Re: [OT] Advertising website

["Steven J. Owens" <pu...@darksleep.com>]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2005 at 08:04:57AM -0800, t t wrote:
> Does anyone know a easy and cheap (even free) way to advertise a
> website?

     The answer is "it depends", mostly on your site, your goals, your
resources, etc.  

     In general, I recommend substituting brains for money.  Even if
you have money, smart applications of money will gain you much more in
return than the brute-force approach.

     For example, your site is almost certainly specific to some
particular demographic.  Odds are that you or somebody else connected
with your site fits your site demographic, or at least knows something
about them, otherwise you wouldn't have the site.  Figure out what
that demographic is, and then figure out where they hang out online.
If you can't do it yourself, hire some college kid (ideally one who's
already fanatic for your site topic) to surf the web for minimum wage
and figure out avenues for you to promote your site.

     Always, always always include your domain name on everything you
send out, by email, by paper, whatever.  Don't spam, of course, but
don't miss any opportunity to append that one-line domain name.
Pursue involvement and maybe even advertising.  Some online forums and
communities have specific forums or lists for announcements of
services or products.  Others might allow advertising banners - do
targeted ad buys -- but ONLY on community sites relevant to your site.
Participate in mailing lists.  Produce or acquire content for your
site that they'll find useful.

     Try to develop a strong sense of "brand identity" for your site,
so people remember what you're about.  You want people to see your
domain name and think of something specific.  For example, if your
site sells towels & sheets & pillowcases and such:

     Do you want people to see your name and think "luxury,
high-quality towels & sheets"?

     Or do you want them to think "affordable"?  

     Or do you want them to think a little bit of both - "good stuff
for a good price"?

     Or do you want them to think "incredible variety, they
have every color and print under the sun"?

     Or do you want them to think "really special stuff, if you want
something special, unique and interesting that's the place to go look
for it"?

     Everybody wants to be all things to all people, but you have to
decide what strength to play to.  The more focused your message, the
more powerful.


     Search engine optimization in general strikes me as bullshit.
Either you have something valid to offer, or you don't.  If you don't,
trying to game the system is not going to get you anywhere.  

     That said, while search engine optimization may not be real,
search engine pessimization certainly is.  You can do a lot of things
wrong to gum up how well search engines will find your site.  Do some
reading on the topic and use some common sense.  Hit all of the major
search engine sites and read what *they* have to tell you on the
topic.

     I know of a one person who offers consulting on making your site
search-accessible, not by trying to game the search engines, but by
trying to figure out what people are searching for, using statistical
analysis of common searches and generating variations of your site.
That might be worth looking into if you want to spend some dollars.
Or you could try faking it yourself - generate a bunch of different
variations on your site and analyze your logs and see which ones get
more traffic.  Think about why they do.

     One key point - barring a few specific niches, snazzy graphics
and flash animations do NOT bring in business.  Think about who your
user is, how they got to your site, why they're there, what they want
to do - and make sure you make it as easy as possible to do it.  If
your site gets mostly first-time users, or mostly repeat visitors, it
affects what your site design priorities should be.  

     I'm constantly amazed at how hard people want to make you work to
buy things from them.  A good example is Amazon.  They do some things
wrong, some things well, IMHO.  Some of them are blindingly obvious
(one-click my ass), others are pretty obvious but still lots of people
don't do it.  

     As an example Amazon has great selection and all, but I have a
soft spot in my heart for The Tattered Cover out of Denver.  I used to
shop there when I lived in Denver, and they recently fought and won a
court case over privacy rights.  The police wanted them to turn over a
list of a customer's purchases and they refused, took it to court and
won.  I vote with my dollars, so I try to buy from The Tattered Cover.
But Tattered Cover's site (which runs on java, btw) doesn't give me
any way to bookmark a search result.  This is a pain in the ass, and
just one of several way their site could be easier to use.

     This is generally true for many, many sites.  It kills me how
often I get to a site and I have to jump through all sorts of hoops to
see what I can buy there.  The very first page of the site should be
giving me an option to click on something and buy it, if they really
want to do business.  Most commercial sites, I'm going to guess, if
people show up there, it's with a mission in mind.  They may be
exploring their options and trying to figure out what to buy, or they
may have already decided what and are trying to figure out where.
Either way, they have a goal.  Stop trying to control them -- get out
of the way and help them achieve their goal.

-- 
Steven J. Owens
puff@darksleep.com

"I'm going to make broad, sweeping generalizations and strong,
 declarative statements, because otherwise I'll be here all night and
 this document will be four times longer and much less fun to read.
 Take it all with a grain of salt." - http://darksleep.com/notablog


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