Starting out?
When first starting out your site, make sure that you use a reliable host. I would recommend using freewebs. It's really great for beginners, and it's very well organized. Heck, we still use freewebs to update the site. Most sites don't accept Geocities, Angelfires, piczo, etc for affiliates. Well, neither does D2TB. Sites with a bunch of annoying pop-ups really take away the essence of your site.
DO NOT BUY A DOMAIN. That is. . . for awhile. If D2TB was to buy a domain the first few months of it's existence, we would of wasted good money on. . . crap. So, get a second opinion before spending your dough.
Co-Owners, are extremely helpful. I pretty much thank god that Christina asked to cohost. I probably would of dropped the site long ago. It's just, so much easier, when there's two people doing something. Everything gets finished twice as fast! Make sure that your cohost has good, or better, understanding of CCS/HTML than you. Always be open to learning new things. Cohosts are also good for mental support, they help you decide on things, make good decisions, and to yell at you when you want to put the site on hiatus for a few weeks. ( ;D )
Originality is key. If you was a successful fan site, using someone elses premades, is not attractive. If you paid for it, and there's only one of that layout, go head. But, if there's any chance someone, somewhere, may have the same layout, don't use it. Play around on paint and make your own. Or better, use PS or PSP. PSP costs a bunch of money, somewhere in the hundreds, while PS can be even more money. I myself use Photoshop Elements. The difference, either than the price, . . . I have no clue. I make graphics just as good as someone with PScs, for half the price. I saw one on ebay for like, $20! Which is as much as a domain.
So, my website is up, with a few pages uploaded, so how do I get hits?
Best ways to get hits:
1. Top Sites
2. Top Affiliates
3. Posting on other peoples tag boards
4. Regular Affiliating
Top sites and Top Affs do get you the most hits, but, when you're first starting out, it's not very smart to do so. D2TB has only registered for one top site, and that gets us, 50 or so unique hits itself. It's kinda intimidating, because we happen to be the only non-mcr related site on there. It is top rock site, so I felt entitled to it. All the people I have come in contact with, who run some of the sites on that list, are seriously great people and makes me feel welcomed on that Top Sites.
Top Affies. These shouldn't exist the first few months, unless you have a close friend with a website. Save your self the embarrassment, wait 6 months to apply for TA.
Posting on peoples tag boards, what to do, and what not to do:
What to do:
1. Introduce yourself, comment something you like about their site, and make sure to link your site where it says 'email/url', so they know where to reply to.
2. Post quick updates about your site, say you have a new layout, you made new graphics, whatever, and ask them what you think of it.
3. Form personal relationships with the staff, swap emails or screen names.
What NOT to do:
1. Spam. Spammers, are degrading people. They are desperate for hits, and are pitied and hated by the D2TB team. An example of spamming
Disgusting? I know. I felt filthy copy and pasting it.
2. Give the owners, any form of criticism on the tag board. They honestly do not want to pubicly see that on their site, sending them a personal email is always the way to go when it comes to those things.
3. Fight with other people on the tag board.
To count hits, use a counter, can be found here . Always put it on unique hits. I don't see the use, counting every individual hit. Anyone can just refresh a page about 30 times. DO NOT LIE TO YOURSELF, no matter how many days the unique hit counter stays at less than 10 or how many days you don't get a single visitor, keep it on unique. It's a reality check all site owners need.
Here at D2TB, we don't care if you are hosted or not for affiliation. We understand that high quality sites can be on free servers. We also can try to help you every step of the way with your fan site. Doesn't mean we'll add you to our TA. That wouldn't be fair to the people who reach the criteria, while you still get 10 hits a week, but we do offer your link on every page of our site.
Dance to this beat was once in poverty of affiliates, who wouldn't affiliate with us because we were on a free sever. I swore to myself I would not discriminate free servers. I think more sites should do that.
Okay, so I applied to become affiliates with numerous sites, now what?
Content content content. It's the only thing that keeps the visitor coming back. Originality, is key. Keep on telling yourself that. If you copy something from someone else, what makes the visitor come back to your site, and not the one you copied from? Be sure to update constantly, or as much as you can.
If you follow these tips, you're sure to work your way up to the top!
