Nancy --
There are a large number of things that can be done to promote a
website. In your case you have a unique advantage: having published
the book "How to Do Everything With Google." Hey, no readers have
reviewed it yet on Amazon -- so you could get started there and make
sure that the website gets mentioned in the review.
Your issue in this question is promotion of a website. If one were to
step back, all marketing issues are classically treated as one of the
4 P's: product, pricing, promotion, positioning. I'm only going to
deal with promotion here, but if you want to step back for a view of
how the four interact, you might want to take a look at this Google
Answer:
Google Answers
"Help in Marketing Our School's Computer Department" (Omnnivorous-GA,
Dec. 10, 2002)
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=122550
OBJECTIVES
-------------------
You first might want to consider what your objectives are for
generating traffic to the Google ~Guide site:
? are you trying to generate page hits?
? is your objective to build return traffic?
? do you wish to build a relationship with readers?
? who is most-valuable as a reader? Another way of asking this is,
how do you expect the audience to segment in its uses?
Even as a non-commercial site, you should be asking yourself these
questions, then setting up ways to measure success.
That said, I run several specialty non-commercial aviation websites
devoted to Mooney Aircraft owners. My objective is not to build
traffic (there are only about 8,000 Mooney airplanes flying) but
rather to have an excellent collection of information freely-available
and encourage submissions for the community. So here are some
techniques used:
* Set up a web ring for the special interest group. I've stayed away
from a page counter on my own web page but use the web ring to track
page hits. Of course a web ring also provides the advantage of
improving Google page rank via increased links to authoritative sites.
* Continue to seek new information of value to the community (lists
of instructors; book reviews; photographs).
* Participate in chats and forums.
* I've made my e-mail address freely available, despite the spam the
overwhelms my e-mail.
* And I've set up other websites for special events, such as
http://www.moooneycaravan.com
SEGMENTATION
------------------------
Beyond the value of finding the most-valuable users for a product or
service, segmentation allows you to look at how to increase the value
of what you're doing. For example, the Google Answers researchers
will tell you that one of the most-popular categories of questions is
"How do I improve my Google page rank?" (For better or for worse,
customers seem to think that Google Answers researchers are Google
employees, when in fact they are independent researchers.)
Does Google ~Guide tap into frustrated webmasters, seeking a more
detailed understanding of Page Rank?
Or do you really want to reach students and provide a tool that tells
them how to use Google in a critical fashion to judge the value of
information, urban legends and gossip?
Elementary students can be reached through publications like
http://www.scholastic.com/
Middle school students will require a different approach; high school
students a third approach; undergrads could be reached through focused
mailings to the 4,000+ college newspapers; graduate students might be
best reached through professional seminars.
PROMOTION
-------------------
Okay, now for some concrete ideas.
? Make the web address for Google ~Guide visible in all of your book
promotion activities: press releases, interviews, radio interviews, TV
interviews. And your business cards, of course.
? Get more people cross-linking to your site. We've already mentioned
a web ring but if you were to start a list of Google consultants, you
could cross-link with people nationwide.
? Issue a press release. They can be done electronically and a lot
less inexpensively today than 10 years ago. PRNewsire and Business
Wire are two popular services that allow you to tailor delivery of
your message to particular markets (and they'll translate for
international publications).
? Consider news-oriented press releases: key sites for Dec. 7 and
Pearl Harbor (along with a search tip); or the Wright Brothers
Centennial; or elections.
? Give speeches at trade shows -- and consider shows with targeted
audiences (The American Library Association would be a good way to get
to know reference librarians.)
ALA
Events
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=Events1
? Include a poll on the site, particularly if you're interested in
identifying who's using the site and why. Polls are also highly
popular among active users in identifying key issues.
? Start a newsletter. Content on a site is never static and a weekly
or monthly update with new features and tips could be valuable. Many
popular sites use commercial services (like Lyris) but we use Mailman,
a public domain e-mail software package, for the Mooney pilots mail
list:
http://grumman.kjsl.com/mailman/admindb/mooney
? Add a bulletin board or chat facility to the website.
? Participate actively in chats sessions and make sure that your sig
has the website.
? Make sure that blogs, newsletters and other webmasters are aware of
your presence, even if they might be "competitors." For example,
though Tara Calashain has published a pair of books on using Google,
she publishes a weekly newsletter with lots of information geared to
librarians:
Research Buzz
Home Page
http://www.researchbuzz.com/
? Network with others with similar interests in order to exchange ideas.
? Conduct a brainstorming session on visibility with spouse, co-authors.
? Meet with Google product managers to explore co-promotion ideas.
? Write a column (including a tip-of-the-month) for a publication.
? Have a contest on the site and award copies of your book.
? Create some Google search horror stories -- funny or scary anecdotes
where BAD search techniques turned up misbegotten results.
? Hire a light plane to tow a banner over the city with your URL (it's
not all that expensive and may create a buzz of its own among local
newspapers).
My Google search strategy here was to use the search engine to find
specific information about examples:
"American Library Association"
"Direct Marketing Association" + convention
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA |
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