Promote Your Site

Posted by michal-frackowiak on 11 Aug 2006 18:13, last edited by RobElliott on 19 Nov 2010 15:15

Tags: promotion site

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This document is a "work-in-progress". If you want to contribute - feel free to do it!

This is a short guide how to make a successful Wiki Site and promote it.

Idea for the Site

Think on a subject you have expertise over, want to express, want to engage in conversation with and start your wiki with at least 5 pages of content prepared and ready to upload.

Appealing content

Advertising might get you a first time visitor, but the thing that will get these people coming back is content. Forums are an easy way to get visitors to create content that is often changing and will lead to people returning to your site time after time, even while the wiki content itself might not change so often.

Content should be engaging, and unfortunately, there are no shortcuts and guaranteed tips for interesting content.

Build a community and get people involved

Be friendly. Fostering a friendly and respectful atmosphere can help establish a strong community.

Encourage people to contribute to your site by showing notices of where they can help.

Promote your Site

Even the best site will need promotion to become popular. Here are a few popular and recommended ways:

Within Wikidot

Use site tags

Sites within Wikidot are categorized by tags which can be set using Site Manager under General Settings. If your Site already has some interesting content make sure you also choose tags that describe your Site best.

List of the most popular tags is available here.

Announce your Site

There is a special forum category at the community site just for this kind of announcements. Simply go to the Community Forums, jump to the New Wikidot Sites category and start a new discussion thread.

Outside Wikidot

Online web directories

Announcing on other websites and forums

If your site covers an interesting topic it is sometimes good to announce the site on existing Internet forums and websites. Remember always to comply to other website rules - sometimes such announcements might be considered as spamming which is not what you want.

Some forums allow you to have links in your signature attached to every post you submit. If you are involved in any such forum it might be a very good idea. The same applies to mailing lists. People will often visit your site if you are considered an "expert" in your field.

Generate a RSS feed

RSS feeds are becoming more and more popular nowadays. More and more people subscribe to feeds and even prefer it rather than visiting sites online. There are also many online news aggregators and feed directories out there where you can submit your news feed.

To generate a news feed from your Site use the FrontForum module.

Social networks

Social networks are a great place to promote your site. Consider adding a "Save to del.icio.us" button with

[[embed]]
<a href="http://del.icio.us/post" onclick="window.open('http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title), 'delicious','toolbar=no,width=700,height=400'); return false;">bookmark to del.icio.us</a>
[[/embed]]

or similar code generated directly from del.icio.us
or this

[[social digg,furl,del.icio.us,facebook]]

diggFurldel.icio.usFacebook

Other tips

(TODO)

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