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How to Get A Niche Site Known

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by GlowStormLion, Jun 16, 2008.

  1. #1
    Thanks for taking a look at this thread. I'm a writer/half-of-the-design-team of Happy Horror and we started off rockily with next to no budget back in 2006. Initially we'd planned to blog about horror movies and tokusatsu/sentai. We had no advertising back then and only used free services and techniques to get known. There were great big chunks of time where the blog didn't get updated but somehow it's managed to get a PR 3 and is nearly below 1,000,000 in Alexa's rankings. According to Google Analytic's numbers we get maybe 70 uniques per day, but according to our WordPress plugin we get almost 1k uniques daily - that makes it difficult to say exactly what sort of traffic we get! However, we average 4-5k impressions for CJ and other affiliate banners we've got on the site.

    In late April 2008 I initiated a massive overhaul of the site and we've upped our content production since then. Our main goal is to provide quality content which we define as entirely handwritten articles with a sharply personal style of writing. We're not going to top IMDB for info nor the other top ranked horror sites out there, so we strive to be as personal as possible. Yesterday I installed forums but no real traffic to them as of yet. If you're interested my my techniques and philosophy for building sites, I've written a (rather large) article about it that you can read if you'd like.

    After alllllll that info, if you're still reading here's why I'm asking in the marketing forums: I want to know how to market our site more effectively. What can we do better to get our readership numbers to skyrocket? We all work hard to keep fresh content up there and write interesting, informative articles because we care about the genres we cover, as fans. We've bought some advertising via AdSense and some other advertising through these forums (DP) but we've not seem a real surge in traffic and I feel we've got what it takes to do better.

    So, please, if you've got any ideas or suggestions we'd love to hear them. I understand you may not want to reveal your strategies in public so I'll invite you to PM me if that's the case.

    Looking forward to hear what you guys have to say! :)
     
    GlowStormLion, Jun 16, 2008 IP
  2. SmallBusinessMan

    SmallBusinessMan Peon

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    #2
    There are a few things that come immediately to mind. For one, take advantage of some of these more well-known horror sites. Particularly sites like Bloody-Disgusting that have forums, and huge readerships. You can link to your site via your forum signature there, and you will be attracting many eyeballs who you already know are targeted toward your niche.

    I would also take advantage of social networks like MySpace. There are tons of horror icons that have pages and would be happy to be your friend. I have several of them on my friend list. The more friends you have that are related to the genre, the more chance you'll have of getting even more targeted eyeballs. No need to stop at these "icons" either. You will find plenty of other horror fans on a network like this, who will be happy to have a new horror blog to read. Make friends with other horror-related sites who have MySpace pages, like Fright-Rags.com who sells Horror themed t-shirts. Fangoria if they have a page...you get the idea.

    I would also submit the site to as many blog and RSS directories I could find. Not only does this get you more links, the reason most of these things exist, but some of them are actually used by people to find new publications to read.

    That's just a few ideas.
     
    SmallBusinessMan, Jun 16, 2008 IP
    GlowStormLion likes this.
  3. myvirtual

    myvirtual Peon

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    #3
    Comment on forums and blogs with relevant content.
     
    myvirtual, Jun 16, 2008 IP
  4. seo4china

    seo4china Well-Known Member

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    #4
    By getting links from other sites in that specific niche
     
    seo4china, Jun 16, 2008 IP
  5. GlowStormLion

    GlowStormLion Peon

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    #5
    Great suggestions, every one! SmallBusinessMan, I really do need to get more into that social networking thing, so thanks that's a great reminder. I'm working with Fright Rags but I didn't remember to actually hook up with him via there. It gets tough because we submitted to a whole ton of blog lists and such back in the beginning but several of them went down and we barely got any traffic from them according to our stats. Do you know of any particularly good ones?

    I'll also consider posting in the forums, I was just worried it might come off as annoying or promotional (even if I'm not saying hey come visit my site!) since some forums tend to be highly insular. Still, worth a shot. I'm adding this to my "to-do" list :)
     
    GlowStormLion, Jun 17, 2008 IP
  6. depositlaw

    depositlaw Peon

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    #6
    I would trust the google analytic numbers most
     
    depositlaw, Jun 17, 2008 IP
  7. GlowStormLion

    GlowStormLion Peon

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    #7
    Can you elaborate a little bit? In the Analytics help forums there are a lot of posts saying that the numbers aren't always accurate due to the way the tracking works. Apparently, javascript is turned off by a good many people browsing the web, especially those using FireFox.
     
    GlowStormLion, Jun 17, 2008 IP
  8. SmallBusinessMan

    SmallBusinessMan Peon

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    #8
    They've got a great list of RSS and blog directories to submit to here.
     
    SmallBusinessMan, Jun 19, 2008 IP
  9. GlowStormLion

    GlowStormLion Peon

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    #9
    Right on! I will check that out ASAP... submerged in work at the moment so this is a quick reply, but I way appreciate the tips!
     
    GlowStormLion, Jun 20, 2008 IP
  10. AffiliateSupportTeam

    AffiliateSupportTeam Peon

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    #10
    Submit comments on Forums and blogs: Reply with comments to YouTube videos.

    in addition you can also submit articles to eZine, or submit a PressRelease to PRweb or a similar press release distribution service.
     
    AffiliateSupportTeam, Jun 20, 2008 IP
  11. Possibility

    Possibility Peon

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    #11
    My technique is pretty simple for getting my niche sites out there - I comment regularly on blogs that have to do with such niche. Simple and effective.
     
    Possibility, Jun 20, 2008 IP
  12. narsticle

    narsticle Peon

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    #12
    PPC of course.
     
    narsticle, Jun 20, 2008 IP
  13. depositlaw

    depositlaw Peon

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    #13
    I mean, GA might leave out some hits but I would trust it MOST, compared to other indicators. If anyone knows of a more accurate measure I don't dispute it... but Google Analytics really shows growth and doesn't miss any hits that I know of. Also lets you know who the NEW visitors are, which is important
     
    depositlaw, Jul 3, 2008 IP
  14. Searchnology.com

    Searchnology.com Peon

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    #14
    To get people coming back you need them to take you seriously. I personally think you need to take your site design up quite a few notches. Check out the guys at www.spill.com. They run their site using the Ning.com platform which is very web2.0 and provides a lot more interaction. Best of all Ning have a free version if you are okay with them getting all of the ad revenue.

    Posting to forums, blogs, etc. is good but you need to understand that those efforts aren't scalable long-term so don't be surprised when it tails off.

    Also, from what I can see you need a unique "hook" other than your content. Spill.com has their animated and amusing videos. Maybe you can have a "happy horror ranking system" for movies? If your rating/reward system takes off, studios will then want your stamp of approval and will mention it in their promos much like they do reviews from magazines(which is really what you have but online)

    Good luck!
     
    Searchnology.com, Jul 6, 2008 IP
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  15. ajhp99

    ajhp99 Peon

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    #15
    Consistently posting on relevant blogs and forums will benefit you. Create a list of blogs and forums and set up a posting schedule. Post to 'X' blogs a day and in 'X' forums a day.
     
    ajhp99, Jul 7, 2008 IP
  16. bidzapbiz

    bidzapbiz Peon

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    #16
    Make your own horror mini film and put it on youtube:p
     
    bidzapbiz, Jul 7, 2008 IP
  17. kush86

    kush86 Well-Known Member

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    #17
    Google analytics don't count every visitor. I had a site that averages around 700 - 1000 visitors and google analytics said I average 200 - 400 visitors.
     
    kush86, Jul 7, 2008 IP
  18. terrymason

    terrymason Well-Known Member

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    #18
    terrymason, Jul 7, 2008 IP
  19. terrymason

    terrymason Well-Known Member

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    #19
    Wait, wait, I found your problem! it's right here:

    "Ghosts of Mars is no exception to that and I dare say it may be the finest film of its kind that I’ve seen so far."

    :)
     
    terrymason, Jul 7, 2008 IP
  20. Webberguy

    Webberguy Peon

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    #20
    I suggest you to use Digg. This can get you up to 10k visitors per article (if you reach the front page, of course). You can PM me for details on how to get your article to the front page.

    Also you can use link exchange with similar blogs and websites.
     
    Webberguy, Jul 7, 2008 IP