I have just launched a site over the last 3 months, and have been actively involved in many of the site promotional strategies I've read here and heard from the experts. I was instructed on organic seeding (thanks, LaCabra!), and have set out to post a few items every day on the big sites in my subject area. In July I was getting a couple of hits a day, and I know they were all from me, my friends and relatives, developers, and a few word-of-mouthers. One day in July I posted a single article in a small forum buried deep within the most popular web site of my genre. I added some value to the thread, made reference to some other sources of info, and closed with a "more info" reference to a page on my own site. Over the next 24 hours I had 45 hits referred from that article alone! And the traffic from that article (and others I posted afterwards!) continues to stream in - site traffic is now up 30-fold with just a few hours of posting. IT WORKS! (but luck helps too - it just so happens that this first article is still the hottest). Any WoW gamers interested in the details: http://www.thottbot.com/?sp=2368 title is: Herbs - a few pointers
Just an update 45 days later. Organic seeding has tripled my site traffic each month since I started in July. I've spent a bit of time each day posting to forums on popular sites in my genre. I find posts where I can give good answers, and provide links and positive comments about other sources on the host site, but I always make sure to close with a link to a relevant page on my own site. If not, I simply put my URL in the signature (as we all do at DP). I've recognised 2 types of forums in my subject area, and the difference is very significant. On most forums, threads "age", and tend to fall off the bottom, and into disuse, as time passes, unless they are somehow found and "bumped" again with a new post (as this post will do, briefly). Searches typically don't work well on these open forums, so once a post or thread falls off page one, it is destined for oblivion. But some of the forums allow users to attach comments directly to objects in a database - that is, a search of an online database results in a page of data about the item searched, and then users can attach comments at the bottom of the page. The comments on these pages are PERSISTENT, and may not disappear for a long time, if at all, as long as that data element exists and continues to be searched for. Posts are generally more relevant and get read more thoroughly, even as the number of posts increases. The "Herbs - a few pointers" example I cited in my original post above is still active in one of these persistent forums, and I still get hits EVERY DAY from that post I did in July. Meanwhile, on the #1 forum on my subject area, i post ("seed") comments or articles daily, and often get up to a hundred hits that same day from a single post. The forum is so large, and so busy, however, that the article can very quickly slip off the bottom of the page into oblivion. So this type of site only pays me back for my efforts if I invest time every day. Clearly the persistent forums have given me the best returns for my seeding efforts. In addition, I now better understand the meaning of "Organic". I have had 40 hits so far this month from a link on a small, foreign language web site in Turkey (I think) who has obviously found me through the seeding I have done on the top sites. I have also found two sites who have links to me in their "top 10" list on their home pages. I had no direct contact with either of these sites in my promotion activities. ------------ examples, for those interested, of the two types of forums in my subject area: large standard "ageing" forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=34334560&sid=1 data-linked forum: http://thottbot.com/?sp=2368 - got another hit from this July posting as I was writing this article.
i've used this too, but it proves futile for long-term sustained traffic. I still say its a must though - as it helps you get indexed quickly, is good for a backlink, and gets word out about a new site.
You know what they say. A link a day..... It is so true. A link a day will do wonders in the long run especially if your site has good content.