Hi, I have just purchased www.ukstudentdirectory.com with a view of starting a useful student website directory... Please note that the design for this website is temp... I am looking for some advice and help on how to market this website.. I have a budget of 300$ - 500$ in total and have some contacts at some Student Websites who have already placed a link on there websites... Obviously 5 Links on High Traffice, High ranked websites won't make this a busy website, AND I don't think students would want to pay for anything so I was looking at possibly advertising this to companies targeting students... I think I would like to do something like http://www.lazystudent.co.uk/ but would welcome any suggestions etc Should you not want to post your advice for FREE pleae PM me and I will discuss further.. THX.. J4mD0nut
I will offer you FREE 1 hour advice on MSN PM me. I am at work at the moment. One of my advice would be to do a logo. Brand the logo first...I am a student myself too, well just graduatd in Marketing and this is one area I could help you with.
Point accepted... How much budget would I need and how would you reccomend I spend it.. Just a few pointers or guidelines would be appreciated.. Thx..
There's no need to have a huge budget with your target market. They'll be easier to reach than a lot of others. 1. Come up with a catchy slogan to appeal to them. 2. Look into not only online, but offline methods. Flyers won't be terribly expensive, and you can usually find free bulletin boards all over university campuses, see if bars and clubs will post them if they get a lot of the college crowd, libraries where they may be studying, etc. Choose a few schools in your region that you can get to to do things like this. Even just starting locally can help, because even one school has a large audience for you. So use one or two as a test. 3. If you're a student yourself, and on campus a lot, get a sign on your car (magnet, in the window, etc.). Then try to park in an area where students walk by a lot of if possible. 4. Marketing via sites that college students are already using (Myspace - don't spam!, Orkut, Facebook, Craigslist, etc.). 5. If you're going to use paid advertising, try to target it to similar sites that students use a lot. Adwords might help, but I'm not sure it would do the best job... how many people are really searching for student directories? 6. Issue a press release to your regional media directly, rather than on newswires. 7. It looks like a pretty generic directory structure. What makes it special to students? Are you maybe closing yourself off to a broader market unnecessarily? My first thought when I saw the domain was that it was going to be more of a social networking site than an actual directory - kind of like a directory of actual students, to help them find each other and network.
I have also bought a couple of extra domains for this kind of site.. Howver I thought i would try and start with something simple like a directory and maybe advertise the social networking site on the home page... I am just learning at the moment.. J4md0nut
But the point is this... you're limiting yourself to a niche audience, but you're not seeming to provide a niche service. Before you can effectively market it, you have to know what the real benefits are to the audience you're targeting. So what is it? What kinds of restrictions are placed on links to ensure they're appropriate for your audience? For example... students do a lot of research. Are you making sure only primary sources are listed or at least only those that would be considered reputable enough to use for reference purposes? What are you doing that you could turn into a "selling point" to reach just UK students, rather than it simply being a generic directory?
Yes it does seem like I am going to have to go back to the drawing board to look at this in more detail... Diffrent ideas that spring to mind are.. 1) Student Resources.. (Human edited for the best list and easy to navigate list) 2) Student Websites rated by Students. 3) Directory of Student Websites by audited membership and useful content. 4) Directory site with prizes Hmmm lots of different angles but it's now deciding on which one is the best.. Any more suggestions.. And thanks for this.. j4md0nut
I think the first two would have the most potential. If the quality of sources is being screened at least... you might even want to see if you can get a teacher or professor somewhere nearby to give you feedback on what they consider acceptable sources online. It will give you something to work with. If you plan to add your own unique content at all, you could provide secondary sources directly, like interviews with professionals in different fields, if they agree to it for the purpose of helping students and serving as a source. Or you could get people to sign up who are willing to be interviewed by students directly on various subjects, and you'll be providing them with access to primary sources. (In addition to websites... not completely off of the directory focus.) Actually, I think a hybrid of the first two would be great - human edited list of resources for students, and let the students rate them. I'd also consider focusing on one student group. There's a big difference in the kinds of resources you'd list for primary, secondary, and university students.
Ok lets say we've decided on the niche subject being resource / website directory for secondary university students rated by both professors and students... Obvioulsy I will need to adapt the script and probable go for custome design.... ANY RECCOMENDATIONS ON THE DESIGN WOULD BE APPRECIATED... How would I look at marketing this to both the Students and Professors.. Is there a paid for service I could look at foing or would you say this is going to be a long and tedious task of getting students on board etc... I am liking the niche by the way and am thinking if I can get some good support this could be a really good idea... Any suggestions on how i go about this.. the design of the website is quite simple I can pay to get this done quite quickly... With regards to backlinks do you have any suggestions etc.... With regards to banner advertising I don't think I can afford this route...(there must be an easier way) j4md0nut
The best thing imo if you're going for a quality site over time rather than quick bucks in the beginning, would be to really spend some time talking to college students and professors in your area. Find out what kinds of courses require the most research, what kinds of sources are required, and what you can do to serve as a quality directory. Look at it this way... if you give them input in the process, they might respect the end result more. In turn, they might recommend it to their students when assigning research projects. And that holds a lot of weight, not to mention most teach multiple classes... lots of high quality word of mouth referrals are possible if you take time to do it right. I remember a management professor in college who used to refer us to business websites periodically, and she always picked high quality ones, even if the designs weren't great; the information was. I still use some of them just b/c she referred them. If a friend said "hey check this site out" I probably would have looked at it once, but not continued much past there.
Your comments have been much appreciated... and also kept my thread going... Any more comments welcome... j4md0nut