Exploring RSS & promotion and analytics (toolbox activity 8)

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

November 25, 2009 [2755 views]

It’s time to get your site some traffic! You need to promote your site manually by submitting it to search engines, linking it from posts and forums and automatically using an RSS feed. Manual submission takes time but is valuable in getting search engine spiders to start crawling your site. RSS submission will allow your site to appear on sites automatically every time you write a new post.

Deadline: Midnight, Monday 30th November

This activity will help you:

Find sites that might provide you with visitors
Help you explore why links from other sites are so important
Explore the RSS feed for your blog
Research and add your site to some directories
Help you measure (and analyse) your visitors

Part 1: promotion and RSS

Keep good notes as you work through this activity.

Site promotion

Start by researching the difference between web directories and search engines.
Find a search engine submission site and submit your site
Find several site directories and submit your site to them too.
Try to find some interesting blogs or forums and leave a comment with your URL (only available on some forums/blogs)

Add a comment to my site leaving your URL and you will automatically (once approved) have a link to your site. (which Google will eventually follow)

RSS promotion

Make sure that your Wordpress theme supports RSS feeds and if not learn how to add RSS to your home page.
Install an RSS application on your PC (see below) and check that your RSS feed works
If you have mobile internet access then find a mobile RSS reader and check that your RSS feed works on your phone. (optional)
Find some sites (like Technorati and Syndic8) where you can list your RSS feed

Questions you have to answer

Which site/service did you use to submit your URL?
What directories did you submit your site to? (list at least 3)
Why do you need to submit your site to search engines?
What is the difference between a search engine and a search directory?
Try and explain RSS feeds in non technical terms
Which sites have you listed your RSS feeds with?
What other ways will you promote your site (suggest at least 3)?

Here are some useful links:

Technorati: include your RSS feed
Search for services to submit your site free to search engines
Introduction to WordPress Feeds
SharpReader (RSS Reader for Windows)
NetNewsWire (RSS Reader for Mac)
Google Reader

Here is the survey link to feedback your answers to Part 1

Part 2: analytics

Who is visiting your site and how will you know if your efforts at promoting your site are being successful? If you have hosted with cPanel then you already have a host of tools to help you find out and by installing Google Analytics you can do even more.

Take a look at Webalizer, Analog and AWstats (inside cPanel) and try to work out all of the information presented. Your implementation of cPanel may provide you with different tools and you should explore what is provided.
Research using Google the difference between the following terms (and keep careful notes). Don’t worry if you find them confusing.
a. Hits
b. Pages
c. Visits
d. Files
e. Unique visitors
f. Referrers
g. Agents
Install Google Analytics inside your site. It will take a few days before you can start to explore these statistics but they are generally much more useful than logfiles
Why do you think analyzing your visitors is so important?

Questions you have to answer

Which log analyzers did you use?
Explain the following terms making it clear what is the difference between them in relation to the stats you have looked at for your own site.
a. Hits
b. Pages
c. Visits
d. Files
e. Unique visitors
f. Referrers
g. Agents
Which of these numbers will be most important to you?
Why?
Why do you think analyzing your visitors is so important?
Have you installed Google Analytics?
Are there any questions you have about these programs?

Useful resources

http://www.mrunix.net/webalizer/
http://awstats.sourceforge.net/
http://www.analog.cx/
Understanding web log statistics
http://www.google.com/analytics
How to add Google Analytics to your WordPress blog

Here is the survey link to feedback your answers to Part 2

Recent comments:

On November 25, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Roberto Iuliano wrote:

Just adding a link to my site.

http://www.robertoiuliano.com/

Jonathan replies: Cool

On November 25, 2009 at 4:48 PM, zoya wrote:

just adding an link to my site too.

http://zoyasyed.com/WP/

Jonathan replies: Looks a little spammy but has all the necessary bits - perhaps now you are ready to make it look smarter and more professional.

On November 25, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Hassane wrote:

Enjoyed the lecture very much. find the mobile web as a fascinating subject. Just to mention that Apple are already working on their 4G generation Iphone

http://www.alphatechnologydirect.com

Jonathan replies: Thanks Hassane. Beirut is on my list of places I really want to visit.

On November 25, 2009 at 7:19 PM, Patrick Magee wrote:

Adding Site link. Thanks!

http://www.themixture.co.uk

Jonathan replies: Great start to your site with real content (even if some of it was generated by me). Keep it going.

On November 25, 2009 at 7:33 PM, Dhusanthan Ravindran wrote:

Hey Jonathan,
I made my mobile site and I accidently gave my domain name and now if open my website I am only able to view the mobile site, I want it to be as back as usual. So what do I do for that ?

Jonathan replies: you will need to fix the index.html page

On November 25, 2009 at 9:05 PM, Ricardo Smith wrote:

Just adding site.

http://ricardosmith1990.connecttojigsaw.com/ricardo20

Jonathan replies: Smart blog and lots of updates - how do you feel about the two column layout?

On November 25, 2009 at 9:34 PM, Hassane wrote:

Just completed both Activities 8.1 and 8.2, I have received a receipt for 8.2 but not for part 1. I never had this problems before. can a receipt be rescend to my hotmail account for my records.
Many Thanks

Jonathan replies: No obvious way to do that individually. I will publish a summary before the end of term.

On November 25, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Raj wrote:

I enjoyed the online lecture.

www.connecttojigsaw.com/wp

Jonathan replies: Great start!

On November 26, 2009 at 11:34 AM, Ahmet wrote:

Adding site too..
Thanks.

www.ahmetabdi.com

Jonathan replies: I like the blog better than the home page because you seem to be keeping that bit updated. Perhaps put the blog headlines on your home (using RSS).

On November 26, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Andrew Reid wrote:

Just adding in my site link. Cheers

http://www.reidacus.co.uk/

Jonathan replies: Another ambitious site with several sections. Concentrate on getting the blog out there. The "home page" looks a bit dated.

On November 26, 2009 at 12:28 PM, Miz wrote:

Just adding a link to my site

www.mizanur.co.uk/blog

Jonathan replies: Why not fill in your "about" page so that we know more about who you are. Some interesting posts so far.

On November 26, 2009 at 3:34 PM, James Sammut wrote:

let me know what yout think

http://www.jsammut.co.uk

Jonathan replies: Looks good - if anything, you could be a bit edgier or more experimental but it ticks all the boxes for me.

On November 27, 2009 at 12:35 AM, Wisdom Fiatuse wrote:

Hey Jonathan,
Seeing as so many people are posting links to their website on this page (I'm guessing its because this is the last activity). Anyway, I was wondering if you could let me know what you think of my site so far.

www.wisdomsblogs.com

Jonathan replies: Interesting site although the logo at the top did not load for me. This is not by the way the final activity - there are two more.

On November 27, 2009 at 6:33 PM, ibby wrote:

Adding link 2 site

www.mahfudibrahim.com

Jonathan replies: Interesting choice of subject and another place I'd love to visit sometime.

On November 28, 2009 at 8:53 PM, jihad wrote:

adding my url

http://www.booneyinc.co.uk

Jonathan replies: This is pretty good! You have kept things fairly simple which makes it more effective that some of the others.

On November 28, 2009 at 9:11 PM, Nathanael wrote:

my site

www.nathanaeldenis.com

Jonathan replies: Really not sure that home page is working for you but the blog is great.

On November 28, 2009 at 9:31 PM, Rema Hashi wrote:

Just wanted to post my website, so you can chek it, thanks;

www.remahashi.com

Jonathan replies: Thanks! Need to think about Bollywood copyrights? Probably not because you are using YouTube.

On November 29, 2009 at 2:46 PM, A wrote:

akhtaronline.com
http://hop1.ulmb.com/

Adding the site x

akhtaronline.com

Jonathan replies: Not a very good template?

On November 29, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Maliha wrote:

My website: www.malihagondal.com

www.malihagondal.com

Jonathan replies: I'd like to know about why you are choosing this mix of content.

On November 29, 2009 at 6:45 PM, bigg bounce wrote:

adding the link

www.biggbounce.com

Jonathan replies: This has no content at all - what have you been doing?

On November 29, 2009 at 7:11 PM, Nigel wrote:

Adding URL

http://yournigelfrancis.com/Blog/

Jonathan replies: Nice and clean design - keep blogging!

On November 29, 2009 at 7:46 PM, DJ wrote:

Hi, Jonathan I was just wondering what is this following question asking us to do. Which sites have you listed your RSS feeds with?. I've managed to complete the activity and I was just wondering are you asking us to list the feeds that we have used on our site.

http://www.djfabulouspatterson.com

Jonathan replies: Listing the feeds allows other sites to find your feeds and therefore your content.

On November 29, 2009 at 8:51 PM, faiz wrote:

adding site for traffic =)

www.buddzz.com

Jonathan replies: Like the theme - needs more regular postings.

On November 29, 2009 at 9:54 PM, jamie wrote:

just adding my website

www.jrss.info

Jonathan replies: Ambitious - lots of tools and sections but looks very unfinished. You should concentrate on making one section more complete.

On November 29, 2009 at 10:27 PM, Dhusanthan Ravindran wrote:

I'm linking my site http://www.dushanthan.com/ .

Jonathan replies: You are not linking it unless you put it in the URL field.

On November 30, 2009 at 5:41 AM, Ian wrote:

My RSS Feed ;)

http://iandegrasse.com/blog/?feed=rss2

Jonathan replies: and it works!

On November 30, 2009 at 12:23 PM, Ricardo Smith wrote:

"Jonathan replies: Smart blog and lots of updates - how do you feel about the two column layout?"

I'm just replying to this. I'm finding it decent at the moment, if I feel the need to add an extra column I may edit the coding in the future. I always feel unsatisfied though, I think it's missing something...just can't work it out.

http://ricardosmith1990.connecttojigsaw.com/ricardo20

Jonathan replies: Great - its unusual but if it works for you...

On November 30, 2009 at 1:28 PM, Parmveer Mann wrote:

Just thought ill add my website URL!!!!

http://mrmann.org/blog

Jonathan replies: Perhaps consider focussing your content on fewer topics ;-)

On November 30, 2009 at 2:26 PM, Faisal wrote:

just adding the link to my website.

www.somalitics.com

Jonathan replies: Really like the design of your site

On November 30, 2009 at 3:02 PM, Dhusanthan Ravindran wrote:

Linking my site.

http://www.dushanthan.com

Jonathan replies: Impressive site although personally Flash "skip intros" are a bit 1998!

On November 30, 2009 at 3:22 PM, roaa wrote:

Just adding a link to my site

http://ro2ro2.net/wp

Jonathan replies: Nice theme - you still need to fill out quite a bit of content.

On November 30, 2009 at 3:53 PM, Faisal wrote:

What would you advise me to add to my site? or even take away?

www.somalitics.com

Jonathan replies: I really like this theme but the "coming soon" bits should be filled out.

On November 30, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Gulam Romel wrote:

Adding link to my site

www.gulamsreview.com

Jonathan replies: Glad you have a topical theme for your site around reviews. Change your blogroll.

On November 30, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Finn wrote:

Yay for free links!

http://www.voicelessdreamer.com/

Jonathan replies: Wow - genuinely interesting content!

On November 30, 2009 at 6:22 PM, Mustafa wrote:

Just adding my URL.
http://mussyonline.com/
Cheers Jonathan

Jonathan replies: Not a link! Fill in the URL form!

On November 30, 2009 at 7:54 PM, Jonathan wrote:

just leaving my url

http://www.spacetimetraveler.com/blog/

Jonathan replies: Cool

On November 30, 2009 at 9:06 PM, Youssef Ibrahimi wrote:

Just adding my URL :D :D

http://youssefibrahimi.com/wp/

Jonathan replies: A good start but I want to know more about you and your interests in boxing. Keep writing. BTW The head of ecommerce at Google is really interested in boxing too.

On November 30, 2009 at 11:56 PM, Wisdom wrote:

I was wondering for this activity, does my sites rss need to be submitted just once for each site or does it have to be done on lets say a monthly basis?
Thanks in advance for your reply

www.wisdomsblogs.com

Jonathan replies: Like the amount of content you have added - keep it up. Your RSS is updated everytime you post and does NOT have to be resubmitted.

On December 1, 2009 at 12:03 AM, Akram Musharraf wrote:

Just adding the link of my site, sorry to say you might have some problems; it may not display the content

http://studentcars.org.uk/

Jonathan replies: adsf agsggsgsh jjfd ff jr jf dfjfhj dfjfdsk fujdfhjd dfjdfnjk fhudsfhjf fdjfkjdf fdkjfn fhdfhdfhdjf fhjkf fekejhe ekj iheke eiuhkje eijhne ekjhe ehrekjr eihm just a bit excited ...is not content

On December 1, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Jonathan wrote:

just posting my webiste

www.spacetimetraveler.com

Jonathan replies: Oooh Joomla

On December 1, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Amudat Hassan wrote:

Hi jonathan, this is my website

http://amudathassan.com/wp

Jonathan replies: Nice theme and some interesting content - keep it up.

On December 10, 2009 at 9:06 PM, Umezeyi Sule wrote:

Adding URL

http://www.umzrvstudio.co.uk/