October 24, 2007 – “Sticky”: The Latest Buzzword

When it comes to websites “sticky” seems to be the latest buzzword. But what makes a website sticky and how do you make your site more sticky?

A “sticky” website is one where the visitors “stick” around finding things to do. Sticky content for your site might include articles, games, videos, news, RSS feeds, Google gadgets, or interactive tools like online calculators and quizzes, which is what my site offers (www.WebCalcSolutions.com).

This article can get you started to finding some sticky content, http://www.webcalcsolutions.com/Articles/Interactive-Website-Content.asp. Check your site’s statistics, add some sticky content, then check those stats again in a few weeks and see your average visit time go way up. And that’s a good thing.

Any content you add to your site should be something your target visitors will find helpful, informative, fun, or useful. If it’s cool but doesn’t have anything to do with what your site promotes, don’t include it! If you think creatively you might realize that many cool things you find actually DO apply to your site and your visitors, where at first glance you might have thought you shouldn’t add it to your stie.

I think I’ve figured out why lots of sites make things so hard to find…. Makes you stay longer and boosts their stickiness stats. But is that really what you want – artificially inflated numbers? Not me!

Oct. 17, 2007 – Links to My Website (www.WebCalcSolutions.com)

Apparently it’s been a couple of busy months, because I can’t believe it’s been that long!

We’ve been busy adding some features to www.WebCalcSolutions.com and responding to users who have downloaded free calculators and assessments. It’s funny how you see a little bit of everything – some people don’t finish the signup, some people give bogus email addresses so they never get their links, some people don’t ever add the links to their page, some people need help adding the links to their page, some people try to take the links from the email and change them trying to get other calculators and assessments free.

And some people actually get the links added to their page and build a page around it. It’s cool when you see your stuff running on someone’s legitimate website. We see the counters coming from those that are on and that’s pretty neat too.

I’ve been submitting links, mainly to directories because they’re the easiest I think. My goal is to get 100 links to my site added. I’ve focused on the free links (with no reciprocal required) to directories with a page rank of 4 or higher. Some say it will take months to be reviewed but most haven’t taken that long. Most say they’ll review it quicker if you pay. There’s a huge difference in prices too. Some want $20, $30 or more every year just to be included but most that charge that much it’s for a featured link. Quite a few charge $3 to $10 one-time payment for a permanent (even featured) link. I will consider paying for some of them. They all have good page rank so I don’t know how else to determine why the expensive ones are worth more?

I’m glad I have started looking for free links though, because I’m learning a lot about how much to pay. One step at a time.

I’ve mostly submitted my home page, www.WebCalcSolutions.com but I’m planning to submit some to try to draw traffic directly to the groups:

• http://www.webcalcsolutions.com/Financial-Calculator-Groups.asp for mortgage, loan, auto, credit card, credit and debt businesses
• http://www.webcalcsolutions.com/Health-Calculator-Groups.asp for health, fitness, exercise, nutrition and weight sites
• http://www.webcalcsolutions.com/Health-Assessment-Groups.asp for evaluating diseases, disorders, conditions, signs/symptoms related to physical health, mental health, addictions, behaviors, and relationships
• http://www.webcalcsolutions.com/Parenting-Assessment-Groups.asp for sites wanting to offer help for parents of children from newborns through adult-aged children

I think some of these links will bring more targeted traffic for those subjects and people will find some interactive content tools they didn’t know was available to them.

August 22, 2007 – Got a Couple of Bites on Free Calculators

Our website (www.WebCalcSolutions.com) began offering free calculators a week or so ago. It was exciting to get a couple of emails showing some sign ups! If your site could use financial calculators, health calculators, health quizzes, or parenting quizzes go check out what’s free.

I’ve really got to focus on links, after all, “Content is Queen, Links are King”. I’m not comfortable with a link campaign and apparently there’s plenty of other stuff I can distract myself with. It’s time to buckle down and stop making other things more important.

Google gadgets continue to set new records for us. We’ve been working on some gadgets that will do nothing but boost our author status – and they’re kind of fun.

There just seems to be more to do than time to do it.