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Dominating Submissions

If you have a web site, at one time or another you're going to have to submit it to other sites requesting a link. If you haven't figured this out by now, you have more to learn than I can teach you in a single article.

A good place to start is by using a submission service to register your site in the search engines. When I first went online with the Centre for the Easily Amused in 1995, there were 4 search engines; at last count I believe there are 40,000. A few submission services that I recommend for are listed in my links list.

Now search engines are a good start, but don't expect to get all your traffic from them. Of the 45,000 hits a day that my site gets, I'm lucky if 200 of them come from search engines. So you have to Think Different, and come up with other ideas to get links out there.

Sending out blind submissions by e-mail is a start, but be very careful when doing this. I get an average of 100 submissions a day, and many of them don't even make it to my "check out" folder. So what makes my folder?

1. Visit the sites. Make sure that you have visited the site that you are submitting to. Despite my running a humour site, I often get requests for commercial sites, sports sites, and a surprising number of adult-oriented sites. It's just plain rude.

2. Tell them about your site. Give a snappy but detailed description of your site, including the URL (you would not believe how many folks forget this important detail), and why you think it would fit nicely on their site. Paying them a compliment about their site at the same time will earn you brownie points. Blatant sucking up never hurts.

3. Offer a reciprocal link. That's what the web's all about, remember? I have a page called "Friends of C*E*A" that allows me to give reciprocal links to folks whose don't qualify for the other categories. It keeps them happy, and doesn't take much extra work.

4. Be polite. Never make rude comments, or call the webmaster names. Lines like "you'd be an idiot to turn this link down" don't go very far with me, and I get a fair number of them. You may think it's uproariously funny. It's not.

5. Follow up. Return to the site awhile later to see if your link has been added. If it hasn't appeared within a month (not an unreasonable length of time), send a nice follow-up. If after another month has passed and your link is not up, accept the fact that it just didn't fit their needs. Get over it.

6. Say thank you. If your link has been added, drop them a line to say that you appreciate it, and note where the reciprocal link has been placed. I can't say enough about how good manners play a part in making a name for yourself online.

That's just about it. Be polite, be appropriate, and say thank you. You'd be an idiot not to follow my instructions.

Cathy Walker is the Chief Schmoozing Executive at the Centre for the Easily Amused, and a writer at Fork In The Head.

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