Dave and Jay - Crazy Web Entrepreneurs

So it’s another week and here’s another tip! As you may have noticed, I’ve changed the name of this weekly segment. After a little discussion with Jay about where I wanted to go with this series of posts, it became apparent that my original name was too limiting in scope. So, as the new name suggests, I’ll be providing you with little tips to help you build links and traffic for sites you own.

This week I’m going to expand on last week’s point: posting your site for review on forums. I’ve also got an extra little somethin’ somethin’ for you: a list of the popular forums and a way to get a free link to your blog from us… but more on that later.

As I mentioned, you can get considerable traffic to your site just by posting it for review in various forums. Next week, we’ll be focusing on a case study of actual traffic numbers when you submit a site to many of the large forums, but first let’s go over a few rules you’ll want to remember when using this technique.

Follow the rules

Make sure you read the forum’s rules and any specific rules they may have for the review forum, and be sure to follow them. The forum is going to send some traffic your way free of charge, but they may require you to review other posted sites or fulfill some other requirement. Don’t try to avoid doing this, it’ll only get your thread deleted and earn you a moderator who doesn’t want you on his board anymore.

Even if there are no requirements to post your review, it doesn’t hurt to make a few posts in the forum before posting your review, especially if you intend to be posting your sites regularly. Keep in mind, if the forum is getting something back from you (i.e. more posts) they are less likely to have a problem with your posting your sites for review.

Respond to comments

When people post a comment about your design, respond to it, even if it’s just to say thanks for your comment. Don’t get defensive or try to counter a critique they’ve given. Be courteous and ask follow-up questions if applicable. People like someone who is polite, and the higher the post count on your thread, the more likely human nature is to kick in and people will check it out to see what the big deal is!

Have good content and a killer design

If you drive all this traffic to your site, but it’s a one page Adsense spam site… it’s not going to be of much use to you. You want to have a killer design (because people will fall over themselves to tell you how great your design is, generating more buzz for your post) and quality content to increase the chances that you will either get a repeat visitor or a customer, or someone linking to your site, etc.

Where’s my link, you jerk?

Now, I promised an opportunity for you to get a free link back and I don’t intend to disappoint. For next week’s traffic study I’ve submitted a new blog I started to 21 of the larger forums, and compiled links to those forums in to a PDF to help you folks get started generating some traffic. You can get the PDF here. However, it’s by no means complete… so if you email me 10 or more big (5000 posts or more) forums with a web design review or critique forum, you’ll get a free link back from us and we’ll add those to the list. Not to sound like an infomercial at 2am, but yes it really is that easy! Credit will be given in the order I receive the emails, so it’s a good idea to include a few more than ten in case there are duplicates.

Good Profits!