1 rarely discussed method of web promotion

So you’ve created the perfect website (at least in your eyes) and that all-important traffic is waiting to visit you. He did the research on it and followed the usual methods to let people know, and now he’s sitting there twiddling his thumbs, regularly checking his traffic analysis tracker in case he gets a sudden surge of visitors. Of course, unless you’re a big company with a slew of promotions behind you, those days of overwhelming traffic are pretty far away. So while you’re waiting for your search engine submissions to reap their reward, is there anything else you can do to help yourself?

Simple answer. Yes there is and it is a method that is not talked about much. What I’m talking about?

Forums. No, don’t run away yet. Not only will you build a small amount of traffic in the first few days of launch (an easy couple hundred visits), but you’ll also get a lot of invaluable feedback on your site that will allow you to make changes before the search engines get started. . in. What could be better than free reviews?

The first is the first. If you’re not familiar with forums, they can best be described as the community discussion area of ​​a website. If you’ve never worn one before, don’t be afraid they’re not as scary as they seem. Take a look at a few to see for yourself, read some of the topics, and look at the messages people have posted. Nobody is going to jump on you and ask what you are doing there. Honest.

Right, now that you’re sure you can post to a forum, you should be aware that you can’t and shouldn’t post a message about your wonderful new website on every forum you come across. If you’ve had a look around like I suggested, you’ll notice that most forums are divided into sections that cover different areas related to that particular website. So if you want to tell people about your site, you should look for forums that accept this type of input.

It’s not hard to think where these magical forums could be. You’ll want to look at computer magazine sites, webmaster sites, web review sites, that’s just for starters, I’m sure you’ll find more once you get started. The process is then simple; Find one of these sites, take a look to see if they have a forum, then check the forum to see if they have a section that allows your site to be submitted for other members to review.

If you’re new to this, keep things simple with just a simple post at first. Just ask people to look at your site and give you feedback. The best thing to remember with forums is to be courteous and friendly in your posts. Most people usually have something positive to say about your website despite all the criticism they may also make. Even if you get a lot of compliments, you’ll often be amazed at the little tips that can make your site look a little more professional. Once you’ve done a couple of forums and noticed the general response, use your different forums to get more specific. Ask about your browsing, ask about content, ask about colors, or anything else that might be bothering you.

Some forums ask you to look at one or two other members’ sites first and provide your own feedback before asking to look at yours. This can help you in the sense that it can show you how to critique your own site by looking at what’s wrong with someone else’s. Also, if you need to give any feedback, look at the list of posts and pick someone who has a low or nonexistent number of replies. They will be pleased that you responded and may give you the same compliment by looking at yours.

This brings me to another point regarding the replies/views count. Most people who go to forums (especially newbies) are more likely to first look at posts that have a decent response and/or view count. It’s a psychological thing, the post seems popular, so you want to see what’s so interesting. With some forums you can use this to your advantage (just don’t abuse it). Beware of forums that show an increase in reply/view count every time someone (including you) adds a post. If you find one, be sure to visit their post to reply to anyone’s comments and add a message to continue the count. It’s a bit tricky, I know, but like I said, don’t abuse it and you’ll get a little head start on people looking at your site.

Don’t expect thousands of visitors using the method detailed in this article (unless your site is so good that everyone is starting to talk about it), but for every person who responds to your request for feedback you’ll get many more than just visiting your site. site that for whatever reason does not respond. At the end of the day, it’s all about getting things going and anything you can do to proactively promote your website should be considered. So the best thing is to go ahead and start exploring all those forums.