Getting Hits

Getting Hits - The Definitive Guide To Promoting Your Website by Don Sellers

Review

After wasting several painful hours of my life reading this book, hoping for just one morsel of information to justfy the money and time spent, I was sadly disappointed. Evidently, according to Don Sellers, we should submit websites to several major search engines, the most popular of which is InfoSeek. What a unique idea.

Secondly, we should post the URL of our websites to thousands of newsgroups.

The bottom line here is, this book is full of cheap, second rate information. I cannot imagine there are any webmasters out there who aren't aware of the tactics suggested by this book.

Chapter List

FOREWORD

Churn and Chaff
PREFACE

Who’s Hitting What
Who’s at Bat
Who’s on Deck
Today’s Program
Approach of Book
Pinch Hitters
John Schick . Jeff Carlson

1 A MILLION WAYS TO GET HITS

Search Engines
Spider Indexes
General Directories
Hermaphrodites
Links
Site of Related Interest
Contents Sites . Directories and Links Pages
Awards Sites
Announce Sites
Newsgroups & Mailing Lists
Newsgroups
Mailing Lists
Media
On-line
Off-line
Advertising
The Paid Attraction
Refining the Ad Campaign
Your Site
Home Page
Page Size
Geography
Your Target Audience
Your Promotional Package
Title . URL . Contact Information . Keywords . Description . Press Release

2 HOW SEARCH ENGINES THINK

How They Examine You
First Contact
From Web . From Submissions
Search Depth
Update Frequency
How They Remember You
Word Placement and Repetition
In the title . Near the beginning . Repeated
Meta Tags
Links
Categories
How They Rank You

3 MAKING SEARCH ENGINES DO YOUR BIDDING

Secrets for High Rankings
Submission
Manual Submission . Automatic Submission
Keywords
Title
Meta Tags
Text and Page Design
Repeated Words
Links
Info site . From other sites
Updates
Persuading the Top Search Engines
Yahoo
Submission . Notes
Alta Vista
Submission . Notes
Excite
Submission . Notes
InfoSeek Ultra
Submission . Notes
HotBot
Submission . Notes
WebCrawler
Submission . Notes
Lycos
Submission . Notes
Magellan
Submission . Notes
Open Text Index
Submission . Notes

4 HOW TO GET QUALITY LINKS

Exploring Your Neighborhood
Sites Like Yours
The Longer Journey . The Shorter Journey
Role Reversal
Special Topic Directories and Links Page
Getting Linked
Contacting Other Sites
Your Subject Line . Be Brief
Cooperation vs. Competition
Cooperation: The Web Way . Competition: No Way
Target Windows
Negotiate Custom Pages
The Top 10 Awards Sites
Cool Site of the Day
Submitting . Notes
Lycos Top 5% of the Web
Submitting . Notes
Too Cool
Submitting . Notes
Project Cool
Submitting . Notes
Starting Point
Submitting . Notes
2ask
Submitting . Notes
C/net Best of the Web
Submitting . Notes
Cybertown
Submitting . Notes
Netscape’s What’s Cool
Submitting . Notes
WebCrawler Top 25
Web Media
E-Zines
Hotwired . NetGuide Live
News Services
Media Central . Newsbytes
Success with the Personal Touch
Quality Is One Job (Not Necessarily Job One)

5 HOW TO GET LINKS FROM HUNDREDS OF SITES

Pros and Cons of Mega Linking
The More the Merrier
Reciprocal Linking
Benefiting from this Approach
Content . Target age
Potential Drawbacks
Announce Sites
Netscape What’s New
Submission
What’s New Too
Submitting . Notes
InfoSpace
Submitting . Notes
Netsurfer Digest
Submitting . Notes
NetHappenings
Submitting . Notes
Comp.info systems.www.announce
Submitting . Notes
Nerd World What’s New
Submitting . Notes
Internet Link Exchange
Let the Auto Poster Do It
Submit-It
Postmaster2
WebStep Top 100
Higher Saturation with Announce Lists
The Internet Promotions Megalist
The Green Eggs Report
Go Net-Wide
Announce.net

6 MINING THE HIDDEN GOLD IN MAILING LISTS AND NEWSGROUPS

Mailing List and Newsgroup Backgrounder
Mailing Lists
Newsgroups
Identifying Appropriate Targets
Mailing List Directories
Liszt . Reference.COM . PAML . CataList
Newsgroup Directories
Reference.COM . Deja News . Self Search
Approaches that Work
Reconnaissance
Netiquette
Your Site in a Sugar Wrapper
Strike Outs Avoid
Blatant Self Service
Tone Deafness
Spamming
Technical Deficiency

7 PRODUCING HITS OFFLINE

Publication Announcements, Step One: The Press Release
Target Your Material
Take the Right Approach
Magazines
Internet-related
Internet World . NetGuide . Yahoo!Internet Life . Wired
Targeted
Books and Cds
New Riders’ official World Wide Web
Yellow Pages
Que’s Mega Web Directory
Walking the World Wide Web
Your Business
Printed Materials
Sigs
Everything Else

8 ADVERTISING OVERVIEW

Brief History of Web Advertising
Beginning of Commerce on the Internet
Early Advertising Strategies
Not Free Anymore
New Advertising Directions
Fun Content . Fictional Characters . Global Reach . Lifestyle
Impact of New Technology
Toward the Future
Advertising Vehicles
Banner Basics
Where the Banner Waves
Search Engines and Directories . High-Traffic Content Sites . Small Targeted Content Sites .
Contents/Sweepstakes . Metascreens
Finding Help
Testing Your Banner Ad
New Opportunities
Audio Ad Delivery . Real-Time Audio and Video . Web casting . Custom Sponsored
Editorial Content . Sponsored Chat Rooms . Sponsored Content . Local Sites
Who Is Advertising Online
Ad Bargains
A Sophisticated Buy

9 LAUNCHING YOUR WEB AS CAMPAIGN

Get It Right
Defining Your Target Audience
40-40-20 Rule . Targeting Broad Demographics
Refining Your Message
Banner Ad=Envelope; Site=Message . Boosting Message Effectiveness
Designing Banners That Work
Remember AIDA . Click-Through Caution . Adjusting Message and Color .
Be Early, Be Big . Some Effective Banner Ads
Placing Ads
Finding Good Value
Know Your Rate Cards . Levels of Values
Bargain Basement
Mid-Level Bargains
Bargains at the Top
Buying Keywords
Working with Advertising Representatives
Do It Yourself
Barter May Be Better

10 REFINING YOUR WEB AD CAMPAIGN

Reports
What Do These Numbers Mean?
Host/IP . RCF Name > Log name . Datestamp . Retrieval . Code . Bytes
Optional Information
Tracking Visitors
Click-Through Response Rates
Test and Refine
Determining The Best Banner
Where’s the Best Return on Investment
Sites To Come Back To
Entertaining
Informative
Dynamic
Countinuing Campaign
Countinuing the Campaign On Other Sites
Spot the Trends
What the Competition Is Doing
A Commanding Knowledge of the Technology
Onsite Promotion
Taking the Plunge

11 THE BENEFITS OF PROFESSIONAL HELP

Search Engines
Popular Search Engines
Yahoo . Alta Vista Excite . InfoSeek Ultra . HotBot . WebCrawler . Lycos . Magellan .
Open Text
Special Subject Search Engines
100 Specialized Search Engines! . WebScout Index Page . Search Engines-Beaucoup! .
Commercial Sites Index . Apollo International Advertising
Search Engine Function
Webmaster’s Guide: How Search Engines Work . Search Tutorial . Search Tools
Meta Tags
Meta Tagging for Search Engines . META Tag Builder
Award Sites
Cool Site of the Day
Lycos Top 5% of the Web
Too Cool
Project Cool
Starting Point
2ask
C/net Best of the Web
Cybertown
Netscape’s What’s Cool
WebCrawler Top 25
Automatic Submission Services
Submit-It
PostMaster2
Add It!
Promote-It!
Announce Sites
What’s New Too
Netsurfer Digest
Announce.net
Global Internet’s Net Happenings
The Green Eggs Report
Comp.info systems.www.announce
Nerd World What’s New
Hundreds of Links
The Internet Promotions Megalist
Starting Points
A1 Directory
WebStep Top 100
Go Net-Wide
InfoSpace
Freelinks
Web Books and Magazines
Internet World
NetGuide
Yahoo! Internet Life
Wired
New Riders’ Official World Wide Web
Yellow pages
Que’s Mega Web Directory
Walking the World Wide Web
E-Zines
HotWired
NetGuide Live
E-zine-list
Todd Kuipers’ E-mail-Zines-List
Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
Reference.COM
Liszt
PAML
CataList
Deja News
The Reporter’s Guide To Internet Mailing Lists
Newsgroup Self Search
Advertising
Web Ad Rate Guide
Advertising Age
The Internet Advertising Resource Guide
Inet Marketing Database
Internet Link Exchange
Advertising on Usenet-How to Do it
Advertising in Cyberspace
Marketing
Internet Sales Discussion List
Kim Bayne’s Marketing Lists on the Internet
Internet Marketing Discussion List Archives
1st Steps-Marketing and Design Daily
Inet Marketing Report
Publicity
Media Central
Newsbytes
Website Promoters Resource Center
Resources & Software for Web Advertising, Marketing, PR, and E-mail
Professional Publicists
The Ward Group
Multimedia Marketing Group