Project Mai Tai - Adventures in Site Launching

by Sapphire (October 3, 2006)

I’ve started a new site, and decided to chronicle my attempts to launch it and get some revenue out of it.  Knowing me, this could be a long process. 

I’ve nicknamed the site Project Mai Tai, but just to be clear, that name has nothing to do with anything.  Well, I might need a Mai Tai by the time this is over, but that’s another story. 

The site’s ready to go.  I’ve got some linkbait in place.  It’s just a matter of getting the fish to bite.  So a week or so ago, I spread the linkbait to some friends online - I estimate word reached around 40 people.  A friend gave me a link on two sites… so far that’s only brought me 2 hits.  So far, my biggest source of traffic has been traffic exchangers.  Mai Tai is a blog, so fortunately I can run it through some very decent traffic exchangers for blogs, which have brought me readers in the past.

So far, though, no one’s linking to me.  My bookmark rate is 0.  It’s not going well.

Today, I bought instant placement (just a couple of bucks) at a directory that’s brought my other sites a decent little chunk of traffic, and no longer accepts totally free submissions.  I submitted it to a number of other directories, but I don’t want to have a huge amount of directory links to start with - I’ve found that seems to slow down Google’s acceptance of a site.

Now, I should take advantage of some network links.  Sidebar links may increase PR, but I haven’t seen them drive traffic.  And I don’t see a way to incorporate this site into the content of my other sites.  Yet.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Traffic Tags: Project Mai Tai
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