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Mark
Site Admin
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 466
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 Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:03 am Post subject: How to Promote your List |
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The good news about growing a list, is that once a well-managed top site list gets established with many topical member sites, it tends to promote itself as the voting codes scattered around the Web on all the member sites make it more and more likely that other webmasters of related sites will find and join the list.
The bad news is that this doesn't happen overnight.
So, you've created your top site list, and maybe added your own related website(s), and perhaps it's still looking kind of empty at the moment. What's next?
Well, there are several ways that you can help the process along. I've built some very popular top site lists using the following practical techniques. Hopefully you can use some of these, and your own ideas to build-up your own mega list.
Give Your List Broad Appeal
We recommend not giving your list the same title as your own website unless your website is a well-established authority site. For example, we often see a case similar to this: Joe has a new small website called "Joe's Green Parakeets", he creates a top site list called "Joe's Green Parakeets". A webmaster for a blue parakeet site skips joining because their site isn't about green parakeets. A webmaster for a larger general parakeet site doesn't join because they feel that the list is focused too much on Joe's competing website. What would be more ideal would be for Joe to call his list "Greatest Parakeet Sites", because it is more general and has broader appeal.
Prepare the List
Spend some time selecting a nice style for your list from our hundreds of great styles, or use our custom HTML layout option to design your own special look. Create and install a custom logo image for your list. And finally be sure to create and upload up to 3 different voting images. For some topical themes, like Neopets, for example, voting images are always 88x31, in other topical themes, other banner sizes may be popular like 120x60 or 468x60. Do research and use the voting banner sizes that will meet the layout needs of webmasters in the topical theme of your list.
Prime the List
Of course you added your own site, but surely there are some other great sites that you know of that you would like to join your list. Make it happen quickly by signing-up some of them yourself. In an hour or so, you could have 10 new members! This gives your list a lived-in look, and makes it more interesting for your first visitors. If you like, you can even send these webmasters the voting code, and you may get lucky that they actually add it to their website.
Invite Prospective Webmasters to Join
Once your list has a few members, it's time to find some good candiate websites for your list and contact them directly with a personal email. I've found that about 1 to 3 out of 10 emails sent will result in a sign-up, and at least some of the others will now know about your list, and may consider it in the future when they see it's growth and realize the potential traffic they are missing.
This process is best done with a personal touch, mention their website and why you'd like them to join. Thanks them for their time. Be sure to include your list's URL, of course. Also break this process-up over time. The bigger your list, the more likely the sign-up, so don't send 50 emails all at once, much better to send 10 every few days, for example.
Promote your List
One way to promote your list is to make sure that your voting links are highly visible on your personal website, you want lots of clicks anyway for the votes. And try to utilize our voting image feature so that you and your members will have eye-catching graphics that lead to your list.
If your niche (topical area) has directories that list only topical websites, like a directory for Lion King fansites, or a directory for Fantasy websites, be sure to submit your list to those directories.
Perhaps your niche has other promotional opportunities. For example, sign your Dragonball Z list up as a member at an Anime banner exchange service, and use a custom HTML area to display the banner code on your list. Or perhaps there are popular forums for your subject: be sure to add your list to your signature or post an advertisement, if allowed by forum rules.
Another technique I've used is to sign my top site list up as a member at a different related top site list, a great way to tap into topical traffic. If you are clever you can even use a technique that I call "backward list linking". It goes something like this, you sign up your list at the other list, and sign up the other list at your list, the URL used at one list will actually be the voting code for the other list. It may take an extra step to complete this type of linkage, as you won't have one of the linking codes at first, but ultimately a click on their banner at your list results in a vote for your site at their list, and vice versa.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, can be great sources of traffic for your list, for interested visitors and new members. Some basic search engine optimization (also called SEO) for your top site list is easy and can really make a big difference over time.
First the Title of your homepage is critical. The page Title is the part that appears at the top of the browser window, and won't necessarily appear on the page itself. Members using the Portal will have a page Title in this format: "[LIST NAME] :: Top Site List". Members using the Custom HTML Layout option are responsible for setting their own HTML title tag. Either way, the key thing is to think about what a search engine user might type to when trying to find a list like your's. Try to get that text into the page Title. For example, a title like "Mongo's Place" may sound cool, but won't help searchers find a car top site list the way "Mongo's Hot Rod Cars Top Site List" would.
Second to the Title, is to make sure that your important keywords and any popular variations appear on your homepage somewhere. This shouldn't be too hard, and will probably happen naturally from your welcome text, and the titles and descriptions of all your member sites.
Note that TSL Planet has made our system as friendly to search engines (and users) as we can, like using a subdomain for each list's homepage URL (mylist.top-site-list.com) instead of an ugly CGI script-based URL like all other top site list services use (like oldservice.com?list=46&area=xyz). The content-based SEO is up to you.
Summary
Hope that this has given you some ideas to promote and grow your list. The effort spent upfront can really make a big difference in the popularity and growth of your list. Now get promoting!  |
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