November 01, 2004

Curious George: Build it but they won't come. I just built a news satire website, but I have an audience of zero. Where is a good place I can get a few people to look at it? I did the Google thing a week ago but I'm still not in there, and I can't hope to be in Google Directory / dmoz for a long while. What are some options?
  • Send me the link and money. I'll FPP it for you.
  • Heh, thanks.. how much shall I write the check for?
  • Actually, just send me squidranch's damned candy. I need some candy. I need it baaaaad.
  • I started a website a few years back and it took me much more than a week to get on Google, Yahoo, etc. So be patient. I did eventually get there, and it helped a lot. You might also look into "key words" to help put your site where it needs to be in the search engines. Not like "key word seeding" where people put paragraphs of completely unrelated words in comment tags on their sites just to boost their linkage, but real descriptive words that'll let the spiders know where your site goes. Getting friends and similar sites to trade links helps too. Good luck.
  • Oh, post the damn link already. We know you're going to eventually. ;)
  • I'll gladly link ya. (I'm big in Finland)
  • I'll link you too, even without candy. Not that anyone reads my blog, but...
  • Aw, heck - just give us a link for the sucka (just this once, mind). 's alright. We know you. You're safe. Also, how can we give you advice unless we know what the site's USP is? I mean, the web's not short of a satrical news site or two. Anyway. MeFi text ad? And yes, getting linkage from sites with good Googlejuice is essential. But for something like that, it's going to be the content that makes or breaks...
  • Update your mofi profile so it appears as your home page. Then at least a few of us monkeys will see it.
  • Yes. Do that.
  • Why don't we make this a self-promotion thread? I have been doing some stuff that could warrant a little extra exposure, though it's not worth a general post, and I'm sure other Monkeys have something exciting that they've been working on that they'd like to share with their fellow monkeys.
  • I made this Though I admit I kinda lost my mind there at the end....
  • Hmmm. I seem to remember we discussed the idea of self-promotion threads way back in the day. I believe we reached the following conclusions: 1) Hey, that's a nice idea. 2) That idea blows goats. I'm fairly sure that tracicle was pretty strongly in the "against" group, though. Hmmmm.
  • seriously... via Metafilter...
  • Why don't we make this a self-promotion thread? I TOTALLY FUCKING ROCK!
  • Who needs candy? Debaser626 made me forget all about smoking for a minute.
  • The way to seriously get hits from google is to make sure that you have links from other quality sites that feature similar content. Links from the odd blog won't do it, nor will the link factory types of sites..
  • If I post the URL then basically I'll be converting my request for help into a self-link FPP, which would probably be lame. But if a sanctioned self-link thread is started I'll participate. Thanks, there are some great ideas in here that didn't occur to me.
  • Link it from your profile in the meantime, roly. That way, those of us who feel like it can hunt it down. Like a wild animal. Oh, and QUIDNUNC TOTALLY FUCKING ROCKS! AUM.
  • I TOTALLY FUCKING ROCK! as my current use of lower-case implies, i partially frigging rock.
  • roly, I'm feeling cranky again because you haven't linked to your profile yet. Just sayin'.
  • I think once, way back, MeFi did some sort of page where all the users were listed by name, and clicking on the name linked to that user's blog or webpage. Obviously, it was way too big to be useful given MeFi's popularity, but for a smaller site like ours it would probably be workable. Now, I don't know a single thing about database programming, but if any of the other monkeys want to get involved in building something like this, I'll be happy to contribute anything I can to help.
  • Why do you want people to see it? So you can be popular?
  • Craigslist. free to post and you'll reach thousands of users who enjoy political satire. each city has a "politics" category.
  • Actually -- more to get comments and criticisms and get better at what I'm dabbling with, rather than just shouting in a dark room. Popularity sounds like a lot of headache (and legal attention) anyway.
  • jaypro22, there's a link in the sidebar to a Random Monkey Link - it'll automatically take you to a website belonging to someone on MoFi. I see, roly: American Examiner eh? It looks suitably professional.
  • Get someone to post it to MeFi and Slashdot.
  • I TOTALLY FUCKING ROCK! also.
  • tracicle - If I remember correctly, the MeFi site was a searchable directory of all the members' websites, sortable alphabetically by site name, by username and also by user number. It was hosted on a separate site so as not to clog up the main site's server. Don't know if it's worth it to code something similar for the monkeys, since you can pretty much get the same thing by looking up someone's user info here.
  • I thought about it (started to code it, even) and decided that the RML was more fun. :)
  • Everybody here except me totally fucking rocks. Mostly because I threw up this morning. That is all.
  • The best way? Be funny. Be original. Creating a print version, having ten or so years of accumulated cred, and then slowly shitting on your readers more and more with improved ads and premium "content" seems to work too, at least for the Onion. Seriously, if people around you know about it, and you write something particularly good, they'll forward it to other people, with a link (that said, you should have an "email this article" link). That's how you grow an audience. And c'mon, you did this a week ago? Man, have some patience. ADD generation or what?
  • Today is my birthday.
  • Debaser626, watching that clip without sound, was to say the least, 'quite interesting'.
  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEXICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll have a drink on you!! Watcha like?