"Help Answers" compiled from Ringmasters-l mail list

Web Ring Help


PROMOTING AND ADVERTISING YOUR RING

You have created the world's greatest Webring and you want people to find out about it. Here are some tips on places to advertise your ring:

BANNER ADS:
Make a banner for your Webring and sign up with a link exchange. The link exchange will put your banner adv. on other Websites.

Start with these banner exchanges but there are more:
http://www.linkexchange.com/
The above is the biggest service
http://www.linkshare.net/
http://www.bannertrade.com/
http://fhbn.com/
http://www.freemall.com/

Two sites about banner ads:
http://www.markwelch.com/bannerad/
http://users.netconnect.com.au/~jboy/banner/

These places will create a banner for free:
http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/armada/37/freebanner.htm
http://www.goodwebs.com/
http://www.graphxisle.com/
https://www.angelfire.com/ma/jennifin/banner.html
http://www.magicklass.com/LEbanners/
cowsrneat@enter.net
http://members.aol.com/wavman69/

Another place for a free banner for your ring. Go to
https://www.angelfire.com/in/xueting/freebanner.html
They provide great banners there! I got mine from there too!
-- Melanie Brooke

My question is "How do I make a banner for my webring?" If someone could advise me I would be very obliged!

The best place (hey, my opinion) for some info is at this URL
http://www.linkexchange.com/help/bannerhelp.html
Its the LinkExchange site, the grand pooh-bah of banner swaps. The topics include:
-Banner FAQ
Read our FAQ about creating your own LinkExchange banner.
-Create Your Banner
Step-by-step tutorial to creating your own banner, or have someone else do it for you.
-Build a Better Banner
Compare click-thrus for various banners.
-Fix Your Banner
Useful tips for reducing your banner file size.

LINKS TO/FROM OTHER SITES:
Find sites similar to yours and contact the webmaster of that page. Offer to create a link to their page if they will do the same in return.

NEWSGROUPS:
If there are newsgroups that cover the subject of your Webring you can announce your site in that group. But only do it once. Do not spam a newsgroup with hopes of making friends and getting hits on your site or you will get dumped on. You can also add the name of your Webring and URL to your e-mail "signature". The best way to get noticed is to be helpful and participate in that newsgroup.

SEARCH ENGINES:
Note:
If you want a search Engine for your website,
CLICK HERE

How do I submit my web ring to the search engines?

For info on how the Search Engines work, go to this site -
http://www.searchenginewatch.com
For Places to Submit your site go to my web promotion page -
http://www.linkminder.com/webpro.html
-- James Shriver

Go to this URL, and follow through the process. It works.
http://www.netfit.com/123-add-masters/index.shtml
-- AMAZING GRACE

I completely agree with the advice. I've set up a website for submitting websites to the search engines which first sends you through Broadcaster then sends you through 8 major search engines individually.
I'm working on adding more search engines as well. Also, you can perform searches from many popular search engines off of the site.
I would appreciate any comments:
http://www.promlm.com/resources/web/submit.htm
-- Brian Lathe

You must register with each Search Engine Site to get found by a search engine.
They will read your page so they will know how and where to index it.
Some will read the text of the page, some will read the <H1> and <H2> tags and some will read META tags. Do not try and spam the webbots and spiders by adding the same words over and over again. They will only ignore the redundancies.
Here is a great site about search engines:
http://searchenginewatch.com/
Before you register you will need to add META tags to your Webpage. Here are two META tag builders:
http://www.websitepromote.com/resources/meta/
http://www.websitegarage.com/wsg/scripts/states/
start.cgi?origin=wsg&page=/turbocharge/metatag/index.html

Here is a site to read more about META tags:
http://wdvl.internet.com/Location/Meta/Tag.html
Here is a site to register at the more popular search engines, for free:
http://free.submit-it.com/
To register with Yahoo! you need to go to Yahoo! and find your subject and then submit your URL on that page.

How do I register with Yahoo! for inclusion under the "webring" subject heading. I tried but got nothing back after two months.

Yahoo is notoriously difficult to get into. My own favorite search engine is Altavista, as one of the other folks recommended.
Before submitting your site to any search engine, however, it would be a good idea to make sure it's designed to do well in them: a well-designed title bar, META tags, and introductory paragraphs. A couple of good sites on META tags are
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
and
http://www.northernwebs.com/set/
The last one also has a META MEDIC that will test your meta tags for maximum effectiveness in the search engines.
Site Inspector, at
http://siteinspector.linkexchange.com
will also test your META tags, and general page design -- and help you submit to the top eight search engines.
Other services that will help you submit to search engines:
http://www.submit-it.com/
http://www.register-it.com/
http://www.addme.com/
http://www.tila.com/promote/
http://www.submitshack.com/
Warning: If you use The Promoter or Submit Shack (the last two links) you WILL get promotional email from a lot of the places they submit you to.
This is a one-time mailing; I've never gotten follow-up spam. But it was a shock the first time it happened.
In one or two weeks, go back to
http://siteinspector.linkexchange.com
and check your standing in the major search engines.
It may take 4-6 weeks before you show up in some of them. If you don't see your site in *any* of them after 6 weeks, go to the individual engines and search for your specific URL. If it doesn't show up, manually add it.
If it does show up, but searching on your keywords gets 3000 pages that aren't yours, try to improve your page design, then re-submit.
It may look like a great deal of work initially, but once you have your page registered, if you keep updating and expanding it your site will keep moving up in the search engines all by itself, because their "spiders" periodically re-check all pages and update their entries.
If you make a major update, though, and you want it to show up right away, it's a good idea to re-submit your site. Just don't re-submit it more than once every 30 days, or some of the engines will reject you.
-- Anitra Freeman

What is meant by "local Yahoos"? What URL?

Go to www.yahoo.com and down at the bottom of the page you'll see links that say "World Yahoo!s" and "Yahoo! Get Local". You should be able to find your way around from there.
-- Gothweasel

There are several ways you can submit to a search engine.. You may like to try this one. I have used it for all of my sites and it seems to work just fine.
http://www.addme.com
This will let you add to 34 different places and all for free...
-- Bill aka TimeStalker

Well this isnt my program, but it can beuseful in helping you register your web ring home pages with search engines. the full version allows you to register your site with 600 search engines.
This trial version helps you register with far fewer pages, it may help you get your site in the search engines easier.
http://www.exploit.com/wizard/
-- Stolichnaya

Does anyone know of a webring where I can advertise my ring. I need alot more people in it and i ask people but they dont want to join how can i get them to be more interested?

Places to advertise your ring:

1- Email lists on the subject related to your ring. For instance, I have an Activist Art ring that basically started out of the Activist Art email list, and my StreetWrites webring is of members of the StreetWrites online workshop. If you have a quilting website, for instance, you should join a quilting email, list and announce it there.
Do a websearch on keywords about your site, and look for lists. there is also a website, I think called Lizst, that list almost all the email lists in the world, and you could search there on your keywords.

2- Check your description in Ringworld. Does it attractively describe your ring? Does it point up the advantages to joining?

3- On the homepage of your ring, do you have information about the ring, and either an addform or a link to addform? Do you have your email address so people can ask you more about your ring?

4- Is your ring homepage listed in the major search engines? In every search engine you can get it into? On other people's link pages? Have you joined a banner exchange network, like LinkExchange? Bringing in traffic to your ring's homepage will bring in traffic to your ring -- and additional members.

5- Websearch for sites on the keywords of your ring. Visit them individually, and if you like the site, email an invitation to the owner to join your ring. Even if they don't join, exchange links -- that will increase the number of people interested in your common subject that visit your site, and therefore may join your ring.

6- Search the usenet for newsgroups on your subject, and announce your ring there. Also announce it on general-interest newsgroups.

Note - General warning: the more you are listed in search indexes and newsgroups and mailing lists, the more spam you will get. It's a trade-off. I've found the seriously interested traffic outweighs the spam. (shrug)
-- Anitra Freeman

I have a Hollywood Movie Webring. Is there a way to get it noticed?

My favorite search engine placement people is Postmaster. They have a pay service but their free service is pretty good. Check out
http://www.netcreations.com/postmaster/registration/try.html
Also, banner swap places help. Here are a few
http://www.linkexchange.com/
http://sonspot.com/sonspot/swap/
http://www.arrowweb.com/SUMS/bt/
http://sonspot.com/hotswap/signup.htm
Those are some that I've bookmarked.
Another I do, is visit chat rooms topic specific to your webring. For example, the Movie WebRing, visit movie chats (etc) and use your WebRing HomePage as your link when you register. That way, while you chat people can click on you and go directly to your WebRing.
Hope that helps.
-- Sojourner


INCREASING WEB PRESENCE (ADVERTISING)

A couple valid places to go for information on increasing your webpresence:

1. Virtual Promote - A wepromotion site and weekly newsletter with oodles of info. Also has an awards conection page where you can register your site for awards
2. WebPromote - http://www.WebPromote.com Same as above without awards section: does have a Archive of previously posted newsletters at: http://www.WebPromote.com/weekly
-- Lynn M. Crawford


E-MAILS TO PROSPECTIVE RING MEMBERS
I would like to send an invite to people to join my ring. Any suggestions on letter content?

The following message can help some of the people who are just getting their ring started.
=-=-=-=-=-= MSG-ADV.TXT =-=-=-=-=-=
Hello,
I really enjoyed your site. After looking at your site I thought that you might be interested in a new project I am working on. I am seeking member sites for a new buddhist group. Thank you in advance for considering this proposal.
In order to help spread the Dharma (and the "hits") I've started a new group of Buddhist-related web sites called Dharma Ring. This virtual group is made possible by the kind folks at WebRing (www.webring.org). Currently the group, which was formed on July 20, 1997 currently has over 45 sites, and we hope to continue growing very rapidly.
The way Dharma Ring operates is that potential member sites fill out a registration questionaire at the Dharma Ring home page (see below), requesting to be added. The site is reviewed and if suitable (i.e. related to Buddhism in some way) the necessary code and graphics (about 6k total) are sent via e-mail to the site operator. Once the code is installed on the new member's page the site is officially added to the ring. Any visitor to any site in the ring can move from one site to another in the ring by a variety of methods, details are on the Dharma Ring home page.
Since the index of member sites is searchable, in a way Dharma Ring could be likened to a search engine where all inquiries come from Buddhist related sites, and all answers returned are other Buddhist sites. As membership in Dharma Ring increases the usefulness of the index feature will increase greatly. All member sites get to choose their own search keywords, and site description.
If you are interested in increasing traffic to your site without cost, without advertising, and with the knowledge that the increase in traffic will be coming -only- from other Buddhist related sites, then please visit the Dharma Ring home page at the following URL.
http://www.midwest.net/scribers/billw/ringhome.htm
The membership requirements are simple, and the benefits are potentially great if we can get a lot of sites to join the group. For privacy concious folks it is important to note that WebRing and Dharma Ring DO NOT use any cookies or similar devices to gather information about your visitors. This is simply a way to help "spread the wealth" in the area of web site traffic.
I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have about the group, please feel free to e-mail me at billw@midwest.net.
Thank you for your time.

=-=-=-=-=-= End MSG-ADV.TXT =-=-=-=-=-=
-- Bill Wilson


Addtional Promotional Help is also available from
http://www.linkexchange.com/webresource/advpromolist.html
Topics include:
Northern Webs Search Engine Tutorials:
Search engine strategy tips for your web site design and why you need them. Plus freeware Meta Medic to pump up the perfomance of your meta tags.
Submit-It!
Top search engine submission service plus sophisticated consulting and tracking services to monitor your site's ranking in search engines.
Acceptable Internet Advertising Practices:
Explicit guidelines for appropriate Internet advertising etiquette.
Propheus :
Food for thought on building and promoting a "smart web site" along with examples of successful site design.
Worthwhile Reading:
Getting Hits : The Definitive Guide to Promoting Your Web Site
The Internet Marketing Plan : A Practical Handbook for Creating, Implementing and Assessing Your
Online Presence
Strategic Internet Marketing (Business Computer Library)
World Wide Web Marketing : Integrating the Internet into Your Marketing Strategy
Launching a Business on the Web
Elsewhere in Resource Topics:
**Developer Tools
**Promotion and Advertising
**Web Design and Graphics
**Education Online
**Business Focus
-- Sojourner


MAILING LISTS
A great way to promote you site. Go to:
Mail List

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