PR2 Newsletter : Issue 2
Welcome to the issue 2 of the PR2 Website Promotion Newsletter.
The response to the first issue was extremely positive and there are now over 1,100
people reading this copy of the newsletter. If you find this newsletter useful, please
tell your friends and family, colleagues... stop random people in the street and tell them
about PR2!
Over the next 3 issues, we'll look in great detail about how you should prepare your
site for its "big date" with visitors. If you only take one thing away from this
issue, remember this: promote no site before its time.
I bet that made some of you scratch your heads, so a few examples may help:-
A) You've heard it takes the overworked folks at Yahoo! 4-6 weeks to review new sites.
So you decide to submit your site, then work on it. Suddenly, something happens... you get
ill, your workload explodes... or a news event occurs in an area related to your site and
it is bumped to the head of the review queue. You just blew your big chance as the
reviewer spent 30 seconds reading your "Under Construction" notices and filed
you in the circular bookmark file under his desk.
B) Many promotional resources will only accept your submission once. Why use up your 60
seconds of fame dressed in rags? You won't get another chance during the lifetime of that
particular site!
Convinced? I hope so. The rest of this issue and the next will concentrate on the very
basic issues surrounding your site.
Where to Host Your Site
If you're running a personal site for fun, just relax and enjoy your site wherever it is
now. If you're on the Web for BUSINESS (no matter how small your client base or resources,
you're out to make money online) two things are a must: a non-free server
and your own domain name.
A site hosted on a free server gives your clients (and more importantly your potential
clients) the impression your business is so under-funded that you can't afford a few tens
of dollars a month for hosting. In the real (offline) world, even a business run from your
living-room will usually have some small costs associated with it. Server space is your
cost of doing business. Here's an article with all the
information you need to choose where to host your site.
A domain name is important too. And at only $70 for the first two years (way long
enough to find out if your site is going to buy you that Porsche you dream of) it's a
pretty good investment. Here's more information about selecting
and buying a domain name.
Your Site
There are so many things to do before your site is ready for prime time
that it's best to just wade in and get on with it. If you're really confident that your
site is ready, then skip the next couple of issues and come back when the promotion
starts!
Where do your visitors go when they/you make a mistake?
I have visited many sites (including some of the most popular sites on the web)
where I clicked on a broken link or tried to go to the wrong page, only to be confronted
by a terse and mysterious error message in technobabble. "Error 404. The URL
you requested..."
Wouldn't it be better to steer your errant visitors towards the main page of your site?
You bet it would! Take a look at what happens when you make a mistake on PR2 (just click here to go to a non-existent page, take a look and then press the
"Back" button on your browser).
Back already? Well, as you saw, it's important to always offer your visitors a way back
to your site no matter how badly they type (or if you left some broken links... but you
wouldn't do that, would you?!). Here's how to set things up...
if you're on a free server you'll just have to live with the problem, I'm afraid, as the
fix only works for a server you can "control".
Gosh, this has become so long that it's time to bid you farewell. Next time, lots of
things to talk about (graphics, links, animation, etc.)
Until next time...
Edwin Hayward
Next:
Issue 3
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