I want to know where I go next. I currently have around $200 dollars to work with. Here is what I have done so far.

Got into Yahoo for free in my target category.

Paid for Looksmart Express. Got approved in target category.

I have submitted to countless search engines both manually and with submission software. Manually to the big ones.

Problem is, it is an Xbox fan site. Xbox game console is not expected to come out until October. I want to build user loyalty and traffic before that time. I know that when the launch is near the traffic will obviously get bigger because not many people know about it yet.

My idea when I started was to get into as many engines / directories as possible to be ready and get out there early.

Until the site starts generating revenue, I have about $200 left to invest in getting the site out there more prominently.

Any ideas of what I should do next?

I know other engines are doing their thing like Inktomi paid indexing, Mamma.com is doing paid listings now, etc.

I definitely don't want to do the Goto type stuff because I'm not selling a product and right now I don't think a PPC for visitors is in the picture because that is an ongoing type advertising.

I want something that is going to last similar to Yahoo and Looksmart.

Any ideas are appreciated...

There was a survey (can't remember where I saw it) on whether people would be willing to pay for access, and 5% said they would.

Suppose you have 1 million page views/month, then ignoring defaults, that gives an optimistic $500/month.

Ignoring for the moment the reluctance of users to sign up, reveal cc info etc., suppose you charge $0.01 per page view. That is the equivalent of $10 CPM. Then since 5% would be willing to pay, you get 50000 page views/month, and so $500/month. The difference is that bandwidth costs are *much* smaller in this case.

Coming back to users' reluctance to register, what if someone aggregated and managed all the accounting across a large number of sites? Then users would only have to register once, and cookies and referer(sic) can track page views.

I'm aware of Amazon's honor system, but I don't think a voluntary payment system would work well. Would you implement a pay per page system on your website if someone offered such a service?

asdfred

I've been looking forward to Digital (Compaq)'s Millicent micropayment system being launched outside Japan for a year or more now - but it's still coming "Real soon now".

I know that subscription based services have had a dodgy past - but everything had its time - (pay per click search engines had been tried and bombed before GoTo - now most of them are PPC - because most of them are serving GoTo results in the top 3 positions).

The time for "pay for content" may be upon us - unless ads pick up soon, people will have to pay for content or it will disappear.

Of course there aren't many sites that I'd pay to subscribe to - but it surprised me that Deja didn't try a subscription model rather than selling out to Google and effectively losing most of its functionality - I'd have paid for access to Deja.

I also suggest that you take a look here: http://gethighforums.com/Forum1/HTML/001034.html

Well, they would be interested in playing video games, etc. Big problem here is that since this is the first time this game system has been introduced, the only gamers are of other game systems who sometimes quite frankly bash newcomers. There is a big rivalry right now between the Sony Playstation 2 and Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube and Sega Dreamcast. Xbox and GameCube are still to be released.

Anyway, definitely video game enthusiasts would definitely be the target i would assume.

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-bhartzer-
There's really no need to spend $200 right now (or ever). But if you must, then take a look at the search engine forums at www.searchengineforums.com and you'll get some great advice as to which pay-per-submission directory you should target.
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I realize that there are a lot of success stories out there right now that didn't spend a dime on advertising, etc. I personally have not been able to capitalize on this route. I also consider myself very knowledgable in the areas of search engines, reciprocal links, etc. I must be missing something .

Also, i am fully aware of the search engine forums. There was a fine line associated with my post and i ended up choosing this forum for my post.

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-bhartzer-
I also suggest that you take a look here: http://gethighforums.com/Forum1/HTML/001034.html
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I happened to have already read that . Those are many of the things that I do now. I was asking in a different way than "How can i receive more traffic?". I was asking "I have $200 to spend and i'm already in the two biggest pay per submission directories...where else would be logical to get my site listed with permanent links like those, for that much money?".

Thanks for your suggestions... keep them coming please

This is my first time running a gaming site so I am not too familiar with the kinda directories or link lists they have.

I know phatgames runs a gaming network...if you see this... do you know of any good link directories that target gaming sites?

Thanks for any info guys...

Good Job and Good Luck,

Regards

Anyone else may request for me to send by email unless moderator will allow me to post.

If this is a URL for some company that designed your site, its OK to post it. When someone asks, your not spamming by responding with the info

just wanted to make sure...hehe

i have a partnership barter type thing with the owner of http://www.4templates.com

he sells professionally made web site templates... but i do programming (cgi / perl) work for him when he needs it and he creates web sites for me when i need them...hehe

he also has a service to customize or build a site from ground up but I don't know any of the prices... just click on services tab if not interested in the templates there and he has some contact info there as well...

[This message has been edited by brobe (edited 03-30-2001).]