How To Launch A New Site

As you may already know, I recently lauched www.marketingyourdvd.com. It is a subscription site focused on a specific niche, that of DVD producers wishing to learn how to sell more DVDs.

In the couple of weeks since its launch, it is already being well received with members signing on and good traffic being driven to it.

One look at the Alexa rating of the site shows the traffic already being generated to it. At the time of the writing of this article, the rating was at about 148,485 but it is likely to get better than that as the weeks go on. Alexa can have a few days lag to it.

There are several things I did (and am currently doing) to have it take off smoothly...

Forum Posts

As the site launch drew near, I made sure that I started including the domain name for the site in my signature line when I posted in various forums.

This helped to start generating curiousity about the site a bit, as the URL is pretty descriptive as to what the site is about.

I started getting emails from people curious about when the site launch was and wanting to know more about it. The forum posts with links to it did something else for the site as well. It helped get google's attention.

Getting Google's Attention

My preferred method of getting listed in Google is to have the search engine find my sites on its own. I never submit to them.

I have found that it generally takes about 3 outside sites linking to a new site before google starts listing it. By watching the Membergate site's "Google Tracks" log, I know the exact moment that Google found my site for the first time.

It then started "spidering" its way from link to link within the pages of my site.

Once I knew google was visiting, I made a lot of effort to make sure I made changes to my site every day. I was training google to visit it regularly. Since it sees that the content varies often, it is coming back just about every day.

The benefit of this is that my articles will get listed quickly once I post them.

Attention Getting Articles First

As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression. I kept this in mind as I created the initial articles for my site.

Prior to actually working on the site, I create a list of over 50 headlines. These headlines were topics to articles, downloadable content or files I wanted to include on the site.

I then hand picked some of the more tempting ones and made sure those were posted front and center on the site. I really wanted to make them attention getting.

I then worked on some other interesting ones as well, but strategically placed them a little further down on the site.

Announcing It To The World

I am now at the official "Announcing it to the world" stage for the site. I am creating a press release for it and will be releasing that (for free) via the www.prweb.com press release service.

This will serve a few purposes for me:

• additional publicity for more traffic
• get more links to my site (the press releases get republished online)
• possibly get the attention of related industry businesses for potential joint venture opportunities

Lining Up Partners

My next step in the coming week is to seek out joint venture partners.

I have been compiling a list of several strong possibilities. These are businesses in the industry which I have no direct conflict with. I will approach them with the intention of teaming up in some capacity in a mutually beneficial arrangement.

This is a glimpse at some of the strategies to get the site up and running. So far it is working out well and there are other strategies in place for the weeks ahead.