[This message has been edited by gordonl (edited 08-17-1999).]

I just started working with Flycast and they told me that I couldn't have banner ads on my message boards pages. However, I see them all the time on other flycast memeber sites on their message boards. Has anyone else had this problem?

[This message has been edited by Johnny 99 (edited 02-17-2000).]

If I leave it off it will save lots of trouble with people putting inapropiate things in there sig.

But I f I leave it off, will this put people off from posting, or at leats sticking around.

I know it may not affect things much, But I was wondering if any one posts at one forum more than another because they have a sig at the other one.

I know it may be differnent for webmasters though, but most webmaster foums allow sigs and people seem to use them alot, then you get a forum like this that does not allow them, I was thinking that this may stop some people posting here, It does not affect me though as I don't really use sigs.

On the other hand:
My commercial site, webkiss101 , is a dating site without using popups, popunders, or any of the other nasty tricks. My marketing plan is to start charging for services to new members after my first 100 members (am at 78 right now - site's been live for a month)
on top of this, I have set an affiliate program to pay $1 per join and $1 per webmaster refered.

I hate popup,popunder, and exit consoles... I can't spam without getting my isp to shut me down, I'm not willing to pay the $300 to get listed in yahoo as the only relevant category is one of their commercial categories...

Most search engine placement / traffic consultants are scam artists, so that's out.

PPC search engines are very competitive for the personals / dating keywords...

So, does anyone have any thoughts as to how to build the traffic, therefore, my member base and profits?

I currently figure I have a 3% surfer to buyer conversion rate. (3% of people who come to the site are joining) - I want to improve this ratio, as well as improve the overall number

What are the magic words? I've submitted to all the search engines & directories, I've refrained from spam, I've been a good little boy and worked hard... so, anyone have ideas that would be good here for the target audience as acceptable marketing?

[just delinked]

[Note: This message has been edited by Janet Berg]

code:

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|style|
TD {font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif}
|/style|

---

Since it will only work in 4+ browsers, I still think you're better off just adding the regular font tags.

*SIGH* Replace all | with < and > as needed.

[This message has been edited by baffled (edited 08-17-1999).]

As someone else who is experimenting with traffic generating ideas...I know the frustration of a limited budget. When the bank account says no...your creativity may be your only hope.

Remember, traffic doesn't always have to come from a link. I know most of the cool sites I visit regularly are because a friend told me about them. (ie. www.hotornot.com and this right here-jimworld.com)

These are just a few I noticed and there are tons more.

Two quick points.

ONE - You state:

> Most search engine placement / traffic consultants are scam artists, so that's out.

I don't know if I would go so far as to say "most" SEO consultants are scam artists, but you're right, there are quite a few. That said, the right company can do wonders for your site. Don't be too jaded and overlook a good possibility.

TWO - I can't tell you how many times I have to keep reminding my clients -- there's a whole world beyond the reach of your keyboard!

Your web site is a PERFECT candidate for Guerrilla Marketing. You're regionally based -- all of the traffic you really care about is in the city of Memphis. That makes it really easy for you to get their attention.

Go to Staples, buy a ream of pink paper ($5) and a box of staples ($3). Print up a ton of flyers that say "WWW.WebKiss101.com", then staple them to every telephone pole in the city.

Also see if you can get the local bars to tape them to the window. That's where the singles hang out, right?

Take out a personal ad in whatever your "local scene" rag is (ever city has one). Just put something like "Find Mr. Right at www.WebKiss101.com. The Ad will probably cost you about $5.

Go back to Staples (OfficeMax, Kinko's, etc.) and get business cards printed up for $19.95. Hand them out to EVERYONE. Tack them to every community bulletin board at Subway, Blimpies & Quisnos.

Print up Table Tents that say www.WebKiss101.com and leave them on every table in the cafeteria of the local Colleges. College Students = Single + Young + Web Users + Horny. Your target audience again.

See? There are dozens of things you can do "on the cheap" to attract attention to your web site, and none of them involve search engines, pop-ups, pop-unders or paying per click.

Good luck.

Bryan

BUT
http://www.webkiss101.com/ is national --- I have a very active membership on my local dating site -- the national one is the tougher market to crack

still excelent advice for botrh http://www.memphisweb.net/ and http://www.memphidate.com/

one of them didn't read close enough to figure that webkiss is NATIONAL and was offering to get me front page google results for Memphis Dating
not realizing I already had that!!!!
and he wants to charge me $142 for that --
but for personals and dating - the really important key words for a national site, here's what I got:

Keyword "dating" $20 000 for first page
Keyword "Personals" $15 000

No thanks- -

here his emaal for local terms:

Hi,
I do not use spamming hidden text etc techniques at all, in fact I have no interest in design or structure of sites.
I offer tags advise on title and snippets of text for you to insert into chosen page for chosen keyword. I will also advise on link structure.
For instance: (this is only an example)
Suppose you want "memphis dating" as a key term, my price would be £100.00 ($142.00 approx) for a first page result in google,
£50.00 for a second page result, if neither then you do not pay.
No doubt you have plenty of ideas regards keywords and you are right these are crucial but remember just because the serps throws up many thousands of results they are not necessarily the most beneficial regards hits. Being on page 3 with 3 million results shown is not as effective as being on page 1 with 50 000 / 100 000 results.
Steve

Now, the idea he gave me, which is simpler, I had already started, I'm working the keywords for specific cities, making it easier to swarm in and take the big ones.

Yes, I got emails from Search Engine and Marketing experts - some of whom claimed they couldn't figure out how to log in to the fourms...right --- find another sucker, chumps!

Anyone with real advice, please step up

Your “national site” http://www.webkiss101.com/ is not a contender.
Another piece of free advice, get rid of the title ! It’s worse than useless

<title>Web Kiss 101 :: Dating & personals for everyone</title>

If you are looking to hire you can always post an ad at http://www.searchengineforums.com While anyone can answer, honest people and spammers alike you should hear from some good ones. I would be happy to help you narrow down a list if you need it.