Promote your site, blog, HubPage, Lens
87Updated
Chasing your tail
Ever watch a cat chase its tail? That's what the web seems like to me sometimes. One link leads to another. Search any topic and get more links. Click enough links and you'll get back where you started.
Promoting your site is like that. The tail keeps moving! You want to get your site's URL mentioned in lots of places where others are likely to find it and follow that link back to you. Web 2.0 seems, in part, to be about more ways to get links out there: tags, tag clouds, search sites, expert sites, site directories, bookmarking . . . it could make your head hurt thinking about it!
How do you get your URL out there? We are not talking SEO here; we are talking Community Connecting. There are many web services waiting to do this for you, and for free! Don't try just one try them all. The more places your URL is shown, the more chances for a new visitor to find and click to your site.
Everybody needs a family
Create a family of complementary sites. That is, create a web site and a blog and a HubPage(s) and a Lens(s). Cross-link them so that if a visitor finds one of your sites, that visitor can follow your own links to you and your messages. Make them on the same topic or make them on various topics. The key thing is that each of your sites should contain a link to each of your other sites.
To help you build your family of sites I've included sections below with a recommended place to get a free domain name and hosted web site, free blog, free HubPage (like this one) and a free Squidoo Lens.
After you've built your family of sites, use the suggested services below to get your link(s) out there where vistiors can find them.
StumbleUpon
In their words: "StumbleUpon is the best way to discover great websites, videos, photos, blogs and more. Channel surf the internet and get personalized recommendations according to your interests. Keep an online history of your Stumbles, and rate, review and share all the cool things you find."
Digg
Digg is is an article popularity contest. Winning or losing don't matter; it's the hits to your site that count.
In their words - "Digg is a user driven social content website...everything on digg is submitted by the digg user community ... After you submit content, other digg users read your submission and digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of digg visitors to see."
Join Digg here. Submit your site as a "story". Get it dug (yeah) or buried (ouch).reddit lets you post interesting sites, and rate others. Reddit selects site for you, but its getting your site shown that counts here.
In their words - "register on reddit so that you can: post links to new and interesting sites you find around the web, comment on other people's links, vote for the stories you liked or disliked. (this will affect their ranking and help customize reddit for you.)"
Join Reddit here. Submit your site.
Google Base
In their words - "Google Base is a place where you can easily submit all types of online and offline content, which we'll make searchable on Google (if your content isn't online yet, we'll put it there). You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they do related searches. In fact, based on your items' relevance, users may find them in their results for searches on Google Product Search, Google Maps and even our main Google Web Search."
Promote your HubPages via Google Base You need to have a Google Account to set up post in Gogle Base. Find it under My Services. Set up a Google Account here.
del.icio.us
deli.icio.us is a master list of favorites in the community including yours.
In their words - "del.icio.us is a collection of favorites - yours and everyone else's. Use del.icio.us to: Keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music, restaurant reviews, and more on del.icio.us and access them from any computer on the web. Share favorites with friends, family, and colleagues... Anyone can browse del.icio.us and see what others find interesting."
Create an account here. Mark your sites as favorites. Be sure to change settings to show your name and URL with your favorites!
Technorati
Technorati is the tag central of the Internet.
In their words - "Currently tracking 50.9 million blogs - Technorati is the recognized authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs. We help people search for, surface, and organize bloggers and their daily posts."
Create an account here. Claim your blogs (actually claim all your sites). Enter your site description and tags. Note that your site needs to be able to accept some html code for your site to be claimed properly.Checkout HubPages here
- Join HubPages now!
It's free!
This is a HubPage. Everybody should have at least one.
Not a HubPages member? Join now -->
This type of expert page is an excellent addition to your family of sites. Its free. It works (you are here now aren't you?).
You too can Squidoo
- Squidoo : Registration
Its free!
Do you Squidoo?
dmoz
dmoz is a directory of web sites. Why wouldn't you want to be in a directory of web sites?
In their words - "The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors."
List your site here - 1) Carefully read their page on the listing process.Look here for the process, 2) pick a category for your site 2) submit your URL with title and 25-35 word description. An editor will review your application and get back to you.
Furl
In their words: ...the origin of the name came from the very geeky description of what the system does - File URLs. If you can enter a URL and see it in your browser, we can save it for you ... as an added bonus, the definition of "furl" is "to roll up and secure," which is exactly what we do with all the interesting Web pages you find online.
Join a circle
Webrings are communities of websites, all with a common theme or interest area and organized into a circular "ring" of mutual links, all tied together by the webring provider. The webring shows at the bottom of your site. Users can click a link from any site in the ring to see another site. If you are in a ring you will pick up browsers from other site traffic.
Join here. Pick a WebRing that matches your site. Apply. Note that you will have to add Java or html code to your site.
blinklist
In their words: ...Real people with shared interests list the websites they care about. Rate sites you like or save them for later...
Are you in the blogosphere?
If you don't have a blog yet, now is the time to consider it. You can post about your sites and link to your blog from your other sites.
I currently use WordPress. They offer a free blog where they host it for you. You can also use WordPress on your own choice of host for added flexibility.
Checkout Office Live here
- Look into Office Live
A free domain name and free hosting is available.
Need a free domain name and host?
You'll never guess who is offering to register your domain name for you and then host your site for you, all at no cost!
Microsoft Office Live is in beta test now. They are offering three package levels. The first level is pretty basic, but it is free. Perfect for a resume site, or a simple starter web site.
Before you jump in you should understand what its all about. The Office Live Lens reviews the product and puts it into perspective. Then there is a link to sign up.
myLot
myLot is a discussion oriented site that can be used to research, debate, vent, chat, etc and get paid based on your activity and content. Seems to be growing by work of mouth. Remember, you heard it here...
What is missing here?
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Sound advice Paul. Content is king. Regards
I just joined this hub and I found your advice very rewarding. I'm glad that I ran into your article it was awesome.
This is an excellent hub for someone like me, who is new to blogging and hubbing(?). I'll be relying on your advice to guide me along. Thanks.
Nice idea with this site its better than most of the rubbish I come across.
Nice article, thanks for listing all the resources in one page - really helpful.
Great Article! This has been the direction I've been going for a long time; creating a family of complimentary sites and a web of links going between them. Actually.. works pretty good. ;-)
And I just recently started my first Squidoo Lens! I'm definitely on the same page and direction. Now... Off to create my first Hub Page. :-)
Thanks for the article!
Thanks for the article. I hadn' heard of a couple of the sites above so I will be heading over to take a look.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I've had this ball of yarn in my paws a little over a week, have been learning as I go, and am anxious to leap higher. Needed these treats!
Sir, Is there a way to claim my Hubpages Blog. Would appreciate your response.
Harry
Wow, thanks so much. I learned a lot at this hub.
One site you may want to suggest that I've been working with is Hellium.
They pay you to blog. They don't encourage bringing people off site, but if you keep your user name the same as on other sites, to me that has a value too.
Great job and thanks
Auctionwally
Hi Harry, at this point I can't find a way to get a HubPage claimed on Technorati. Would be nice and helpful!
Hi Auctionwally, thanks for nice feedback. I'll be checking out Helium now. The web is full of places to make these connections.
Great information, thank you!
Helpful Information ... thank you
Thanks for sharing! It's most useful. Cheers!
Thanks! Now I shall start to register.
Great Read!!! I will have to try my way around a few of these sites. Thanks.
Great information for increasing trafic to site.So much informations is gathered together in a page.I will like read more about submitting links to search engines,Optimization,Keywords and offcourse how to be in top ten links.
Great info, thanks for the links and good suggestions!
Really useful info, thanks
Thanks for the most useful informations and hope to be interested for future if it helps to make an international community to a smaller network for the betterment of exchange informations and updates.
You stated above that cross linking your sites, helps visitors move from one site to the next. How well do you think this would work for site like MySpace and Squidoo?
Thanks to all those leaving nice comments! Hi Lazar, cross-linking works! Go to “my account”, then “traffic sources” and you can see which platforms give you traffic to your Hubs. Having your HubPage URL’s on Squidoo lenses will bring traffic to your Hubs (and vice versa) - the success depends on traffic to your Squidoo site of course. In my case, over 3% of my Hub traffic started at a Squidoo lens. Of course nothing beats Google, but the more places you place your HubPage URL (link), the more traffic you will get. AND, the more places your links exist, the more success you will have with Google and other search engines.
So useful--I'm bookmarking this one. I'm a beginner at all of this, so this really helps having so much information on one page.
very nice hub and useful information for those not only using hubpages but that blog or have website.
Great work as always
joniki
Whew, that was exhausting. I'm definitely going to have to re-read it when my eyes uncross. Are you this thorough in bed?
This is some excellent content for us hubbers out there that are looking to get more traffic. I think you really made an interesting point though. The key to getting consistent traffic is to diversify your traffic sources by spreading your link everywhere.
But thanks a billion for posting this very resoureful page!
Stacie, you said the magic word "bookmark", Bless you!
Joniki, appreciate the comment. Nice picture, I'll bet there is a story in it!
Moonmaiden, Sorry I wore you out. I hope it was as good for you as it was for me...
Hi woyo, a billion thanks is way better than a few AdSense cents!
Thanks for sharing this tips and knowledges..
You have done an excellent job of laying out many of the best ways to promote your blogs, hubs, and websites. The picture of a cat chasing the tail is a good one. I envision a spider spinning a web that is a big circle with a ton of connecting links inside. Or maybe the human brain with all of the synapses running around connecting to each other.
I am in over 20 social networking communities and forums, so gaining unique traffic to my blogs and websites is very easy for me, however you can never have too many business contacts helping each other out.
Great information really. I have never seen anywhere such valuable content for hubbers who are looking to get more traffic. I think you really made an interesting point though. The key to getting consistent traffic is to diversify your traffic sources by spreading your link everywhere.
I hope Traffic-Scorpion really supports your point.
Shiva
http://hubpages.com/traffic-scorpion
great hub and thanks for inviting us. Wish you the best. :) Pls do visit my hubs too, if you have some time
Great hub! Thanks for the info.
Well researched, valuable advice. Excellent hub... thanks! :)
Thanks for this valuable input for somebody new and feeling lost in the world of blogs and internet. :-)
Thank you for wonderful article.
You are very informed. Jaz Live Cash Culture http://jazlive.com/ is published at Office Live -- I joined quite a bit of programs surfing, so I created a Brand to promote all affiliations and association from one site. Now that my site is Google searchable, I have created a blog as a central network site to share HUBs, and more. My blog is open to the public; visit http://jazlivecash.blogspot.com/ and post a comment, it is not necessary to join and visitors can leave comments anonymously.
Excellent, comprehensive article. Thank you.
I've been finding some interest specific social networking sites such as DeviantArt and Group Food, as well as Kaboodle which seems kind of superficial (about shopping) but i have a very good intuitive feeling about it.
Gretchen
Thanks for sharing the information. I've been knee deep in researching ways to promote my work stumbling around learning as I go. I just joined HubPages and thankfully I found your article which will help immensely! (smile)
Thanks for this useful article - its doing my head in getting to understand the marketing side of websites!
Thanks for this useful article - its doing my head in getting to understand the marketing side of websites!
Thanks for a beautiful article and it is really the marketing of blog/site which counts
You hit the nail on the head. Since the explosion of Web 2.0, the sources to get your name and material out there for FREE have become amazing.
Like you said, the key is to spread all the content out, diversify to all of the above web 2.0 social and networking sites, and point them back to your main site. Google loves hosted sites with backlinks from places like Stumble, Digg, technorati etc... as you suggested.
A few other great resources that I have had great success with our forum postings with good quality content andssignature files point to your main site or sites, press releases, Myspace, facebook, and Twitter a good little secret for exposure.
And obviously videos on your tube as well.
Thanks for the great content.
http://hubpages.com/hub/tycoughlinsinnercircle
http://reversefunnelwealthsystem.com/Very good observation and great tips on the social networking buzz at the moment
i am just dipping my toes in at the moment in to all of this web 2.0 stuff and i find it very addictve.keep up the good work!
I missed this post:( but better late than never:) and Thanks for sharing some valuable advice.
really helpful for promoting our blogs and hubs. Thanks dear for creating this one, a lot of help, have included almost everything related to blog promotion.
Also Propeller. Thats the new Netscape bookmarking service.
Great hub Jack!
I would just add onlywire.com, which allows you to bookmark to more than a dozen of most popular bookmarking services in one click. Also, there are quite a few digg-like services nowadays - wagg.it , biggitup.com , plugim.com - just to name a few. Newsvine.com is a good one, too.
Ah, and DMOZ - this is just my personal opinion - is not worth the effort. If you get listed, you get a serious boost, but you just plain don't get listed, no matter how hard you try...
What a great resource. One of the most informative hub pages I've read in quite some time. Thanks so much for sharing. - Paul
A very nice list of resources. I'm going to check out Googlebase and webrings - I hadn't thought of them.
Count me in as a fan!
These are great resources for marketers and entrepreneurs! Blogging, tagging and bookmarking are all a part of the vital Web 2.0 movement, which can really take any business venture or affiliate program to the next level. You don't have to be an expert, just write about what you know, and link to/quote from others who are experts (giving them their due credit, of course)! I will be linking to your hub in my marketing & seo blog! Thanks for the info!!!
-PA
hi, it's great tht u have so many lists of sites that we can blog at and you have even given information on them. it's really useful for someone like me who has no idea how to blog but wants to and start earning from there. thanks lots. it's appreciated.
smi
Nice! Thank you so much for such an interesting hub. Wonderful information. This really helps a new person like me out a LOT.
Great hub! Lots of good advice for really getting your site out there across the entire breadth of the internet. Thanks.
Great list of Social Media sites. Most of your list is similar to what I just put on my list. The rest, I'll have to take a look at. Thank You.
yes, their are other great web web free services and no hidden poo, I found
www.searchthebeast.com new knowledge Base student learning and growing With hope
Thanks so much for the info! Worth my time reading your hub to learn the different places to promote my hubs. Two of my hubs are about making money from home which I have extensive experience in, and hearing from you about creating a family of similar topic sites definitely makes sense!
The way to get your hubpages onto technorati is by dragging the widget to your browser.
Here's the link that works just like Stumble Upon Digg etc
http://technorati.com/tools/favelets.html
Its one of my favorites. Hope it helps.
Thank you for sharing information in a concise way that those of us new to the online community world can learn. I agree with the some of the comments that the content should always be helping others. In everything, I do I strive to bring value to others.
Helping People UP!
Great info here, thanks!
Excellent hub! Lots of great tips.
That was a very fantastic hub i would like more like this from you.If you ever want smething to promote use this url and see something that can gett you going immediately
Thank you for the info
Great tips and very useful
Excellent hub, you've put togther a practical guide with plently of relevant tips and doable action steps, hope to see you on the other side, cheers!
Great Post as usual and very practical and informative -keep up the good work :)
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks for a great hub!
This just made my night Thank You so Much!!!!!
Nice. It gives the basic foundation when you are new to all this.
Everyone seem to think you already knows what it means to get "dugged".
Bookmarked this page for future reference.
I wish I had read your hub before I spun my head into a frenzy making heads or tails of it all. Thanks for sharing.
Good information. I am new to this web 2.0 stuff and I have a question, maybe you can help me.
When you submit a "story" you have only few options to choose as topic of your story (or news or whatever). Most of them not related at all to your topic. However, you have to choose a topic. Is there any way to avoid the situation when you're "forced" to choose a topic not related to your website? I am confused and maybe there is something I am missing.
Great Page!
Great hub! Very informative. Being new to hubbing, though, can you tell me how does this help your SEO? I've entered my URL to submit a comment, but all the signature that I can see all have links going back to hubpages.com rather than to their own website?
Sorry - a very basic question I know - I found this hub on the recommendation from a forum ( http://www.davidcastle.org/BB/way-of-link-building ) where everyone signs with a signature linking back to their website.
It is pretty good to associate and submit your hub to social networking sites as you rightly listed, because they are seriously gaining authority on the organic search engine results daily. They are really in love with search engines. My favorites are Digg, Propeller, Facebook, Google Base, IndianPad and Youtube for Videos.
Thanks and God bless you!
That just about the information I need. Great hub you have here, I wish my hub would climb up the search engine with this technique.
Thanks for info supplied on your hub just got started this sort of info they dont tell to often great thanks!
A great informations,thanks.
Very good and very informative
thanx
So great !! very helpfull. thank you very much
Wow, there's a lot of info here.
My head does spin with all this info. Currently I just do hubpages and Stumbleupon. I am a bit concerned about the amount of time all this takes--any advice. Julie
Wonderfull!! the Universe put your hub in my road!! I was just wondering about that... because I am new in this ''always new'' internet tools! Now still asking my self how to promote a name? just a name.. with links to all the pages and hubs and space and all!! Do I need to 'buy' the dominion name in order to have the name... in the searching tools.. (?0.
Excellent! I am in the process of promoting my website. This is information is essential to getting the word out. Thank you for putting the time into this. It shows in the quality of work.
Excellent article, full of great sites, I've tried mosto of them and like Julie said, a lot of work....I have to laugh because after almost 2 years, I have earned 21.90 from Google....I truely do this for my own satisfaction!!!!!!!!!
Right I tried so hard to get some traffic, some times I get bored for nothing i can't get...
Good idea on creating a family of complementary sites...This is good in that the hubpages hubs, squidoo lenses, parasite blogs, and one's own site are all on different IPs and therefore won't accidentally get us penalized! Now I just need time and consistent effort to work each of these areas!
Great tips, very helpful. Be sure to take advantage of Hubpages referrals to help boost traffic as well.
great hub, i am new to hubbing and blogging, its a great advice. Thanx Thanx
do i have to just submit links in google base, or do i have to write the description also. Please advice
Thanks a lot for your article. I have a blog and a website and im working hard to send traffic to them. After reading your article, I have learned a lot and now i know i still need more hardwork to achieve it.Thanks alot
You have a lot of information and I have learn so many thing from here. Great.
Nice hub. though it has been published 2 years ago its information are timeless and social media has became #1 in marketing these days
Very useful information. Thank you for your writing.
With all the good info here on social bookmarking and content sharing sites I'm sure you must have one on social networking sites by now, which is one of my favorite subjects lately.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Vic
Just about the time I'm going down for the 3rd time, drowning in all the stuff I don't know, you throw me a life-boat. Not a jacket. A boat. I have been at hubpages for 3 weeks. I have great need for this information and when I noticed that you also have links for both how to create webpages and how to blog, I bookmarked your hub. First one I ever thought to bookmark.
I hope to someday have a hub that 2 years after I wrote it, will still be finding readers who want to bookmark and use what I have written. Thank you dear sir. I think you have given me all the information I need to get myself up and running in today's internet....and a bit more has been supplied in the comment section. Thank you. Again. =o)
you are right ,but what about nofollow tag, I think it is most vital aspect in link building but thank you for your tips, I DIGG THIS , :)
I'm new at Hub Pages. I hardly know anything, but I am trying to learn. Thank you for your very informative article.
I was on squidoo for like an hour and when I finished it said it could not be featured but it will be seen did this happen to anyone here? what does that mean ? did i waste an hour? I hope not
Thank you for this information - really helpful. cheers
what a great collection of resources, I have maybe 10% of these on my network.
My own domain - blogspot - wordpress -myspace -facebook -ebay my world-digg-hub(new0-squidoo(new) , looks like I have a lot more to go! Thanks for putting them all in one spot.
Great advice! Just starting out with my own blog and this information was very helpful. Thanks!
I came back for another review I was so impressed Im going to link over to you - from my currently "hot" hub - i briefly mention some of these services but you do it better - i have some tools on the page that might interest you though.
http://hubpages.com/hub/10-indispensable-resources
working
Paul Edmondson says:
2 years ago
All your Hubs make it to #1. Nice work!
I think one of the keys for becoming part of a community is to publish regularly on a specific topic. The more of an enthusiast you are, the more likely you're to develop a community. Once that community develops, then they help promote your work through word of mouth, which is the ultimate traffic driver.