Starting A New Website

[twojacks28]

my friend has recently started a website for movie, games etc reviews. I was wondering if anyone manybe even you joe new how to get traffic to the website without having to pay huge amounts in advertising. if anyone has any suggestions that would be great thanks.

Twojacks

 

[JimBob]

You could probably start by adding your website to google:
http://www.google.com/addurl/

Also, add the link to your signature in forums, add the link at the bottom of emails you send, word of mouth is a good, easy way to get some people visiting, if they like what they see, they will spread the word.

 

[dj_420]

a good book:

multiple streams of internet income, by robert g. allen

this book covers many areas of low cost internet advertising, its a good read and shows many alternatives which people arent aware of.

 

[twojacks28]

will try and get that book for him tomrrow thanks for the help so far.

 

[The Mint Man]

what he said, otherwise the search engine spiders wont visit the site.
Then research what keywords would be best for the site.
'Game Reviews' & 'Movie reviews' would obviously be two of the main ones, 'play station' would be as well however this would be very hard to get ranked in the top ten as it is used so much on millions of sites. So focus on the ones that directly relate to the site and keep the others in the background so to speak.
Be aware that it can take some time for search engines to crawl your site and in return rank them, dont expect the site to be in the top ten a week after it is put up. It can take months.
Also make sure you use terms such as 'Game Review' on the home page. the trick is not to use it too much but use it just enough.... it can be a very fine line with some search engines between being ranked in the top ten and being no where to be seen. Visit similar sites and see what words they use and how many times they use them etc.
Try not to use flash, this can affect rankings.

Good luck.

 

[Joe Blow]

Getting traffic to a new website isn't easy, especially if you want to do it on the cheap. Just thought I'd get that out of the way first to dispell any illusions.

However, here are a few tips to help you get started:

1) Links, links, links, links and more links. To get traffic you have to build links to your site. Luckily, there are many ways to do this for no cost. Some are:
(i) Web Directories - there are literally thousands of these - many of them free - and although you may not get much traffic as a result, all the links will end up helping your search engine rankings. You can find directories to submit to here.
(ii) Reciprocal Links - Some sites may link to yours if you link to theirs. That way you both get something out of it, although keep in mind that this arrangement works best when both sites have a similar amount of traffic. It is alos a good idea to approach sites working a similar niche to you, as they have the sort of traffic you are interested in.
(iii) Forum signatures - Some forums allow members to have signatures that link to their site. One thing I want to emphasise about this tactic for generating traffic is NOT TO ABUSE IT. I can't emphasize this enough. Always pay attention to the forum rules regarding signatures and post quality content, not rubbish just to get your signature seen. I can tell you first hand that those who abuse this privilege will incur the wrath of forum administrators. Also, make sure that the forum you are posting at has members who will be interested in the topic of your site. These are the people that are more likely to turn into repeat visitors.

2) Search Engine Optimisation - This is trickier and it is far too complex for me to go into in any depth here. Needless to say, getting your site ranked well in search engines like Google for search terms that relate to your website is very important. For example, if you type 'Australian Stock Forum' into Google you will notice that ASF comes up in the first and second spot. This is the sort of traffic that I am interested in as ASF, being an Australian stock forum, is exactly what they are looking for.
How do you get your site ranked high in the search engines? Firstly, build up your links. The more links that point to your site, especially links from sites with a high Google page rank, will make your site seem more important to search engines. Secondly, make sure that you include keywords that you want to be ranked well for in your website title and in various places on your web pages. Search engines only know what your site is about by looking at the text that is on your web pages.

There is a lot more to SEO but you will have to go looking for more info. See the next point for more.

3) Go to webmaster forums and read and learn. There is a lot to learn from other webmasters and many are quite willing to share. Here are a couple to get you started:
forums.digitalpoint.com
www.sitepoint.com/forums/

Oh, and make sure you have regularly updated content. Nobody wants to go back to a site to see the same stuff they saw two months ago.

The most important thing to remember is that there is NO easy way to build traffic to your website. If you are not prepared to put in hundreds or even thousands of hours of hard work (destroying relationships and your social life in the process - trust me, I know) then you probably wont see much in the way of results.

 

[karmatik]

However, here are a few tips to help you get started:

1) Links, links, links, links and more links. To get traffic you have to build links to your site. Luckily, there are many ways to do this for no cost

This is very important, good quality links. If your friend wants to avoid paying hefty amounts to sign up with search engines, links with good sites will also mean web crawlers from search engines will pick up your friends site too!

 

[twojacks28]

thanks guys there is a lot of useful information here that I can pass on.

 

[Mostafa]

An addition way: Start writing articles related to your site and get them published in such as eZinearticles.com and goarticles.com make sure you have links back to your web-site.

Also, you can read SEO articles here: www.netmarketingway.com

 

[twojacks28]

thanks mostafa I told him about those websites and said that he will be submitting something soon.