spammers so they can continue to post on the other forums.
  • Get pens made with the site url on them and send boxes of them to the members of the team. They can then leave the pens at grocery stores so people will borrow them when they need to write a check. This can potentially spread your site all around several busy towns and cities.
  • Have them read related blog feeds so they can make comments about related threads on your forum. Again, make sure they are not spamming the blogs as no one likes a spammer. I give a few posting tips here: Link Building with Blog Commentsand again, check out point number two so they can then promote the blog entry they comment in. Yes, plugging other sites helps those sites, but it also increased the number of potential readers of the Street Team comments.
  • Get a few t-shirts printed up with the site logo and url on them. Send the shirts to the Street Team as a gift. Walmart sells tee’s fairly cheap from their photo center.
  • The Street Team can also help by submitting sites to the various directories out there. Have a member or three keep an eye on Solicitations & Announcements for new free directories or paid directories offering a sale.
  • Have them start blogs and post about interesting threads on your forum, and have them add your forum to their blogroll. This is worth doing even if you have to host their blogs yourself, though there are free alternatives out there like wordpress.com or blogger.com.
  • Another good idea which can often be more powerful for promotion is to have them set up account on social networking sites like LiveJournal, FaceBook, or Myspace. Many of these sites use NoFollow tags, but it’s not about Google Page rank for this project, it’s about site recognition and gaining members and traffic.
  • Other sites offer a link in their profiles. Youtube is one of them and if they are willing to make videos and tag your url onto their work, then so much the better.
  • In the forum you make for the team, have them come up with their own ideas to help promote your site

It is important to keep in mind though that when the Street Team is out there on another site, they should keep to the rules of those sites and should keep the community in mind. No one likes a spammer, and very few are willing to follow the link they feel is questionable or spammy. Have them truly interact with such communities and to make friends there. Those friends can in turn convert to potential advertisers as well, as I have followed my friends entries on places like Stumble Upon and have given those pages an additional thumbs up.

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Posted in Site Promotion, forum, link building | No Comments »

Want to post about a Blog Entry or an Article? Read this first!

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I’m seeing more and more threads as of late with little more then a link in them, so I thought I’d bring it up to let you all know that A) It’s technically against the rules, and B) You’re not reaching your full click potential!

A) Don’t create posts with nothing but a link. If you are going to link to a news article for example, give a summary of it.

Saying you wrote a blog entry on marketing tips, giving the link, and asking what I think, is NOT a summary.

B) Without the summary some people are not bothering to click!

I for one will generally not click on a link, unless there is something there inviting me too. I’m on dialup and there is no real possibility of an upgrade. If you tell me that your article is really good, sorry, I do not believe you, I do not know you! So come on, give me a teaser, make me want to click that link by giving me a small sample. Even the lowliest of drug dealers know that this marketing trick works…why don’t you people?

And it’s not just people on dialup, before I moved I was on DSL and if I saw a thread someplace that had little more then a link, I’d hit the back button muttering something about how spam tastes slightly worse then a canned ham.

I’ve also learned that if there is one person that does something, there is likely going to be more. So if I am not clicking the link because of possible load times, or because I think the way it was presentation was spammy, chances are there will be others not clicking it as well. On the other hand, those interested in clicking the link based solely on the promise of something good, will likely click regardless of whether there is a summary of the article or not.

Why not cater to everyone and give a little something? (like a brief description, or a sample of that blog entry/article). You’ll be glad you did!

Posted in Site Promotion, blog, forum, link building | No Comments »

How not to attract forum members

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Reading through various webmaster forums and SEO Blogs I’ve seen several great tips on how to get traffic to your site, but if you are a forum or blog owner like myself and you actually care about the community your forum/blog represents, then you’ll likely agree that it’s not necessarily traffic that you should be seeking, or rather not just any traffic.

I’ve already discussed one way of getting traffic to your forum, and that would be to infiltrate other forums and be a contributing member of them.The key to that technique is to be a part of the community, be human, and not just some automation. Though, this takes time, and the more forums you post in, the more time it takes. This is not why I’m posting this though, so the plug is over…

I’m here not to tell you what NOT to do.

Do NOT create a myspace account to spam other members on that community. Feel free to make an account there, give your profile your best sales pitch, and be sure to let you community members know it exists so they can join in, but don’t use the account to solicit others. First, you’ll likely end up being banned, and secondly, have you seen the quality of the members that come from Myspace? No, you are not trying to get people to click your ads, you are here to increase your member base…with quality members!

Do not post your site on link farms or low quality directories. These things take too much valuable time that could be used on better ventures, like writing a new article or starting a new thread for your own community. Good directories are fine to submit too though. As for telling the good from the bad, just use your own judgment as opinions on this vary greatly.

Do not waste money on paid links, at least not on paid links outside of your niche. This type of advertising generally falls upon blind eyes so the only person winning is the link seller. Handing over a few bucks for a link or banner within your chosen internet genre will be fine, just make sure you are spending your hard earned fund one something that will benefit you.

Do not bother pushing your site if your site is not done yet. Many directories will reject your submission, many people that click ads or links into your site and find a blank or dead page will click right out of it. So before you get the word out, make sure you have enough content to make people want to stick around. If you are using Wordpress make sure your ABOUT page is about you and your blogroll does not contain the core WP builders. These types of things only take a few moments to change, so change them.

Do not use the default skins/themes. The default themes on anything are only there because they needed to be shipped with something. There are hundreds of sites out there that offer FREE alternatives, and dozens of sites out there that offer some fantastic paid skins with special features. If you have the budget then check into some paid formats, if you don’t have the budget or are just trying to pinch pennies, then look at the free ones. Find a nice looking skin that suits you topically and install it.

Posted in Site Promotion, forum | 5 Comments »

How to write non-spam forum links

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I’m a member on several forums and lately I’ve been seeing more and more people posting links to articles or blogs that basically say “I wrote an article on _X_, here’s the <link> check it out” well, I recently blogged about _X_ as well, if you’d like to see it, check out my ‘recent blog post’ that’s up by my name….there is no need to post about it for the sake of posting. The administration of the site was kind enough to give us an option that leaves no need for such a mundane thread. When you do post a thread like that it simply smacks of SPAM and a weak attempt at getting a link and maybe some traffic.

What people do not realize is that if they would spend a little time they could get much much more click through to the article or blog post they just made. How? Simple! Just give a little content to the thread. That’ll do two things. First it’ll make people want to read the article, and second it can cause discussion, which in turn helps to keep your thread on the top, and the longer it’s on top, the more traffic it’ll receive.

I am a forum owner, and as such, when I see a thread that starts off with no content and a link, that thread will generally get deleted, and the poster will generally get labeled as spammer, especially if that is their first post. However, if a brand new member comes and gives a few snippets of an article or blog post in hopes of discussion, and discussion happens, I’ll leave the post, and it’s link, as that is falling into the grand scheme of the forum being a Discussion Board.

I’ve also recently seen a thread with the original poster complaining that he was not getting good traffic through his signature. I looked into why and the reasons were pretty obvious, and I’m not just talking about the fact he only had 66 posts at the time. I ran through his posting history and of his 66 posts I counted only a small handful that actually provided any content to the thread he was posting in. If I am reading a thread and see a post that says little more then “I agree” I’ll scroll down to the next post skipping over the sig links in the process. On the other hand, if I see a good post that adds something to the thread, I’ll generally stay there for a moment while absorb what the member was talking about. This has often led me to look at the member’s signature, especially if the anchor text is relevant to the thread they are posting in.

The same concepts also cross over into blog posts. Time and time again I am logging into my comment queue only to find unrelated entries with little more then a link. I don’t care about your cat site if I am blogging about my garden. Though, if you have something to say about cats that relates to gardening somehow, then by all means give me some content and your link, I’ll gladly let it stay, in fact, if your link is really worthy of being read I may even click around a bit and possibly even blog about something else you have to say. Though, just post a link and chances are I’ll not even bother too look, even if it does seem relevant.

Article Directories are nice, and should be the norm. When you submit an article to a directory, they will host it for you, if it has a link to your site, then it’s good for you, and good for them. The Article directory gets free content, and you get that sought after link, it’s WIN/WIN, and posting in a blog, forum, or even guest book, should be no different. Give a reason that your link should stay, and I’m betting that it will!

So unless you are posting to a link directory, give something in return (like good quality content). It’s the least you can do!

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Posted in Site Promotion, blog, forum, link building | No Comments »

Freepages for article posting

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Many of the people that utilize article directories often over look something with even greater freedom and equal amount of SERP potential. What is this something that is over looked? Freepages!

Creating pages on free hosts can create some fantastic backlinks and help otherwise promote your site. I encourage you to make an account at a few of these sites and add in some unique content to them (complete with links to your main page).

If you make a page at any of these places please post the address in this thread so that we can hit as many as possible rather then us all making accounts on the same few.

NOTE: Many of these will have popup ads, banners, or other forms of advertising.

REMEMBER TO USE A JUNK EMAIL ADDRESS WHEN SIGNING UP! These sites WILL spam you!

Freeservers.com
http://www.freeservers.com/
12 Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. Email forwarding. CGI scripts: counter, guestbook and form mailer. Domain hosting. URL: ‘http://yoursite.freeservers.com/’.

FortuneCity
http://www.fortunecity.com/
25 Mb with 3Gb monthly bandwidth. Banner ad and Pop-ups on each page. FTP uploads. URL: ‘http://members.fortunecity.com/yoursite/’.

AOL Hometown
http://hometown.aol.com/
12Mb. Banner frame ad. FTP uploads. URL: ‘http://hometown.aol.com/yoursite/’.

Tripod.com
http://www.tripod.lycos.com/
20 Mb. Banner or Pop-up ad on each page. FTP uploads. MS FrontPage, CGI and Perl supported. Web-based builder and templates provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.tripod.com/’.

Brinkster
http://www.brinkster.com/
30Mb with 500Mb monthly bandwidth. Browser uploads. ASP supported. URL: ‘http://www##.brinkster.com/yoursite/’.

Angelfire
http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/
20Mb. Choice of pop-up or on-page ads. FTP or Browser uploads. Templates and building tools provided. URL: ‘http://www.angelfire.com/dir/yoursite/’.

MyWebPage at Netscape
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/
20Mb. Banner ad at top of each page. Browser uploads. URL: ‘http://webpages.netscape.com/yoursite/’.

Tripod-UK
http://www.tripod.lycos.co.uk/
50Mb. Banner frame ad. Browser and FTP uploads. MS FrontPage, PHP and MySQL supported. URL: ‘http://members.lycos.co.uk/yoursite/’.

Freewebs.com
http://members.freewebs.com
100Mb with 500Mb monthly bandwidth. No forced ads. CGI, Perl and SSI supported. Online website builder, counters, forums, form mailer provided. Domain hosting available. URL: ‘http://www.freewebs.com/yoursite/’.

Fateback
http://www.fateback.com/
60Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Small banner ads. FTP and browser uploads. POP3 email. Domain hosting available. URL: ‘http://yoursite.fateback.com/’.

WebSpawner.com
http://www.webspawner.com/
For beginners. Pop-up ad on each page. Web-based builder and site management tools.

Biz.ly
http://www.biz.ly
100Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Browser uploads. Banner on each page. URL: ‘http://yoursite.biz.ly’.

ProHosting
http://free.prohosting.com/
20Mb with 1Gb monthly bandwidth. FTP uploads. Web-based site builder. URL: ‘http://free.prohosting.com/~yoursite/’.

Free Hosting Guru
http://www.freehostingguru.com/
For approved sites. 5Mb space with unlimited bandwidth. No ads. Browser uploads. PHP supported. URL: ‘http://yoursite.freehostingguru.com/’.

CyberSoup
http://www.cybersoup.com/
15Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. Web-based site builder. URL: ‘http://my.cybersoup.com/yoursite/’.

eSmartStart
http://www.esmartstart.com/
20Mb. FTP and browser uploads. Templates provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.eSmartWeb.com/’.

Free Web Space
http://www.freewebspace.com/
20 Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. Email forwarding. CGI scripts and website tools. URL: ‘http://yoursite.freewebspace.com/’.

FreeHomePage.com
http://www.freehomepage.com/
12Mb. Templates provided. Pop-up and banner ads on each page. URL: ‘http://yoursite.freehomepage.com/’.

Thirdage.com
http://home.thirdage.com/
9Mb. Pop-up ad on each page. Browser uploads. Guestbook and counter provided. URL: ‘http://home.thirdage.com/area/yoursite/’.

HostsLtd
http://www.hostsltd.com/
20Mb. Counters, guestbooks, polls, forums and form mailer provided. URL: ‘http://www.freehostsltd.com/dir/yoursite/’.

SitePalace.com
http://www.sitepalace.com/
8Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. CGI scripts: counter. URL: ‘http://www.sitepalace.com/yoursite/’.

TopCities.com
http://www.topcities.com/
150Mb. Browser uploads. CGI scripts include guestbook, message board, form mailer and counter. URL: ‘http://yoursite.topcities.com/’.

DomainDLX
http://www.domaindlx.com/
100Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Banner or popup on each page. Browser upload. Web-based email. Domain hosting. ASP, Access databases and SSI supported.

Freespaces.com
http://www.freespaces.com/
Unlimited space and bandwidth. No forced banner ads. URL:’http://www.freespaces.com/yoursite’.

1ASPHost
http://www.1asphost.com/
100 Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Pop-up ads on each page. ASP and MS Access databases supported. URL: ‘http://home.1asphost.com/yoursite/’.

7Host
http://www.7host.com/
50Mb. Banner ad on each page. FTP uploads. ASP supported. URL: ‘http://user.7host.com/yoursite/’.

Planet-D
http://www.planet-d.net/
Unlimited space. Browser uploads. Web-based email. PHP, Perl, suexec supported. Domain hosting allowed. URL: ‘http://yoursite.planet-d.net/’.

Eccentrix
http://www.eccentrix.com/
50 Mb with 900Mb monthly bandwidth. Pop-ups on each page. CGI scripts: guestbook and message board. URL: ‘http://www.eccentrix.com/dir/yoursite/’.

2GlobalMart.com

http://2globalmart.com/
12Mb. FTP uploads. Web-based email. Counter, form mailer and guestbook provided. FrontPage supported. URL: ‘http://yoursite.g2gm.com/’.

CentralPets.com
http://sites.centralpets.com/
For pet and animal related websites. Browser uploads. Templates provided.

Global Web
http://www.globalweb.com.ru/
50Mb space with 1Gb monthly bandwidth. Free Subdomains. Forced ads on top of each page. FTP uploads. POP3 email. PHP, MySQL, CGI and Perl are supported.

Dreamwater
http://www.dreamwater.com/
50+ Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. Templates provided. CGI scripts: chat board, form mailer, and guestbook. URL: ‘http://yoursite.dreamwater.com/’.

100 Megs Free
http://www.100megsfree.com/
100Mb. Banner or Pop-up ad on each page. Browser or FTP uploads. Template based editor. CGI scripts: form mailer, message board, and guest book. URL: ‘http://yoursite.100megsfree.com/’.

Anzwers
http://www.anzwers.org/
Unlimited space and bandwidth. Banner ad each page. Browser uploads. URL: ‘http://www.anzwers.org/free/yoursite/’.

20 Megs Free.com

http://www.20megsfree.com
20Mb. Browser or FTP uploads. Website builder and templates provided. Guestbook, counter and form mailer provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.20megsfree.com/’.

T35.com
http://www.t35.com/
Unlimited space with unlimited bandwidth. 250kb filesize limit. Pop-under ads. FTP uploads. PHP, SSI supported. Domain name hosting available. URL: ‘http://yoursite.t35.com/’.

ProperComfy
http://www.propercomfy.co.uk
50Mb with unlimited bandwidth. No forced ads. FTP uploads. Web-based email. PHP, Perl, MySQL supported. Domain hosting available. URL: ‘http://yoursite.propercomfy.co.uk/’.

Host Ultra
http://www.hostultra.com/
No image galleries allowed. Unlimited space with unlimited bandwidth. Filesize limit 1Mb. Exit Pop-up ads on each page. FTP and browser uploads. PHP supported. Domain hosting available. URL: ‘http://www.hostultra.com/~yoursite/’.

TheFreeWebHosting
http://www.thefreewebhosting.com/
Offers webhosting and email to members of their forum. Requires ownership of an existing domain name.

HostRave Free Hosting
http://www.freehosting.hostrave.com
20Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Text link ads. FTP and browser uploads. PHP, MySQL, CGI, Perl supported.

Mg2.org
http://www.mg2.org/
A community focused on web hosting. Sponsor based user selection and approval. 20Mb. No forced ads. FTP uploads. PHP, CGI, JSP and Perl supported. GCC access provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.mg2.org/’.

OAM Web
http://oamweb.com/
5 Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. CGI scripts: form mailer, guestbook, and message board. URL: ‘http://oamweb.com/dir/yoursite/’.

NexusWebs
http://www.nexuswebs.net/
35Mb with 750Mb bandwidth. No forced banner ads. FTP and browser uploads. Web-based email. Online website builder. URL: ‘http://yoursite.nexuswebs.net/’.

Graffiti.net
http://www.graffiti.net/
20Mb. Button link required. FTP uploads. Web-based email. Full CGI-BIN support, chat, message boards and mailing lists. URL: ‘http://www.graffiti.net/yoursite/’.

Stormpages.com
http://www.stormpages.com/
50Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Scripts: message board, guest book. Web-based site builder provided. URL: ‘http://stormpages.com/yoursite/’.

00server.com
http://00server.com/
20Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. URL: ‘http://yoursite.00space.com/’.

BuildtoLearn
http://buildtolearn.com
For accepted sites. 20Mb. FTP uploads.

The Express Page
http://expage.com/
For creating a first home page. 1 page allowed. Browser uploads. URL: ‘http://expage.com/yoursite/’.

Free Web Page Hosting
http://www.freewebpage.org/
150Mb with 600Mb monthly bandwidth. 900kb filesize limit. Banner or Pop-up ads. FTP and browser uploads. Form mailer, guestbook and message board provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.freewebpage.org/’. Affiliated with TopCities.

Illusion FX Net
http://www.illusionfxnet.com/
250Mb with unlimited bandwidth. POP3 email. PHP, Perl, MySQL, PostgreSQL supported. Subdomain hosting.

Free Web Hosting
http://www.freeweb-hosting.com/
Unlimited space with unlimited bandwidth. Header and footer ads on each page. FTP uploads. Web-based email. Domain hosting. URL: ‘http://yoursite.sohounion.com/’.

PrimeTap
http://www.primetap.com/
12Mb. Banner and Pop-up ads on each page. Browser uploads. Templates provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.primetap.com/’.

deluxnetwork
http://www.deluxnetwork.com/
2Gb with unlimited monthly bandwidth. Ads on pages. FTP uploads. PHP and SSI supported. URL: ‘http://host.deluxnetwork.com/~yoursite/’.

Psend
http://www.psend.com/
12Mb. Banner ad on each page. FTP and browser uploads. Web-based email. PHP supported. URL: ‘http://yoursite.psend.com/’.

Websamba.com
http://www1.websamba.com/
30Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Banner at top and bottom of each page; no user ads. FTP uploads. CGI, ASP, SSI and ODBC databases supported. URL: ‘http://www.websamba/yoursite/’.

JoinMe
http://www.joinme.net/
5Mb. Web based editor, guest books and bulletin boards provided. URL: ‘http://joinme.net/yoursite’.

FortuneCity UK
http://www.fortunecity.co.uk/
25Mb with 0.5Gb monthly bandwidth. Banner ad on each page. FTP and browser uploads. URL: ‘http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/yoursite/’.

X-Mail.net
http://www.x-mail.net/
20Mb. 500kb filesize limit. Browser uploads. Web-based email account.

Bz.tc
http://www.bz.tc/
20 MB. Banners and Pop-up ad on each page. FTP. URL: ‘http://www.yoursite.bz.tc’.

MsgServerNet
http://www.msgserver.net/
20Mb. Banner ad on each page. Web-based and POP3 email provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.msgserver.net/’.

Free Web Town
http://www.freewebtown.com/
Web-based site builder. URL: ‘http://www.freewebtown.com/yoursite/’.

Worldbreak.com
http://www.worldbreak.com/
12Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. Unlimited web-based email accounts. CGI scripts include counters, form mailer and guestbook. URL: ‘http://yoursite/worldbreak.com/’.

HomePageHost
http://hp-h.com
Application review in signup. 50Mb. FTP uploads. PHP, MySQL supported. Subdirectory hosting.

Megspace
http://www.megspace.com/
50Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. CGI scripts: form mailer, guestbook, and message board. URL: ‘http://www.megspace.com/dir/yoursite/’.

Web1000.com

http://web1000.com
50Mb with unlimited bandwidth. No forced ads. FTP uploads. Adult sites permitted. Many URLs available.

aboho.com
http://www.aboho.com
Requires forum posting. 15Mb space and 500Mb bandwidth. No forced banner ads. FTP uploads. PHP, MySQL supported. cPanel provided. Subdomain hosting.

Sakellaris Electronics
http://www.snn.gr/
12Mb. Banner ad on each page. FTP and browser uploads. Templates provided. Email forwarding. URL: ‘http://yoursite.snn.gr/’.

Community Architect
http://signup.communityarchitect.com/cgi-bin/signup
12Mb with 512Mb monthly bandwidth. Ads on pages. 256kb filesize limit. Online site builder. Subdomain hosting.

Lifelesspeople.com
http://www.lifelesspeople.com/
For approved sites. 100Mb with 2Gb monthly bandwidth. No forced ads. FTP uploads. PHP, MySQL, Perl, SSI supported. Domain hosting supported. Subdomains at lifelesspeople.com, l2p.net and belike.net

ComVision2000.com
http://www.comvision2000.com/
12 Mb. Adframe at top of each page. Browser or FTP uploads. Web-based email account. URL: ‘http://yoursite.comvision2000.com/’ or ‘http://yoursite.2itb.com/’.

Cool Free Pages
http://www.coolfreepages.com/
50Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Exit Pop-up ad. FTP uploads. PHP supported. Domain hosting. URL: ‘http://yoursite.coolfreepages.com/’.

WebMasterTools.Com
http://www.webmastertools.com/
10Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Banner ad on homepage. FTP uploads. Two POP3 email accounts. URL: ‘http://webmastertools.com/dir/yoursite/’.

OurWeb.to
http://www.ourweb.to/
20Mb. Banner ads on pages. FTP and browser uploads. Email forwarding. CGI scripts, CGI-BIN access provided. SSI, PHP, MySQL, ASP, MS Frontpage extensions suppported. URL: ‘http://www.ourweb.to/~yoursite/’.

Xaper Homepages
http://www.xaper.com/
20Mb. Banner ad on each page. FTP uploads. Templates provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.xaper.com/’.

Lastpromise.com
http://hosting.lastpromise.com/
Two tiers of free hosting with limited spaces available. POP3 e-mail, subdomain or directory URLs, and PHP/MySQL offered. No ads.

FriendPages
http://www.friendpages.com/
5Mb. Ads on pages. URL: ‘http://yoursite.friendpages.com/’.

Cooo.net

http://www.cooo.net/
100Mb with unlimited bandwidth. 500kb filesize limit. Ads on pages. FTP uploads. URL: ‘http://yoursite.cooo.net/’.

Hostars Free Web Hosting
http://www.hostars.com
25Mb space and 500Mb monthly bandwidth. Ads on pags. FTP uploads. URL: http://yoursite.hostars.com

FreeCyberZone.com
http://www.freecyberzone.com/
12Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. Free web-based e-mail. CGI scripts: counter, guestbook and message boards. URL: ‘http://yoursite.freecyberzone.com/’.

Yours2Use
http://www.yours2use.co.uk/
2Mb. No forced ads. URL:’http://members.yours2use.co.uk/yoursite/’.

hus.meg.nu
http://hus.meg.nu/
2.5Mb. 500kb filesize limit. No forced ads. Site builder tools. URL: ‘http://hus.meg.nu/homepage/dir/yoursite’.

Home Page Builders
http://www.homepagebuilders.com
12Mb. Banner at top and bottom of each page. Browser uploads. Web-based site builder. URL: ‘http://yoursite.fabpage.com/’.

Web Hosting Pal

http://www.webhostingpal.com
50Mb with 5000Mb monthly bandwidth. No forced ads. FTP uploads. PHP, Perl, SSI supported. URL: ‘http://yoursite.webhostingpal.com/’.

Crazyghost.com
http://crazyghost.com/
200Mb with 10Gb bandwidth. No forced ads. CGI, PHP, MySQL, CURL, Perl supported. cPanel provided.

Pinoysite
http://www.pinoysite.com/
For Philippine theme sites. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. URL: ‘http://www.pinoysite.com/dir/yoursite/’.

20megs.com
http://www.20megs.com/
20Mb with unlimited bandwidth. Banner ad on each page. FTP or browser uploads. CGI scripts: guestbook and message board. URL: ‘http://www.20megs.com/category/yoursite/’.

GoBot
http://www.gobot.com/
20Mb. Banner ad on each page. Templates provided. FTP uploads. URL: ‘http://yoursite.gobot.com’.

TheGeekHost.com
http://www.thegeekhost.com/
For technically oriented sites. 15Mb with 500Mb monthly bandwidth. Ads on pages. Browser uploads. SSI supported. Site building and management tools. Available scripts include guestbook, counter, appointment book, and message board. URL: ‘http://www.thegeekhost.com/yoursite/’.

Wizards of WizardSoul

http://wizardsoul.com/
For a simple web page. Text link ad at top of each page. Web-based builder and messenger system provided. URL: ‘http://wizardsoul.com/wizards/yoursite/’.

PCI Free Host
http://pcifreehost.com/
12Mb with 512Mb monthly bandwidth. 256kb filesize limit. Banner ad on each page. Email forwarding. CGI scripts: webring, message board, form mailer and counter. URL: ‘http://yoursite.pcizone.com/’.

ababa
http://www.ababa.net/
15Mb with 1Gb monthly bandwidth. MP3 and EXE files not allowed. No forced ads. Browser uploads. SSI supported. URL: ‘http://ballz.ababa.net/yoursite/’.

QuickFox Websites
http://users.quickfox.org/
150Mb. No forced banner ads. SSI supported. URL: ‘http://users.quickfox.org/~yoursite/’.

Xenith
http://www.xenith.com
For established web sites. 100Mb with 10Gb monthly bandwidth. Banner ads.

GigDig
http://www.gigdig.com/
720kb. No forced ads.

Free Info Center

http://www.freeinfocenter.net/
50Mb with 2Gb monthly transfer. Banner on each page. FTP uploads. Frontpage and ASP supported. POP3 email. Domain hosting available. URL: ‘http://www.freeinfocenter.net/yoursite/’.

Virtual Solar System
http://www.virtualsolarsystem.com/members/
5Mb. No forced ads. Browser uploads. URL: ‘http://www.virtualsolarsystem.com/dir/yoursite/’.

4qtherapeia.com
http://4qtherapeia.com/
Only for sites that have already been built. 10Mb. No forced ads. Browser uploads. Domain hosting. URL: ‘http://yoursite.joolsc.net/’.

Lecktronix.net
http://freehosting.lecktronix.net/
20Mb. Banner ad on each page. FTP and browser uploads. Web-based site builder provided. CGI scripts: counter, guestbook and forms. URL: ‘http://yoursite.lecktronix.net/’.

CCRTC Internet
http://www.ccrtcweb.com/
No forced ads. URL: ‘http://www.ccrtc.com/dir/yoursite/’.

A11.net
http://www.a11.net/
12Mb. Ads on pages. Browser uploads. Email forwarding. Templates provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.a11.net/’.

The Free Auction

http://www.thefreeauction.com/help/freewebpages.html
1.5Mb. Browser uploads. Web-based PageBuilder and templates provided. Search box, guestbook, counter and form mailer provided.

Slydevil’s Lair
http://www.slydevil.net/
5Mb. Four DS3 backbone connections. No forced banner ads. Browser uploads. Guestbook provided.

Balasainet.com
http://www.balasainet.com
25Mb. Browser uploads. Perl/CGI supported. Subdomain hosting.

Gpox.com
http://www.gpox.com
25Mb with unlimited bandwidth. FTP and browser uploads. Subdomain hosting.

Free Web Space
http://freewebspace.planetdns.net/
50Mb. FTP uploads.

SwiftHost
http://swifthost.homeunix.net
100Mb. No forced ads. FTP uploads. PHP and ASP supported.

XentriK Hosting

http://www.xentrik.net/hosting
Offering 10MB disk space, 500 MB data transfer, no forced advertisments, FTP, PHP, CGI and SSI support. URL: user.xentrik.net

IcySpicy
http://www.icyspicy.com/
20Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. Templates provided. URL: ‘http://yoursite.icyspicy.com’.

nu3.net
http://www.nu3.net/
12Mb. Banner ad on each page. Browser uploads. Web-based email. Scripts: form mailer, guestbook and message boards. URL: ‘http://yoursite.nu3.net/’.

ItsMySite.com
http://www.itsmysite.com/
5Mb. Ad frame or banner on each page. Only hosts pages built by SiteBuilder, an online site building tool. Password-protecting available. URL: ‘http://www.itsmysite.com/yoursite/’.

REMEMBER TO USE A JUNK EMAIL ADDRESS WHEN SIGNING UP! These sites WILL spam you!

I think these would work best if you picked a theme or topic and then created a small site based around that with a few pages about that topic.

For instance, you could pick a broad topic like Technomancy, then create an introduction page explaining the basics of that.

From there, then a few pages about specifics could be created. Not every page has to point back from here, but some certainly should. Like maybe a link from the intro page to the board on it here, then maybe a page about your take on one of the topics from the board, and a link back to the topic. Another page could then be your take on something else within technomancy, but not actually have a link…

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Promoting Links And Linkbait

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I submitted an article to a few places and thought that was enough, but looking over my stats I was finding very few hits from such sources. I dropped the issue for months and tossed the notion into the “well, it sounded good on paper” pile. Then I had an epithany!

People are not reading my articles because they don’t know it’s there, so I set about changing that.

Bite your own linkbait:
I went back and Dugg the article, which in turn got a few more Diggs. Then I stumbled the article, which in turn got another couple stumbles. I then joined a few forums and started threads in regards to the article. I quoted the “fair use” ten percent and then linked to the article for more information.

My article is now a PR2 and I get at least a hit or two from it daily, so I feel the extra 30 minutes or so it took to socially promote it was well worth the time.

The buddy System:
My blog was not doing all that hot, so I did the above techniques and it helped some, but I wanted more. I sent a few emails to the owners of related blogs and worked out a system of mutual promotion. I wrote a long article for my own blog, as did one of the other blog owners. These entries were on different topics. We then both wrote smaller entries on each others longer entries and linked to the larger one as a source of information. We both enjoyed a short jump in cross traffic.

Promoting friends:
I did a few link exchanges when I first started one of my pages and I swear I was sending more people to the other sites then they were sending to me (though that’s speculation). I wanted to turn those tables so I took the ideas from my article promotion and stumbled the pages that had my links. Of course this works best if you are not on a ‘link list’ type of page, as if anyone stumbles into one of those will just stumble again. I did find that it worked at least in part for homepage links. This method has another perk, it creates links to pages where your links are on, which in turn can help their PR, which can indirectly effect yours.

Driving one way roads:
The same method as promoting your reciprocal links can also help for the one way links to your page. One way links happen naturally, so occasionally check Yahoo (site explorer) for incoming links and give those pages a stumble. If they are on a blog or a nicely written forum post, then you could also get away with Digg or another social bookmarking tool.

Take a trip to Freepages:
Now and then when I’m looking for something FreePages will pop up and while I rarely click into such pages now and then I will find myself there saying to myself “Wow, this is nice”. I’m now the proud owner of several ‘free home page’ accounts at various locations.  GooglePages, AngelFire, etc. While these do little for me in the way of PR, they have given a little bit of traffic and a handful of free backlinks.

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What Would Mother Do

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I was talking to my mother about the internet this morning and a few things clicked in my little mind. I’m not sure if the clicking sound was something breaking or not, but anyways, here are a few thoughts with my mother in mind…

What would my Mother do?

Google is trying to tweak their algorithms out to help organic searches, and in SEO it’s the webmasters job to pull in as much of that organic traffic as possible. The smarter we get, the tougher it is to fool the machine….but what if fooling the machine is not the way to go?

SPAM: Sending out bulk emails will get you banned from most hosting companies, as well as get you blacklisted on most mail servers. I think out of the thousands of bulk mailings I’ve gotten I’ve opened maybe 5 and have never once bought into them. My mother on the other hand reads about half and has called me several times to ask how she can buy what’s being sold.

MFA: I think it’s unfair to focus on AdSence here, as any (spammy) affiliate sites likely falls under this heading. When I see a page like this I click the back button and tweak my search terms. My mother clicks on ads thinking they are part of the site.

Free Pages: My mother can’t tell the difference between your $100,000 website and my nephews homepage on Angelfire. So aside from making a fancy MFA site, why not kick out a few sub-pages that are a bit more ‘organic’ and link these pages back to the main host or another of your sites. Then head out to places like Angelfire, Googlepages and the like and start sending Emails to these “webmasters” for some reciprocal linking.

Text Links/Banners: My mother has yet to understand the concept of the status bar to see where a link takes her, and even if she did, if it was blank she’d likely think it was part of the site sinse it wasn’t telling her otherwise. This makes ads a good thing…though personally I’ve only clicked on maybe 10 ads in my life…my mother has clicked on likely thousands (I won’t give her the addresses to my sites).

The three things above if done incorrectly can get one penalized in SERP placement and no one really wants that, but if one is to use such methods, then it’s likely best to aim things at the people that do not have a clue what is actually going on. Fellow webmasters, SEO experts, and the like are less inclined to fall for such things, so never focus your less ethical tactics their way, instead focus such efforts at people that will fall for them…like your own mother!

Search Engines are doing their best to keep things as organic as possible. They are looking into all types of links trying to get all of the false ones filtered out of their calculations. Currently their main target is links created to specifically effect Search Engine Rank Position, these links are generally created by SEOers and Webmasters, they know it and we know it. As they are getting better and better at spotting things, it’s our job to get more creative in fooling them…but what if that’s really not needed?

I own a forum, and most of the members on that forum have NO CLUE what Anchor Text means let alone how to use it. When they give a link they give it like http://www.google.com/ how’s that for SEO? Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking about…but what if we are wrong? I mean, if they want the results to assist the ‘average user’ then shouldn’t we be thinking like the average user? We are not the average user that’s for sure, but I’m willing to be the users on a general topic forum are…and those are the ones we are wanting to draw in right?

So go on and try it, take a small site and promote the hell out of it…but don’t do it like your other sites. Before you do anything and before you do everything ask yourself “what would mother do?” and then do it that way… see how far it takes you. You may be surprised.

(and yes, I realize my mother is a moron )

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