A site where you can make a post to advertise your site for free?
August 22, 2014 9:49 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for some sort of website that basically exists for other people to advertise their own websites. I tried searching but I only found a bunch of info about SEO content and trading links w other websites, etc. Is there a website where you can go and make a post about your website and it goes to the top of the page or whatever and people can stumble across it? For free? If anyone's familiar with livejournal I know they would have had communities that specialize in things like that so that's pretty much what I'm looking for.
Rhaomi makes a great point about wondering where such a site's audience would come from, but if you're just looking for higher profile links that someone could stumble across while searching, you could make a Facebook page for your site.
posted by jess at 10:25 PM on August 22, 2014
posted by jess at 10:25 PM on August 22, 2014
Response by poster: Rhaomi, that MeFi link is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thank you! I'll take any other suggestions, though.
posted by atinna at 10:27 PM on August 22, 2014
posted by atinna at 10:27 PM on August 22, 2014
Most sites rely on non-creator referral as a mechanic for quality control - someone not connected to the project has to care enough about it to refer it, which is how metafilter's front page works. Otherwise, you get flooded with paid referrals for low-quality sites. If you have a project that's great, you need to get fans or supporters of the site who are not benefitting from your site directly to link to the site without directly paying or otherwise rewarding them. Usually that's by making it really easy to promote your site by sharing it on social media or asking for support directly in competitions or exchanging links with other related sites of comparable quality.
It's a fine line to walk.
posted by viggorlijah at 11:29 PM on August 22, 2014
It's a fine line to walk.
posted by viggorlijah at 11:29 PM on August 22, 2014
Response by poster: I know what you guys are saying is true, but I really most loathe social media and having to update it constantly. I did make a twitter page for the website but even that's a pain. I hate networking so yeah I'm trying to take the easy way out by finding places where I can post a small ad for the site. That's why I'm asking if such sites exist.
posted by atinna at 11:50 PM on August 22, 2014
posted by atinna at 11:50 PM on August 22, 2014
The thing to think about is this: If those places existed for just a general broad category of "websites" and if they worked, why aren't you already looking at one daily to see new websites to visit? Because that's not how people really find new websites to visit.
I'm just going to try to say this gently because I think you might be legit: I really almost flagged this as spam as trying to draw attention to a Projects post, because your blog looks like the whole reason it exists is to serve ads and you have almost no history here. The blog has no focus and you're already talking about just maintaining a Twitter being too much work. You're trying to get it in front of eyes without caring what kind of eyes those are. That doesn't look like you care about this project, it looks like you want to generate ad revenue. I say this because I'm not going to be the only one that thinks it. If you really, really care about this content, then narrow it down, develop some real interests, post some unique stuff, and go contribute elsewhere so that people get to know you and find your page, and then they'll start referring it to others because it's unique and interesting.
Take off the ads until you actually have an established readership, then look at what other big names are doing in the way of trying to make sure the advertising is tasteful and effective, because yours isn't. The spam blogs make money because they're not being hand-curated; the amount of time you're going to put into this means even with spam advertising you probably wouldn't generate enough revenue for the labor. The real blogs that make money have to build traffic the old-fashioned way, through generating stuff people really want to read. (Or, well, sometimes through being founded by people with tons of money or contacts, but life's always easier when you're that person.)
posted by Sequence at 12:25 AM on August 23, 2014 [11 favorites]
I'm just going to try to say this gently because I think you might be legit: I really almost flagged this as spam as trying to draw attention to a Projects post, because your blog looks like the whole reason it exists is to serve ads and you have almost no history here. The blog has no focus and you're already talking about just maintaining a Twitter being too much work. You're trying to get it in front of eyes without caring what kind of eyes those are. That doesn't look like you care about this project, it looks like you want to generate ad revenue. I say this because I'm not going to be the only one that thinks it. If you really, really care about this content, then narrow it down, develop some real interests, post some unique stuff, and go contribute elsewhere so that people get to know you and find your page, and then they'll start referring it to others because it's unique and interesting.
Take off the ads until you actually have an established readership, then look at what other big names are doing in the way of trying to make sure the advertising is tasteful and effective, because yours isn't. The spam blogs make money because they're not being hand-curated; the amount of time you're going to put into this means even with spam advertising you probably wouldn't generate enough revenue for the labor. The real blogs that make money have to build traffic the old-fashioned way, through generating stuff people really want to read. (Or, well, sometimes through being founded by people with tons of money or contacts, but life's always easier when you're that person.)
posted by Sequence at 12:25 AM on August 23, 2014 [11 favorites]
Reddit users don't want to hear this, but this is what Reddit is for, if you're even only a tiny bit strategic about it.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:45 AM on August 23, 2014
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:45 AM on August 23, 2014
You can put your web sit link on your profile page.
If it's topical to a particular community, posting interesting comments in that general demo's forums usually let you have a link in your signature.
posted by sammyo at 5:33 AM on August 23, 2014
If it's topical to a particular community, posting interesting comments in that general demo's forums usually let you have a link in your signature.
posted by sammyo at 5:33 AM on August 23, 2014
I make a comic. I mostly promote it by buying ads on other comics via Project Wonderful.
I also talk about it. I'll mention when I finish a chapter on my main twitter account. (The comic has its own twitter account, and tweets a link every time a page goes up.) I do this on Twitter because I'm actually ON Twitter; I have a decent number of people following me because they want to hear what I have to say. When I'm having discussions about something where I feel my experience drawing/publishing/promoting the thing is relevant, I'll link to it when I talk about that. Like I did just now.
I've had some success by throwing it at people with a lot of reach in the domain of the comic - it's a sci-fi comic, so I was glad when I managed to get Cory Doctorow to post about it on Boing Boing. Who are the tastemakers and huge link-sharers in the domain of your project?
posted by egypturnash at 8:11 AM on August 23, 2014
I also talk about it. I'll mention when I finish a chapter on my main twitter account. (The comic has its own twitter account, and tweets a link every time a page goes up.) I do this on Twitter because I'm actually ON Twitter; I have a decent number of people following me because they want to hear what I have to say. When I'm having discussions about something where I feel my experience drawing/publishing/promoting the thing is relevant, I'll link to it when I talk about that. Like I did just now.
I've had some success by throwing it at people with a lot of reach in the domain of the comic - it's a sci-fi comic, so I was glad when I managed to get Cory Doctorow to post about it on Boing Boing. Who are the tastemakers and huge link-sharers in the domain of your project?
posted by egypturnash at 8:11 AM on August 23, 2014
Response by poster: Sequence, no it's not a spammy website! I put an ad up but that doesn't take away from the website. The ads are also supposed to be music relevant too but it's only been a few days. Don't most websites have ads up nowadays? There's nothing wrong with making a few cents while you work on your site. It's definitely not a spam blog and I plan on working on posts every day. I have no history there because it's brand new. I already mentioned that. No big secret..
There's already websites focusing on each genre and subgenre of music. The entire point of this one is it doesn't. That IS the focus. You can EASILY explore different stuff. The quick links to official videos and music will make it easy to explore the artists' music without a lot of searching or like when you get an imbedded video but still have to go to google to learn more.
Potomac Avenue, I forgot about Reddit but I was never all that familiar with that place to begin with so I'll have to find my way around. Thanks for the suggestion.
posted by atinna at 8:21 AM on August 23, 2014
There's already websites focusing on each genre and subgenre of music. The entire point of this one is it doesn't. That IS the focus. You can EASILY explore different stuff. The quick links to official videos and music will make it easy to explore the artists' music without a lot of searching or like when you get an imbedded video but still have to go to google to learn more.
Potomac Avenue, I forgot about Reddit but I was never all that familiar with that place to begin with so I'll have to find my way around. Thanks for the suggestion.
posted by atinna at 8:21 AM on August 23, 2014
The trouble is that, as you've noted, there are a lot of sites that are basically dumps of stuff meant to trick people into viewing ads and/or downloading malicious software. While I understand your goal is to make a site that isn't like that, I've been frustrated by such sites so many times that when I see what looks like long list of unrelated things surrounded by very prominent ads, I reflexively decide it's clickbait. It really doesn't matter what the content might be; a pop-over banner that takes up the bottom 1/5 of my screen advertising drivers' school in a different state is quite the albatross. I know the idea of passively earning ad revenue is tempting, but right now you're jumping the gun here. Work on developing your content so that you build an audience, then leverage that audience to show real people/companies why they should buy ad space on your site. As unfair as it sounds, nobody legitimate is going to want to pay you until you've poured a lot of work into this project. So getting the word out about your site comes first, yes, but that will probably follow a very similar pattern in that the more quality content you have, the more likely people will want to explore and share your site. Don't spend too much of your time trying to get people excited about the concept of your site when instead you could be working on the content.
posted by teremala at 3:06 PM on August 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by teremala at 3:06 PM on August 24, 2014 [1 favorite]
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Your best bet for an authentic audience, since you're already a member, is MeFi Projects. You could also try StumbleUpon, but I haven't used it in a few years and I'm not sure how popular/useful it is now (they also take a dim view of excessive self-promotion).
posted by Rhaomi at 10:12 PM on August 22, 2014