Re: How to promote a Web site? (Long)

[lyndsey -dot- amott -at- docsymmetry -dot- com]

Bonnie wrote:
"The Internet is not anti-business by any means, so I'm not sure that I'm 
understanding you properly." 

Krautgrrl forwarded your msg to me since, in an attempt to remain sane, I 
now get the Digest-ible version of this list. 

I am not sure how well I can answer your question because I believe that it 
is just a hunch among network marketers that commercial sites are penalized 
by the search engines. It is just a hunch because the search engines do not 
tell anyone how they determine what sites rise to the top. The exception is 
Google--you can find on the web the doctoral thesis of the two guys who 
started Google. Even so, their ranking algorithm is constantly changing, 
which is why many sites suffer after a Google dance. 

The internet is not anti-business. The search engines are not anti-business; 
they are, after all, businesses themselves. Furthermore, Google is working 
on a search engine tool where you can type, say, "technical writing 
winnipeg" and find business-related technical writing sites in Winnipeg. 

But let's say that you own a search engine and that all web sites are 
commercial sites. You want to provide the most value for your visitors, who 
are, for the most part, looking for information. They are not looking for a 
technical writer, they are looking for information about technical writing. 
If you were evaluating sites, you would give a higher ranking to sites that 
provide what your visitors are looking for and you would therefore give a 
lower ranking (penalize) sites that don't provide information, and 
commercial sites tend not to provide information. You might also give more 
value to sites that have lots of links coming in, because if other people 
think the site is good, well then, so do you. And you might give a higher 
ranking to sites that link out to others because they are helping you to 
provide a better service to your visitors. 

There are lots of highly successful, purely commercial sites on the web. 
These usually belong to companies that are highly successful offline as 
well. Unless you also have a highly successful, well-known offline business, 
like Sony or Microsoft for example, you have to approach internet marketing 
from a different perspective. 

HTH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyndsey Amott
www.docsymmetry.com
Winnipeg, MB  R3G 2J3 


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