"Search Engines"
I reply.

Search Engines can bring a flurry of traffic fluttering your way.  Unfortunately, most major search engines are so tough to get into that it feels like they work harder at keeping you out than they do at getting you listed.  So, before you rush into this getting listed business, let me caution you a few words of search engine wisdom.  There are two basic ways of submitting a URL for listing in a search engine.

1. is to go to each one to manually submit your page.

2. is to let a bulk submitter do it for you.   

#1 gets you in there sure shot, right where you think you should be listed.  Within 6 months at the most, you'll be dragging in all the business that each search engine thinks you deserve.  That's good.

#2 letting a bulk submitter or someone, or some thing, do your submission work for you is a whole lot more convenient and less work on you.

"Which way is best?"  #1, and #2.

Let me explain: If you have less than 10 pages, take the time to do a manual submit, shooting for the absolute best linkage connection you can make for each page.

If you have more than 10 pages, you will want to only pick out your BEST TEN pages, and submit them manually!  These are the ones that already generate TRAFFIC for you.  Therefore they are doing something right and therefore they will rank higher on your search engine pages.  Because these are your kingpins, they are the ones that will make things happen.  These are the most important pages you have and it is vitally necessary that you get them listed.

From each one of these ten pages you want to create links to at least one other page on your web site and preferably -- three other pages.  Now, when I go look at someone's web page that says they are linking to other pages on their site this way -- "but I'm not getting any action," invariably I find they are doing it wrong.  Their links are all;  "Click HERE for some kind of, Gee, I don't know. But click anyway

They have just done joined the race to claim top ranking for the term "Click HERE."  I will tell you here and now that Adobe Acrobat has that term sewed up already.  I really don't think you'll have much luck shoving Adobe out of first place for that term.  B U T ---- if you want to try it, have at it.

You really need to quit using the term Click HERE to tell people where to click.  Pick out some text that tells your surfers WHY they should click this particular link.  At least do it something like: "Click HERE to increase your page rank!"  Okay, the best you can do is all you can do.  But if you will think calmly for a moment or so you might can come up with something like: Click HERE and "Let me help you increase your page rank."  

Now that you have finished the top two ways of getting listed in the search engines, let me introduce you to MY favorite tool ... Blogs. 

Blogs can get your pages listed on search engines in less than an hour most of the time and in less than ten days after that first flush..

It is best to start your own blog, either on BLOGGER.COM or on your own web site.  Don't rush off yet.  Creating blogs and keeping them filled up is hard work.

Let's make it easier. 

Use someone else's blog.  Your best luck will be with the NEW MEMBERS list on the right.  Go to their blog, and make a comment.  In your signature, leave a link back to your web site.

If you investigate the OLD members you will find thousands and thousands of web sites to leave a comment on.

Please, I'm giving you this wonderful tool for free; for my sake, leave a HELPFUL AND MEANINGFUL comment behind.  The better your comment is, the longer it will remain up and working for you.  You should be able to place 106 meaningful comments per hour.

You can also create your own blogs. 

Place your best ads on the right:  Basic Auto Insurance Information  *  How To Buy Good Car Insurance  *  Your State's Car Insurance Guidelines  *  Selecting The Best Car Insurance For YOU  *  The Rewards Of Being A Good Driver  *  How To Get Great SUV rates  *  Tackling Terrific Truck Insurance  *  Saving Gobs Of Money On New Insurance For Used Cars  *  Protect Your Antique Auto With Classic Car Insurance  *  Finding The True Cost Of Your Auto Insurance  *  Improve Your Insurance Premiums by Improving Your Safe Driving Habits  *  Drive A Better Insurance Bargain  *  No Fault Car Insurance Honesty  *  Canceled Car Insurance Fixes  *  Risk Factors  * etc..

Not only do I have customers using those links... I have search engines going to those links -- and most of those links lead to pages with more links rippling out through my entire web sites.  Yes, plural. SITES.  Links on top of links, on top of links.  With every post, with every comment, the search engines come looking again.

The way I have it set up you can have a blog up in about 30 minutes AND be posting posts and pages.

***

Have you already been spidered?  Go to your favorite search engine and type allinurl:change this to yourwebsite.com into your search box.  For example.. allinurl:talewins.com

Learn How To Get Massive Traffic From FaceBook

Site Maps
Boon or Bust?

Let's do some good news now.  Yahoo, like Google, now allows you to submit your Sitemap. Yahoo’s version, a text file that contains a list of your site’s URLs, is a simplified version of Google Sitemaps. Your Sitemap text file for Yahoo should be located at the “root level” of your Web site. That's right!  You can get every page of your site listed in Yahoo in less than 10 days! 

Best of all, This New FREE service is yours direct from Yahoo.  Details are yours FOR FREE from this friendly site:  http://www.webmasterautomation.com/blog/  

Now maybe some bad news.  It depends on how many pages you end up with on your web site.  If you have less than 100 pages on your site, my advice is to use a site map.  If you start edging over the 100 page mark you will want to consider the work you are getting yourself into.  Maybe you can't imagine having more than 100 pages at this point.  Back in the winter of 1996 I started out with one page, In the first week of 1997 I had three pages, then six.  Now I have over 5,000 pages just on this domain alone.  On another domain I had over 17,000 pages, but it was just flat too much work so I dismembered it. But I do still have four other domains besides this one.  Yes, they are all pretty good sized.

Naturally I need my site maps built for me by mechanical means, and that can get expensive.  So, let me give you the advantage of my 20/20 hindsight... I would have been a whole lot better off if I had never heard how good site maps are. 

Before I ever heard of site maps I ranked in the top ten on Google with over 500 of my pages.  Six, seven months after I put up a site map I was down to less than 70 in that grouping.  Why?  Because I did not maintain or monitor my site maps.  Because my site map never changed Google decided Tale Wins was a dead duck floating in the water. 

Once I saw what the problem was I got busy with other plans and now I'm back up with over 200 pages again in the top ten, but it has been a long, uphill battle all the way.  So my advice here is, if you haven't got some way installed of sitemaps being updated automatically -- and if you are too lazy to update them yourself -- stay away from sitemaps.

Get listed, FAST!   

There are LOTS of fast ways to get indexed on Google and Yahoo, and other search engines too.  The one I have the most control over and therefore like best, is Blogging.  In many instances I can post on a blog and have my links indexed in 30 minutes.  Now when I say this I also want you to remember that before you whistle for the search engines that your pages had better be ready for their visit.  Links should be fixed, pictures showing, all your ducks lined up in a row, etc.

Other than that, blogging is the way to go.  Scan through my blog entries and see how I plug the links right in there.  The first thing you'll notice is that I have LOTS to say and a lot of people think I have a good way of saying it.  Your own blogs are easy to set up, and yes I did mean to use the plural there.  You can have as many blogs working for you as you can take care of. 

As a writer YOU have an even greater opportunity to score. have an all time favorite at generating traffic.  I think you'll love the extra twist there that can generate up to 30 back links in a matter of hours.  Plus,You can go to someone else's blog and post an interesting entry or comment there.  Yes, like my blog is a good place for you to make an entry or a comment.  At the bottom of each entry or comment you make anywhere on the web you want to give Johnny and Jill Surfer a good reason to come see your web site or web page.  "Lin Stone offers hundreds of pages of free advice that can help you write better and read faster.  http://www.amazon.com/author/linstone/ --"

Somebody, somewhere, has given the world an erroneous definition of a COMMENT. Evidently s/he was a figure of some authority because that daffy duffinition seems to have filtered down through the whole Internet.

Consequently I have received dozens of enthusiastic posts made here on a regular basis, claiming to be a “comment” that I am invited to accept. They all start out, “You said — ” and they repeat what I said word for word. Then they dash off to make another “comment” somewhere else without even bothering to say Goodbye.

Have they never heard the Law of Google that says duplicate content shall be penalized?

If I ever do need a parrot I’ll buy one.

When you desire to make a comment on Special Bulletin, please have something more to say than: “Duh, dat’s good.” And don’t tell ME what I’ve said, and don’t tell my readers what they have already heard from me.

Pretend you are a mature adult capable of forming an opinion of your own on that subject, adding more information, and expressing your comment in words of ten syllables or less in sentences that I haven’t already used in that very post you are commenting on. Otherwise, your “comment” will be deleted and I will send some nasty vibes chasing after you.

"Well, can I post big long stories on Special Bulletin like you do?"

Sure.  But remember, Family-Friendly.  Okay?  I won't tell you again, either.  So, go to Special Bulletin and learn from my examples how to make posts of your own, then practice there for a little bit before you rush forth to conquer the world.

WHO IS LINKING TO YOUR SITE?

Here's another great, useful tool for writers to decide how much PAYING interest there is in the subjects they want to write about.  Spy-Foo will even tell you how much the public is willing to pay for the subjects, then tell you how many people are willing to pay that much.

WhatchaSeek.com plans to help website owners that just want internet surfers to see their content. "Should it matter if it’s a geocities personal home page or someone who has controversial content? If it’s on the internet, it should be indexed."

Just as soon as I get my meta tags in my pages (or make semi-final improvements to a page) I click on that button and type the url in.  I mean I don't wait 10 seconds to do it.  You shouldn't wait either.

Click HERE to find out what a search engine SEES when it comes to visit your web page, and what you can do to make the visit PROFITABLE for you.

The MasterSite Search Engine is not that large, but the contents  there are up to the minute.  What a great place to get your writer's pages listed, instantly.

Free Advertising opportunities

Private Directories

http://www.talewins.com/Browzer/novels.htm  
http://www.browzerbooks.com/novels.htm  

http://www.e-book.com.au/freebooks.htm 

http://writers-bbs.com/inkspot/?forum=ebookpromo  promotes your book even before it comes out.

Free-eBooks.net specializes in collecting free fiction, tutorial, marketing and business eBooks as well as resources to aid you in promoting eBooks. 

http://www.ebooksnbytes.com  offers an affiliate program.
http://www.ebookbroadcast.com/submit.html  is a publicity release especially for ebooks. http://www.thefreesite.com  Home of the Web's Best Freebies, has much help for authors. 
http://www.free-online-novels.com/libraries.html 
http://www.free-ebooks.net  specializes in collecting free fiction, tutorial, marketing and business eBooks as well as resources to aid you in promoting eBooks. 
www.realfreesite.com/Free_Books/index.php 
http://besthypno.com 
http://www.e-library.us/visit121.html  

http://www.ebookpalace.com a visitor submitted directory listing over a 1,700 titles in popular ebook formats including pdf, lit, html, exe, palm & Editions that you can download and read from your desktop, Handheld Rocket, Glassbook, Palm Pilot or Windows CE. 

http://www.prweb.com/  I mention because a release there produced 18,263 actual reads of my release in less than two days for my last book (BUILDING UP YOUR FAT FIGHTERS) plus two international editors PHONED here for copies of the book. Another reason is because the staff there will go out of its way to get even better response to your release.  PRWeb now charges $80 minimum for service.

http://www.prfree.com seems to work almost as well, and it is free.  Friends of mine rave about the effective distribution but I have yet to experience it for myself.

More Terrific Submission Tools

Announce It America! submits all of your page URLs to 300 search engines, indices, FFA links, classifieds, etc. at one time. You can start the submission and then surf the Net in a different browser window.

@ Submit - Submit your URL to the top 40 search engines.  This is the one that I use most when I'm in a definite hurry.

123Add-It -  Promote your URLs to the top search engines.

Easy Submit - Automatically submit website to top search engines.

Signpost - Automatically promotes websites to a wide range of search engines.