test

There's two kinds of web site promotion: online, and offline. Online basically means getting links from other sites to yours - usually search engines and directories. Offline means using traditional media such as print and broadcast, or speaking at conferences, etc.

Now that the web is so popular and the various media - and people's awareness - are saturated with URLs, you might want to get creative. A good start is to choose a memorable domain name, and publicise it. We were fortunate enough that when we started, the Stars.com domain was available, so our banners typically use a starry background and a catch phrase such as Stars.com - Galactic Gold for web developers. If you check the availability of domain names now, you'll find that practically every word in the dictionary is taken - and also many words you might make up.

You may decide that you'd rather employ an agency to do this for you. Good luck - you'll need it. We've tried this route. The first agency we used was clueless and probably did more harm than good, e.g. by clueless newsgroup postings. Since then I've done very extensive research on the currently available agencies, and my conclusions are:

• Most of them do little more than submit your URL to hundreds of directories and search engines. They will tell you that the more the better. So, ask them how many search engines and directories you need to reach 90% of the people on the web (only a few).
• Most of the rest are procrastinators.
• Those who are any good are expensive and busy.

Only a few do much more than that, e.g. banner buys, etc. And of those, only a few will ever get back to you; they must be flooded with orders. We contacted the top man in the business (I won't mention his name here, but he speaks at conferences on this topic) and he agreed to work with us. But he never did - he failed to return calls and emails. This in spite of our giving him a free banner ad on these pages. When we did get through to him he claimed his ISP had problems, so I guess his ISP handles his phone calls too.. and we've heard similar reports from others about this man. Be careful. Do it yourself. And if you do find a really good agency - please, let me know!

Here are some things you can do online to draw traffic to your site.

Register your site with directories and search engines.

You can:-

1. Submit to each individually by hand.
2. Submit to several using software help.
3. Employ an agency to do it.

I don't recommend that last option but if you really don't want to do it yourself you should take care in choosing the agency; e.g. if their home page looks worse than yours, go elsewhere. You might try searching for a good agency using a search engine - if they're any good, shouldn't they be at the top of the results list? Beware of those who say they can get your site listed first - its a trick or money. One such trick is to have you embed rare or non-dictionary words on your home page. We'll come top of the listings if you search for "WDVL" - but people usually search for topics, not names.

Banner Advertising at related sites.

The effectiveness of this can vary greatly - basically you'll need to try several sites and several banner designs. One important measure of success is 'click-through' rate - what proportion of 'views' of your banner causes the viewer to click on it.

One of the big ironies of web evolution is that every style guide (including those I wrote) said Don't say 'click here'. Now you'll rarely find a banner that doesn't say that - the 'call to action' improves click-through rate. I fear that web advertising is going the way of TV advertising in the USA - treating the audience as morons (our first ever advertiser told us why - "because they are").

Another thing to avoid is excessive flashing. Some animation is good for catching the eye, but too much can be irritating.

Newsgroups and Email.

Don't.

If you absolutely must, be savvy.
Spamming is hated by almost everyone and will eventually backfire on those meatbrains who do it. Meanwhile the rest of us are getting angrier and angrier. Over 90% of my email is not only junk, its incredibly stupid. It's a sad reflection on the mentality of the spammers or those who believe them.

You might try to generate goodwill by usefully answering questions in the newsgroups, and if your site has a free resource - of high quality - that might help people in those newsgroups, then you may validly post your URL there. But again, be careful or it may backfire.

As a veteran of several years experience with the newsgroups, I've seen the comp.infosystems.www.* groups taken over by both clueless newbies and arrogant netcops, and the resulting battles clog the newsgroups with more junk than if the netcops would have kept quiet.

OK, I've been very bleak and pessimistic about this. It might help you to know that I set impossibly high standards that nobody ever meets, so the reality is probably not so bad - and eventually, I expect things to improve. The bad guys will eventually get chased out of town.