I have a teen book review site I've made but want to get more traffic on the site and message boards. Ideas?:}

Question

The site is www.teensbookreviews.tk and I've really put my heart into it being a bookworm myself. Please if you have any ideas that are perferably free since this site is more of a labor of love and the cash is kinda on the slim please help me!!! ;}

Answer 1

Here is what I would do...

You can submit your site to most (if not all search engines) for free. A lot of web-page creators offer some sort of "promote your site" feature built right in. But in case yours doesn't, you can always search the web. I would go with free vs. paid. It might take a few weeks, but you will start showing up eventually. In addition I would suggest you submit your site to the Yahoo Directory. I would take the time to get as specific as possible. If I remember correctly Teen books would go under Arts and Humanities, under Humanities, under Literature, under Reviews, under Young Adult OR under Literature, under Genre, under Young Adult. I haven't had much luck getting posted there...but you can only try your best and see what happens.

It would be a good idea if you wanted to start a links page on your site to direct your readers to other sites like yours...and you might be surprised how many people keep track of who links to their site. I have gotten email from authors who have read my reviews of their books because I took the time to link to their official pages. Plus, it is incentive for people to say 'I'll link to you if you'll link to me.' that is just good for everyone involved.

My other advice would be to keep maintaining your site. The more put-together and up-to-date your site is the more you'll have repeat visitors. And the more likely those visitors will be to tell others about your site. If it's been six or seven months since you've done anything on your site...or if you still have a Merry Christmas message on your site and it's Easter...then people probably won't bother coming back because they figure you've abandoned it altogether.

Other tips...I would NEVER recommend spamming people with your site. Think about it...if a stranger sent you an email with a link to visit a site...or a plea to visit their site...you'd think they were a) a little strange b) pathetic. Don't resort to such behavior. Other than the fact that complete strangers would mark you as spam and block you from their email address book...what would you really accomplish. What are the chances that those random addresses would go straight to the inbox of teens who are dying to read a good book???? What I would do however is add your link to your email's signature...that way with every outgoing email you will be advertising your site and reminding everyone that you have this site and they should check it out...whether it's the first time or the fifth time they've visited. It will bring it to mind if you will.

Other advice...you can post your site on Yahoo Answers on your profile...that way if people see you asking or answering questions and want to find out more about you...your site is one click away. And you might want to consider changing your Answers setting to allow email. That way if people want to contact you about books or reviewing or your site or whatever (like I was going to send you an invitation to join JacketFlap from my page so I would get some points) they could reach you. (You can also make some good friends that way. :) If you review books on Amazon...again the same thing...add your site address to your public profile on Amazon.

Yet more advice...join JacketFlap for free. They have an "about me" section and a "links" section and when you're joining you can fill out your site and potentially get listed on their LONG list of sites.

http://www.jacketflap.com/profile.asp

Again you might consider registering at LibraryThing for free...and joining in some of their groups and forums. You'll have a chance to introduce yourself, mention your site, and discuss books at the same time. And they have a GREAT YA book group called "Reading YA"...it's a very active group.

Joining Yahoo book groups...I know TeenReadsToo has a book discussion group and there are probably others...if you became an active member there (or any book-focused group) just having your site at the bottom of each of your emails would keep spreading the word about your site.

There are many things you can do for free to let others know about your work.

Answer 2

i would go on google and get some good pictures.if you own any other sites/web pages put something about your site there. look at other good review sites and see if you get any ideas. be creative and im sure your site will be great.
hope this helps,
a teen bookworm

Answer 3

find other book-review sites and exchange links- add a link page to your site- and add links of other big sites, that come up on google- and ask them to add your link-

this will make your site apear higher in google search- PLUS your link will apear on big websites

good luck :)

Answer 4

Get on myspace.com and stick the link on the main page. Also, send out a mass e-mail. Next time you get junk-mail, just copy all of the addresses and send your link to everyone. It will annoy people but will get you traffic.