best way to advertise!

radio-talker · 12-25-2005, 10:43 PM

can people tell me the best way to advertise? cuz i really cant think how i can advertise for my forum i dont wana get banned off this forum but i need to advertise!!!!!!!

**Grove** · 12-25-2005, 10:52 PM

The best way to advertise would be to use the META tag.

Quote:

This means when someone searches say through yahoo for they keyword, help, they will get a description and be taken to your link. If my memory serves me well, pages are index every 1 - 2 days.

Google on the other hand, index the words I am typing now for instance. So for your site make sure that you have good words used on your pages as google indexes those.

Apart from that, you can post your site in the Advertisments section. You need 25 posts to view that. If this site is a local site, I would suggest you notify your local paper or arrange a TV or Radio Advertisment.

If this is a bit more commercial site, get in touch with companies to put they're sponsors on your site in exchange for free advertising.

If you need more help, feel free to ask.

radio-talker · 12-26-2005, 10:28 AM

ok i realy want to find a place , like a forum and advertise there,

**Grove** · 12-26-2005, 05:45 PM

Well, like I stated before, don't go advertising in any forum. That is known as spamming. Simply put 1 advertisment in the Advertising forum and that will be enough

Skie · 12-27-2005, 10:42 AM

What type of site is it? Does is specialize in a particular area of interest? (i.e. car repair, rc cars, gardening, etc). If so, it'll be easier then if it was just a general purpose site. Let's say your site is about rc cars. Locate some already active rc car sites/forums. Become an active member of those forums. When someone asks for other sites/links about rc cars, provide your link. Someone else asked, so you're not really spamming at that point. However, make sure you're known and respected by some people. Just posting nonsense is a good way for people to not pay attention to you. This is basically, a cheap, but slow way of advertising. It's effective since people are interested in finding more sites. But people don't ask every day.

Another way would be to pay other sites to advertise yours. Again, this is most effective when you have a site that has a specific interest and you advertise on other, similar sites.

No matter how you get new visitors/members, make sure you have plenty of content on the site and discussion on the msg board. Nothing scares people away faster then an empty msg board. Also, if you have 30 forums set up on your msg board, but only 10 members, it's going to look dead, no matter how much those members post. Starts small and expand as needed. New msg boards should have no more then 6 forums to start with, and 6 may be too many.

Ask some of your friends to become members and to post. Get some traffic going so that once new visitors show up, they'll see an active community and they'll be more willing to join in.

**johnwill** · 12-27-2005, 02:01 PM

And note that it takes years for a forum to really grow into something, check how long some of the forums have been active on the Internet.

~~Jayso~~ · 01-11-2006, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grove

The best way to advertise would be to use the META tag.

This means when someone searches say through yahoo for they keyword, help, they will get a description and be taken to your link. If my memory serves me well, pages are index every 1 - 2 days.

Google on the other hand, index the words I am typing now for instance. So for your site make sure that you have good words used on your pages as google indexes those.

Apart from that, you can post your site in the Advertisments section. You need 25 posts to view that. If this site is a local site, I would suggest you notify your local paper or arrange a TV or Radio Advertisment.

If this is a bit more commercial site, get in touch with companies to put they're sponsors on your site in exchange for free advertising.

If you need more help, feel free to ask.

LOL, i can't believe i didn't think about that....

Another Question:
Is there any VBulletin-related issues that stop google bots from scanning forums? MSN have done their job, but the google-bots don't seem to pick up anything (I WHOIS lookup some guests and they track to google bots)

Thanks for the help

**DumberDrummer** · 01-11-2006, 03:44 PM

make sure that your robots.txt allows googlebots.

Skie · 01-12-2006, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayso

LOL, i can't believe i didn't think about that....

Another Question:
Is there any VBulletin-related issues that stop google bots from scanning forums? MSN have done their job, but the google-bots don't seem to pick up anything (I WHOIS lookup some guests and they track to google bots)

Thanks for the help

I don't think Google (and various other bots) are able to follow dynamic links. Newer versions of vBulletin have a "search engine friendly archive" option available. I don't know if it's enabled by default.

**oldmn** · 01-12-2006, 10:59 PM

Be sides meta tags (just don't get carried away and add the dictionary to it. Keep it simple and accurate).(Meta tags) Is a word list that a person would normally search for to find the info in your page. This is where you would add misspelled words or phrases that would also lead to your page.
There is alway link exchanges at the moment we have 224 links from other sites. Avoid link farms Google and yahoo will dump you like a hot potato if you are linked to one.
A good robot.txt can helps also like Fox said..(controls what the bot indexes).
Also get it in DMOZ can help, We get a lot of traffic from there.
http://www.dmoz.org/
Sorry had my reference mixed up.

~~Jayso~~ · 01-12-2006, 11:03 PM

can you explain more as in what i should do? i don't really understand...

**oldmn** · 01-12-2006, 11:29 PM

Added some things to my last post. Check them out and see if that helps.
Its time for bed, It wasnt FOX it was drummer that mentioned robot.txt. Sorry

~~Jayso~~ · 01-12-2006, 11:44 PM

well i just submitted our site to the dmoz site you gave me

12-25-2005, 10:43 PM	#1 (permalink)
radio-talker Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 11 OS: Xp, windows 2000 server	best way to advertise! can people tell me the best way to advertise? cuz i really cant think how i can advertise for my forum i dont wana get banned off this forum but i need to advertise!!!!!!!

12-26-2005, 10:28 AM	#3 (permalink)
radio-talker Registered User Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 11 OS: Xp, windows 2000 server	i need a lil more ok i realy want to find a place , like a forum and advertise there, __________________ \\ owner of www.**************** //

12-26-2005, 05:45 PM	#4 (permalink)
Grove Professor/Moderator, TSF Design School Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 2,383 OS: Windows Vista SP2 32bit	Well, like I stated before, don't go advertising in any forum. That is known as spamming. Simply put 1 advertisment in the Advertising forum and that will be enough __________________ ========================================== Get Help: TSF Security Forum \| HijackThis \| MB's 5 Step Process Get Clean: AdAware SE \| Spybot S&D \| CWShredder \| Ewido \| CleanUp! Get Protected: SpywareBlaster \| SpywareGuard \| Windows Updates \| IE-SpyAd If TSF has helped you, please consider making a donation to help keep the board running.

12-27-2005, 10:42 AM	#5 (permalink)
Skie Manager, Alternative Comp Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Chicago burbs Posts: 2,194 OS: Gentoo Linux, CentOS, OS X My System	What type of site is it? Does is specialize in a particular area of interest? (i.e. car repair, rc cars, gardening, etc). If so, it'll be easier then if it was just a general purpose site. Let's say your site is about rc cars. Locate some already active rc car sites/forums. Become an active member of those forums. When someone asks for other sites/links about rc cars, provide your link. Someone else asked, so you're not really spamming at that point. However, make sure you're known and respected by some people. Just posting nonsense is a good way for people to not pay attention to you. This is basically, a cheap, but slow way of advertising. It's effective since people are interested in finding more sites. But people don't ask every day. Another way would be to pay other sites to advertise yours. Again, this is most effective when you have a site that has a specific interest and you advertise on other, similar sites. No matter how you get new visitors/members, make sure you have plenty of content on the site and discussion on the msg board. Nothing scares people away faster then an empty msg board. Also, if you have 30 forums set up on your msg board, but only 10 members, it's going to look dead, no matter how much those members post. Starts small and expand as needed. New msg boards should have no more then 6 forums to start with, and 6 may be too many. Ask some of your friends to become members and to post. Get some traffic going so that once new visitors show up, they'll see an active community and they'll be more willing to join in. __________________

12-27-2005, 02:01 PM	#6 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 41,706 OS: Windows 7, XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	And note that it takes years for a forum to really grow into something, check how long some of the forums have been active on the Internet. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

01-11-2006, 03:44 PM	#8 (permalink)
DumberDrummer Cymru am byth Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Oregon Posts: 5,385 OS: Windows XP Pro SP2 My System	make sure that your robots.txt allows googlebots. __________________ Living with Louie dog's the only way to stay sane _____________________________________________ ... and with those words so begins my lifetime of longing for the devil's warm embrace

01-12-2006, 10:59 PM	#10 (permalink)
oldmn TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Gig Harbor Wa Posts: 2,150 OS: XP Pro SP3 X 3 My System	Be sides meta tags (just don't get carried away and add the dictionary to it. Keep it simple and accurate).(Meta tags) Is a word list that a person would normally search for to find the info in your page. This is where you would add misspelled words or phrases that would also lead to your page. There is alway link exchanges at the moment we have 224 links from other sites. Avoid link farms Google and yahoo will dump you like a hot potato if you are linked to one. A good robot.txt can helps also like Fox said..(controls what the bot indexes). Also get it in DMOZ can help, We get a lot of traffic from there. http://www.dmoz.org/ Sorry had my reference mixed up. __________________ AVG \| MEMTEST86 \| Zone Alarm \| XXCLONE \| Adaware \| Beyond Compare \| Everest If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Sorry no PM's for problems.[/center] Last edited by oldmn; 01-12-2006 at 11:27 PM. Reason: Changed referances

01-12-2006, 11:03 PM	#11 (permalink)
~~Jayso~~ Register user Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 66 OS: Dual-Boot: Microsoft Windows XP x64 Edition & Red Hat Linux Fedora Core 4 My System	can you explain more as in what i should do? i don't really understand...

01-12-2006, 11:29 PM	#12 (permalink)
oldmn TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Gig Harbor Wa Posts: 2,150 OS: XP Pro SP3 X 3 My System	Added some things to my last post. Check them out and see if that helps. Its time for bed, It wasnt FOX it was drummer that mentioned robot.txt. Sorry __________________ AVG \| MEMTEST86 \| Zone Alarm \| XXCLONE \| Adaware \| Beyond Compare \| Everest If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Sorry no PM's for problems.[/center] Last edited by oldmn; 01-12-2006 at 11:31 PM.

01-12-2006, 11:44 PM	#13 (permalink)
~~Jayso~~ Register user Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 66 OS: Dual-Boot: Microsoft Windows XP x64 Edition & Red Hat Linux Fedora Core 4 My System	well i just submitted our site to the dmoz site you gave me