GCU Forum - Promoting GCU

Jeff_135713

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 620

Promoting GCU
Feb 12^th, 2009, 9:42am

Just an idea.

One of the best ways to raise the search engine rankings of a site is to have links to it on the internet.

We have enough artists now that if everyone would put a link to GCU (even their own store) and perhaps the words "greeting cards" on forums/blogs/boards just once a week we could storm the top of the search engine.

Just think, 3000 people x 1 comment a week would be more than 10000 links in a month. That is a massive amount of references and will have an impact.

-Whisper-

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http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/RomanceSmiles

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Delores_132508 Gold Member artist Posts: 978	Re: Promoting GCU Reply #1 - Feb 12^th, 2009, 10:33am Very good suggestion, Jeff.
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Itaya_136244 Full Member artist Posts: 124	Re: Promoting GCU Reply #2 - Feb 12^th, 2009, 10:57am Great idea Jeff! Got any ideas anyone what forums it would be appropriate to post to about our cards? Would love to hear some brainstorming here! Itaya
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Mindy

GCU Administrator
Community Manager

Posts: 6537
Gender: female

Re: Promoting GCU
Reply #3 - Feb 12^th, 2009, 2:09pm

Our forum in general is very content rich and search engines love it.

Please be sure not bog down the GCU forum - I suggest you reserve your postings to the Artist Chatter board under Check Out My Stuff:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1210116732

More importantly the real mileage will be from postings on non-GCU sites/boards.

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Jeff_135713 Gold Member artist Posts: 620	Re: Promoting GCU Reply #4 - Feb 12^th, 2009, 3:27pm I'm sorry Mindy, My suggestion was not to post here at GCU but to post at other sites and message boards that we frequent. It won't affect the rankings to post here, our advantage will be all of the artists on other boards. My apologies for not being clearer. -Whisper-
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Delores_132508 Gold Member artist Posts: 978	Re: Promoting GCU Reply #5 - Feb 12^th, 2009, 3:29pm I think you were clear, Jeff. I think Mindy, in her very busy and hectic trying to keep up with all the postings just misunderstood what you meant. And I still think your idea is good.
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Norval_132688 Gold Member artist Posts: 908	Re: Promoting GCU Reply #6 - Feb 12^th, 2009, 6:20pm Jeff, please go into detail how this is done. I have people following my blog, and still haven't figured out how to follow theirs. Some of us started late on computers, and what is considered easy is completely alien. All time is spent learning how to use the art programs. Help here would be much appreciated. Norval
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Jeff_135713

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 620

Re: Promoting GCU
Reply #7 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 5:35am

Norval,

The basic way we can help promote GCU is as simple as promoting our shops. While surfing/wandering around the web there are many places to add comments or other content. If part of what we say points back to our shop then we are helping ourselves AND GCU.

EXAMPLE: "I am very involved with the plight of the South American Wild Wiki Cat. I have recently made several cards reflecting this. You can find them in my shop at www.greettingcardu.......blah, blah"

EXAMPLE2: "That is very admirable. Artists are starving everywhere but there is one outlet that I have seen that has wonderful art and every purchase helps the original artist. They make greeting cards and you can find them at: www.greet.....blah, blah"

So on.

-Whisper-

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http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/RomanceSmiles

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Jeff_135713

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 620

Re: Promoting GCU
Reply #8 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 6:23am

The key is in the way search engines decide how to ranks sites.

There is a complex (ever changing) formula but one of the elements is the number of sites that have links to a site. That is why we can make such an impact if we can get the site mentioned on many other sites.

I used to get paid large unreasonable sums because of my specialized knowledge in search engine rankings so I know we can have a very large impact.

-Whisper-

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Whisper's World:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/RomanceSmiles

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Norval_132688 Gold Member artist Posts: 908	Re: Promoting GCU Reply #9 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 7:02am Jeff, Thank You, it's clear now. What a great idea, I love web browsing just for the fun of it and I run into many of the sites that want comments. I would never have thought in a comment of linking them to GCU. I will be sure though when I am giving them Hell to leave GCU out of it .
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Mindy

GCU Administrator
Community Manager

Posts: 6537
Gender: female

Re: Promoting GCU
Reply #10 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 2:43pm

Quote from Jeff_135713 on Feb 12^th, 2009, 3:27pm:

I'm sorry Mindy,

My suggestion was not to post here at GCU but to post at other sites and message boards that we frequent.

It won't affect the rankings to post here, our advantage will be all of the artists on other boards.

My apologies for not being clearer.

-Whisper-

No apologies needed, I just wanted to make clear to others what you were suggesting. A wonderful idea

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DENISE_132110 Gold Member artist Posts: 769	Re: Promoting GCU Reply #11 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 5:49pm jeff i have a question. we do not tolerate spam here, how do we post to other boards without coming across as spam. is it not considered the same if it is somewhere that we visit often? or is it only considered spam if you visit for the sole purpose of promoting your links?
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Pattiann_132699

Senior Member
artist

Posts: 361

Re: Promoting GCU
Reply #12 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 7:05pm

You bring up a very good point, Denise. It's important to know and respect the etiquette of the boards you're visiting. Some of them will allow of signature in which you can put your store URL. We need to be careful about how this is done. Squidoo periodically gets slapped by Google and part of the reason may be because everyone Twitters every change they make to their lenses and otherwise plasters the Internet with their Squidoo URLs. The best way to increase GCU's exposure would be to blog about your cards. Blogs are free. Google owns Blogger, so the thinking is that Google may weight a Blogger blog more. No evidence of that, just a thought. I just started a blog there
http://greeting-card-universe-me.blogspot.com/ I highlight new artists (6 months) and I have my first artist interview pending. You are welcome to leave your store URL when you comment. If you'd like to be interviewed (new or established artists), but drop me a line.

Pattiann

Quote from DENISE_132110 on Feb 13^th, 2009, 5:49pm:

jeff i have a question.
we do not tolerate spam here, how do we post to other boards without coming across as spam.
is it not considered the same if it is somewhere that we visit often?
or is it only considered spam if you visit for the sole purpose of promoting your links?

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Pattiann Malynn Designs:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/pattiannmalynndesigns

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Jeff_135713

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 620

Re: Promoting GCU
Reply #13 - Feb 13^th, 2009, 8:29pm

I agree Pattiann,

My intent was never to spam sites, but to include GCU as a part of normal conversations. Just as I'm sure you tell people about your card making when talking to them, there are ordinary, logical places to insert your passion in online conversations.

If you only did this one time a week and it made sense in your conversation it is a benefit, not spam. I, like everyone else, hate spammers that run in and slap spam down, never caring if it has anything to do with the board or not. At the same time, I have discovered many interesting sites because other people that I associate with have mentioned them.

With almost 3000 artists, just a small percentage doing this once a week will have a tremendous impact.

-Whisper-

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Whisper's World:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/RomanceSmiles

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Catinka_133492

Full Member
artist

Posts: 143

Re: Promoting GCU
Reply #14 - Feb 14^th, 2009, 11:00am

I think that if you post a comment that shows you've been reading the website/blog's content, or you contribute to the conversation, it is not considered spam to leave a link in your 'signature'. However, many websites are now adding 'nofollow' tags to such links to comply with certain google page rank guidelines. I'm not quite clear on the details. They are still live links and help drive human traffic but they stop the S/E bots from going off the site in those instances. It may have to do with dilution of outbound link value.

http://www.catinkacards.com

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Catinka's Card Store:
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