I know there is a demand, now how do I reach that market (teens)

I run a student resource website, http://www.course-notes.org, and it receives a good amount of traffic 8-10,000 uniques per day. However, I know there are hundreds of thousands more students who could benefit from what my site has to offer. During the first few years the daily traffic doubled each year. It seems like I've reached a plateau with my current traffic and I've reached all the students that will come looking for me or hear about from their friends (which accounts for 50% of my traffic). Im ranked in the top 3, usually #1, for almost all relevant keywords so if they search for something related to my site... they'll find me. I think the problem is just that students dont know sites like mine exist. I need to increase the awareness of students about my site.

I'm thinking about targeting a few of the largest teen communities (US based) and sending newsletter blasts, static banner at the top of the page, banner after first post in a thread, stuff like that. What else can I do?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-Chris
Course-Notes.Org

 

Simple. Where, online, do teens hangout the most?

Myspace

 

I've tried myspace promotion. I didnt get the best results. However, I will continue to try myspace especially with the school year coming up shortly.

-Chris

 

The answer, unfortunately, is not simple..... You can try 2 things... If you are a profitable site you can always buy commercials. If you don't want to spend too much money, create a pamphlet/flyer etc... with lesson plans and samples, to all the schools (Each school has a different way of handling things like this). If you are established, you can let the schools know. And, if your site is really great, you can call the education departments of each county and they can hand out the information at conferences. Or, you can present your work at teachers conventions. Good Luck.

 

well, I'm a combination of those. I'm established, im profitable, from what I've heard from my users; my site is 'really great' however I dont/cant spend a lot of money on promotion due to the fact I also need to pay for my private college tuition which leaves little money to invest back in the site.

Calling the education depts of each county seems like a very time consuming process to say the least haha. My site targets a nationwide audience so I dont think thats feasible. Is there any email list somewhere that I can use to get in contact with these county's education depts?

Thanks for the tips

-Chris

 

There was a guy selling an email list of some 500k university student emails on SP. Maybe he has a high school list as well?

 

I saw that. Im gonna check to see if he does.

-Chris

 

there are 2 main teen audiences

1] The chatty teens, the ones you find in chat-rooms, my-sapce etc.
2] The un-happy teens, the ones that are using the web to seek help.

if your targetting the first, you need interactivity (chat rooms, message boards, shout boxes etc)

if your targetting the second you need to be welcoming, have strict policies so that the teens looking for help dont get put-down by the ones that are too big for their boots and get them involved in the site.

 

Well, I would be targeting both groups. Both groups could easily benefit from the content on the site... the forum is just another resource i provide to the visitors to get help with their homework.

 

emailing those education department would be a better way since your site is already establish.hope you'll find the email list...=)

 

you could try emailing goverment sites and official state websites asking for a link.
however if you run ads on your site a lot will say no since your site will be considered as commercial, i suppose it depends what your priority is (making money or providing a good resource)

 

Could you try posting some leaflets to schools, say 50 or so in the hope you generate interest from a few schools?

 

if you can afford leaflets you could also get some buisness cards printed up and post them around.

 

how many teens do you know that actually visit government sites? I cant imagine getting a lot of referrals from those sites. Or am I wrong?

Brochures, posters, etc would be hard for me to do because I dont have a contact inside the school to put them up. Any ideas how I could get past that?

 

Traffic from those links is not the main point. Google values those links more, giving you higher position in the serps.

 

I'm already ranked #1 or at least top 3 for almost all relevant keywords. Hell, even my forum category for AP Environment Science (just a forum category, I have no content for it yet) ranks on the 1st page for ap environmental science notes haha.

Traffic is what I need

 

like i said in my first post depending on the teens your targetting will depend how many visitors you get from each link.

i doubt many teens that have had a easy life, got lots of friends and have rich parents will visit but teens searching for help/advice will use these links because they are in the search engines and are trusted sources for information and only link to sites that they feel are good.

regarding posters, brochures etc, this can be done by searching for the school addresses/email addresses and mailing them. also another good resources for teens is youth clubs.

 

I do have a database of all high schools in the US and the statistics for them but I think it could be a big waste if I spend money printing (and shipping!) these posters if they get tossed in the 'round filing cabinet' once they get to the school.

Its worth a try, once I get some more money to spend on promoting th site

 

Have you tryed adwords?

 

I would suggest facebook. It fits your site well.