My New Site, please help how to promote

[zenwalk]

www.hotrockpoker.com

How do you promote poker related sites?

Cheers

[NewPokerGirl]

I like the site, the homepage looks kinda clustered though.

[losercore]

Intersting site. looks good though.

This type of thing has been asked over and over on these forms.

So first search through the forums for some great tips.

But i will tell you the #1 thing you will find:

Write quality, original content everyday.
Try to buy a few backlinks
Try to trade a backlink with anothersite everyday.

[imteaz]

site looks good. i like the design. how do you promote site? thats the big question caz you need traffic, without traffic a site has no value.

Here is some idea my new friend.
1. try to link exchange with few sites.
2. submit to atleast 200 directory. ( will help you to get backlink)
3. Submit atleast 100 article directory. ( will help google sherp & backlink as well traffic)
4. Buy some quality links. ( not required, but we webmaster do it)
5. get some blog post. ( very cheap now)
6. go to few webmaster forums, and put your link in sig.
7. you can use adbrite for traffic ( ppc)
8. go to blogspot, and put comments in ppl blog, include your link in sig.
9. do atleast one press Release ( it cost you only $15 to $20)
10. dig some story, will bring you some traffic
11. do stumble exchange
12. do social networking exchnage, can bring you a huge quality traffic. ( will cost you $10 to $15 around 50 to 80 social networking)
13. write fresh article put your link in footer, then offer free article to webmaster. it really works.
14. go to yahoo answer, ppl ask lots of question on poker, answer them and put your link in source.
15. Tell your friends about your website.

and lots more...... dont have time now.. will put later

[Dave]

Why don't you guys be honest?

zenwalk your site needs more work than it's worth.

If I accidentally found your site..... I would click away immediately ...... wouldn't you?

Be brutally honest now because poker is a very, very competitive niche.

Start over.

If beginners want a model of a new site that has real potential check out NewPokerGirl's

http://www.smallstakestexasholdem.com/

She's focusing on a niche....... new, small stakes players.

Her site isn't green and black with tiny fonts (a real killer)...... it's mostly white with an easy to read format and tasteful color scheme and graphics.

She talks to her site visitors like they are real people not just numbers.

If she added a forum and newsletter sign up.

Got rid of the blinking banners.

Compressed her content and simplified navigation.

Increased her Page Rank and fixed her **** tags..... she'll have a good chance of grabbing enough players over time to make some real money.

zenwalk you have a descent amount of content going.

It just has to be reworked..... I noticed a few spelling mistakes(big credibility turnoff).... and reformatted into a more pleasing site design and navigation system.

You have to grab your visitors attention some how..... and then lead them by the hand to what you want them to do.

Too many chooses is just confusing.... and a major killer to conversions.

Personally.... if I was new at the game today...... I would try something unheard of and completely outrageous.

Why grind it out with seasoned SEO pros?

You youngsters understand viral traffic avenues like MySpace... U tube and Second-Life that us old goats are clueless about.

The poker market isn't new enough.......or big enough anymore to expect that the same old.... add new content and get backlinks will work.

If you search this forum you will see that just a year ago I was the add new content and get backlinks guy.

Times have changed though ..... big time.

My rant is over.

Go Canucks!!!!!

[Ozpoker]

Yep - I agree with that.

Second Life is a big opportunity albeit I'm way behind most

[NewPokerGirl]

Thanks Dave, Im honored that you chose my site as an example. I dont want to steal this thread from the poster so I would love it if you would answer a few questions i have about your analysis of my site here.

[zenwalk]

Tnx

[edmc]

Although Dave probably sounds a bit harsh. There is a lot of truth in his post & between his & imteaz answers you should be able to get well on track

[kaus]

Second Life is fine..but I don't think you can integrate a poker website into it. The stakes in poker at second life is like playing for pennies. The cost of owning a sim is alot ($1500 easy) you need to have the funding to do this than make sure you earn enough to pay for your $300 US maintanence fee. Than you need to be able to run your casino or whatever it is that you choose to do. A casino opperation will be a 24/7 job to overcome the fees you pay, than their is the cost of a dealer who takes a % of rake. Rake is minimal.

You can try and bring in players from second life however I think that many of these who do play are not really poker players if you know what I mean. They play for very small stakes, alot of them are first time players. So I think you would have to own your own sim and maybe over the course of time you may be able to convert. Maybe I am one sided to it and quite possibly it has changed since I last was there. It is very intersting to say the least and man do alot of people have wierd fantasies

On a side note I do think it is a great opportunity for someone who has a good cash flow that can purchase land and turn it over again.