July 26, 2007 – There’s a Lot to Learn & Even More to Do

Today I checked out a demo version of some software that’s supposed to help you submit your link to directories. The real software has about 2000 directories to choose from (with more added all the time – according to the marketing people anyway), but the demo version has only 100. That is overwhelming enough, but you can filter it to list only ‘free’ links, ‘paid only’, ‘real estate’, or ‘reciprocal link required’. (I believe there are more filter options in the full version.)

I focused on the free ones. It will show you each directory’s PR (if you believe it’s accurate) and let you sort by that. I focused on a couple of PR1 directories so as not to waste some good listings if the software (or me) got really mixed up.

You set up a profile for each URL you want to submit. I set up 5 URLs, one for my main site (www.WebCalcSolutions.com) and one each for my 4 industry groups (finance, health calculators, health assessments, and parenting).

For each profile, I was asked for the

• URL of course
• preferred categories and subcategories (I had no idea how this would work since directories have such different categories.)
• link titles (You can create multiple titles – I don’t know the max - so that you’re not using the exact same text in all the directories. Pretty clever I thought. And it even rotates through them as you go through submitting!)
• site description (Same as titles, you create different descriptions so they’re not the same all over the web!)
• keywords (Again multiple lists.)
• reciprocal URL for when it’s required (I didn’t give it one since I only want free, one-way links right now.) You then choose if you want to add the reciprocal link manually or upload a script and have the software do it for you. Kinda nice!)
• name
• email (hopefully they’ll let me know when my links are accepted)
• username & password (This will become your user name and password within the directory you submitted your URL to.)
• and address info (I did not fill this in since only a few directories require it. I’ll deal with it if I bump into one that requires it.)

I then selected a profile and a directory to submit my link to, and up pops the submission page for that directory with the free radio button selected (since I only requested free ones) and the title, URL, description, etc. all filled in. I was wondering about the categories – the software took its best shot to pick one based on the categories and subcategories I had guessed at, but since you’re on the directory site’s webpage, you just select the category that’s really best for your link. You can tweak your title and description on the fly here too.

All in all, it looks like it could save me a lot of time. I have submitted my links to quite a few directories before now and often I didn’t hear back. How discouraging is that when you’ve spent quite a bit of time even finding them and screening them for relevancy and making sure they’re still active (which can be a real trick and time waster)?

I got some links on my own but it was painful duplicating the title, description, and keywords each time. Not to mention the time setting up accounts on those that require it. (I was already setting up text files with all this information in it so I could just copy it each time I found a place to submit.) I don’t know, but I’m hopeful they have screened the directories they include somewhat and don’t have a bunch that are dead so you never hear back.

For $97 this software could take the sting out of taking the time to submit your site and never hearing back! I think I just talked myself into buying it (especially with its 30 day money back guarantee). Thanks for helping me decide.

I keep hearing that “Content is Queen and Links are King!” when it comes to page rank and search engine result position. I believe in my content and now I won’t have to avoid trying to get links any more. After all, I’ve got a whole list of things to do still that don’t seem as futile as that little job!

In the long run, we’ll see if this yields positive results, but for now anyway, a pretty productive day for me!

July 25, 2007 – An Introduction to My Website

I have spent a lot of time, but not full time, over the last two years developing 2 websites, http://www.WebCalcSolutions.com and http://www.BizCalcs.com . I am now trying to figure out how to get traffic to those sites… You are welcome to follow me day by day as I post the things I’m doing and any results, good or bad, that I see from those efforts.

I have developed a collection of online calculators and assessments that can be added to any website by setting up an account and adding the links to your own website. The calculators and assessments are interactive, colorful, customizable, and fun. I’ve made it as easy as possible and as feature-rich as I can.

The sites are ready to launch – all I have to do is find some visitors. After 2 years you would think that would be easy. But hold on! It’s been anything but easy.

Here’s what I have:

www.WebCalcSolutions.com – This is the main site which hosts and invites visitors to subscribe to the calculators and assessments. All calculators and assessments can be run from this site, but if the links are copied and pasted they will not function. The calculators and assessments you can find here include:

• financial calculators covering mortgage, loan, auto, debt, credit card groups
• health calculators covering general health, fitness, exercise, nutrition & weight groups
• health assessments covering physical health, mental health, addictions & behaviors, social & relationship groups
• parenting assessments broken up into 5 age groups from preschool age to young adults

www.BizCalcs.com – This site features all the calculators and assessments from www.WebCalcSolutions.com so anyone can use them free. This site has ads (AdSense and affiliate ads) and generates minimal revenue up to this point.

 Some of my marketing plans include:

1. offering at least one calculator or assessment from each group for free for life
2. offering lifetime subscriptions so there is a one-time payment and all updates and new calculators within the subscribers groups will be free to them forever
3. setting up a reseller program where website companies can offer to include calculators or assessments on their clients’ sites and they keep some of the money
4. featuring a calculator or assessment for a month and offering it free or discounted for a year

I decided I could wait until all these things are done or I can get out of my comfort zone and start to try to figure out how to promote these sites. I have never done any marketing, I’m not comfortable with marketing. In fact, I’ve always jokes that I couldn’t even sell water to a thirsty millionaire. I probably would have talked myself out of this great idea of mine if I had known I was going to have to market it and just how hard this would be.

I’ve read a bunch of articles, books and websites on how to get traffic or promote your site. I’ve dabbled with trying to get a few links through email (which all of the material I’ve read suggests), even offered to put calculators on their sites totally free – I never hear back from them. I have had some success getting links set up in directories, but it’s very slow. I’ve emailed all my friends – they don’t need what I offer and I don’t have enough friends.

I’m not ready to give up. I’ve done the research and I’ve made a plan, so here goes nothing… Stay tuned.