A request for some help...

Dear DP members,

Four days ago I launched my site TeenageWriters.com .
I went everywhere to promote my site:
I posted messages and added my link to over 45 Yahoo Tenage Writers groups.
I went to ten major teeenage forums and replied in the creative writing section with the link to my site in my signature.
I messaged over 60 people through the forums if they wanted to join the site etc..
Right now I am in the top 10 at Google under te Keywords "Teenage Writers" and "teenagewriters".

After all of this I saw a nice flow of traffic, first day : 70 visitors, second day: 100 visitors, third day: 82 visitors.

Now I am afraid that registrations will stop , traffic will drop, because soon I will have to go back to school dissabling me from doing promotion for my site.

The nasty thing is that I have no budget for my site because I am only 14 years old.

My question for you is, What can I do?

Thank you,

Eiso

p.s. More about my site you can read on the latest forum post at http://www.poets.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1470 or read the kind post from Bryan: http://marketingjournal.blogspot.com/

 

Eiso,

As the son of teachers, I know that they love to promote and reward through positive reinforcement.

If there is a teacher at your school that you think would like your site, approach them regarding spreading the word. Keep in mind that if one of their students does something great, it is a feather in their cap. I can just about guarantee that they know all of the other teachers in your geographic area with similar interests and have access to e-mail.

They can encourage their classes and those of their colleagues in other schools to post to the site. Perhaps you could pick a weekly theme which you could promote? That way there is a reason for people to keep coming back week after week.

Obviously you can go in any direction here, but if you want free traffic, this is the best avenue I can think of. I can see teachers from all over the world driving significant traffic eventually...if the quality of the work on your site warrants buzz.

Hope that helps, if I can think of anything else, I'll be back

 

Eww... school.

Still, all work and no play... post a bit in the forums and such, keep the eyes on your site.

When school starts, seek out the newspaper staff of your school and others, get some publicity. Maybe you could afford an ad as well?

Once you make a few of the school papers, contact the local papers and maybe the local TV news. Show them you are getting some press. They love stuff like that, and it can snowball. Be available for contact, put out a press release, things like that.

Basically, create a buzz. And be patient.

 

school is probally a good place to advertise if ya can put some posters up or something?

a lot of teen sites especially .org and .gov sites will not link to uou unless you have a privacy policy of some sort, also all .gov sites ive asked for links said no because i had a forum which could contain hidden areas.

 

Thank you very much,
I am loving everyones ideas. A disadvantage for me is that I live in the Netherlands (non english speaking country ) and not in the USA, but I will see if I can find a members of my site to help promote my site in the target countries " US of A " , " UK " and "Australia".

More tips are welcome.

edit:

Where can I find one that I can adapt to my site?

 

Heres some information on the subject, they are more aimed at the under 13's but i know there is one for teens somewhere as well.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act - COPPA

and heres 2 sample privacy policies

http://www.thecoolspot.gov/privacy.asp

http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm

 

you also like to read thru http://www.ftc.gov/kidzprivacy/resources.htm once again its more for kids but is still a decent guideline
and

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/biz.htm

 

Thank you, I have read over the privacy policies and decided that the members will dislike it. Teenagers on my site write about very private things that they expect to keep private, I feel that they would not like a policy like this.

 

but you should still provide a policy to explain what happens to their contact info they submit, what info you get from them when they visit your site etc

like the one i just done http://just-4-teens.com/privacy-policy.html

 

Thank you, you have a point there.