Linda Adams
adams.linda.m@att.net
http://www.david-hedison.com
http://www.hackman-adams.com
Promoting an Actor on the Internet
One of the key aspects of managing a Web site is promotion. Yet, it’s also one of the most difficult things to accomplish. I learned a lot about promotion while maintaining an
authorized Web site for actor David Hedison (http://www.david-hedison.com). When the site first began, it had 200 visitors a month; now there are 10,000, a number which continues to
increase.
David Hedison originally had a fan club that mailed updates on his career using the U.S. mail. But the increasing postage rates had made this too expensive. The fan club
president and I agreed the site was a logical next step. But publishing the site was only the beginning.
After all, how are potential visitors supposed to know it exists? Sure, some will find it, but that doesn't guarantee it will be successful. As an actor, David Hedison already had a fan
base; for the initial promotion, I used message boards.
Search engines were the next step. Some, like Google, picked up a site in about two weeks. Others needed to be manually submitted. I also sent links to celebrity sites,
science fiction sites, and sites covering some of his more popular films. Some required reciprocal links; others demanded a prominent graphic advertising them on the main page. While I
was willing to add them to the links page, I didn't want to advertise their site on the main page when they weren't giving David Hedison's site the same visibility.
As I submitted, I realized the site needed a domain name. There were some places that wouldn’t believe the site was authorized because it was on a free provider.
The free provider offered, for about $25 a month, a domain name that redirected to the actual address. There were some other features, like no advertising banners and
five POP accounts. However, some of the search engines wouldn’t take an address that redirected or would convert it over to the free provider’s, which defeated the purpose.
After there were some service problems, I investigated paid hosting. For the same amount I was paying on the free provider, I would get a get a better deal--the domain
name itself, ten POP accounts, and a lot more space. Plus, I could chose from three different detailed statistical reports.
I was careful about who I picked. I didn't want to choose one simply because it was inexpensive, since that doesn't always translate to good service. People don't come
often when the server is down or too slow. I'd already experienced that on the free provider.
Within three months of the move, there was a difference in the amount of visits the site was getting. On the free provider, the site had been averaging 800 visits a
month; on the paid provider, it went to 2,000. The next step was to study the statistics. The plan included overall visitors, which pages were visited most often, and the keywords being
used to find the site. I also did some research on what else I could do to draw people to the site.
One of the things I came across was a suggestion to use the primary keyword five or six times on a page. The spider searches pick these up and it helps place your site
higher. But the keyword had to be used in a logical way, written into the content--but not excessively. Some sites, in an attempt to rate higher in searches, had done unethical
practices like using the keyword fifty times on one page. Search engine companies are wise to such tactics and will ban a site for them.
With that in mind, I kept it simple, using David Hedison's full name where it was appropriate. If there was a photograph, I used the full name in the ALT tag as well.
As I became more familiar with the statistics, I started noticing trends. Before I had these statistics, I had relied on the fans to tell me what they wanted up through
message boards and mailing lists. And I was shocked to discover it wasn’t accurate! According to them, they all wanted to see photos of David Hedison from a TV series he’d been in. But
the statistics showed that they wanted to see photos of him with actresses. It was time for some content revision. I created a new photo category and highlighted actresses he had been
photographed with. One week later, it was the most popular section, and the visitors increased daily.
Many people put up a site and think that people will come to it simply because it's there. I learned that if you want it to be successful, you have to do a lot of hard
work. I've been using the same techniques on my writing Web site, Hackman-Adams (http://www.hackman-adams.com). The challenge is different because I don't have a built-in audience base.
Will it be as successful? Time will tell.
Linda Adams
adams.linda.m@att.net
http://www.david-hedison.com
http://www.hackman-adams.com |
