spoongraphics

I've been playing around with Pligg lately and produced MTBvibe.com as my latest personal project.



MTBvibe.com - The Latest Downhill, Freeride and 4X Mountain Biking News

After it's launch not too long ago I proceeded to promote the website using a few basic techniques, which helped gain a little traffic but failed to develop a core user base.
Can anyone suggest any further (non-spammy) methods of promotion to hopefully kick start the website?

Techniques used so far:
Messaged a range of users on Flickr with mountain biking photos to check out the site and add them to the MTBvibe group. - Helped populate the Flickr badge on the website and generate some traffic.

Emailed admins/authors of the main websites I visit explaining the nature of the site and asking to spread the word in their articles if they found the idea interesting - No action or replied from most.

Posted topics on mountain biking forums - First batch of posts were deleted so I rewrote the post to be more informal for the second wave on the remaining forums, most of which also deleted.

Temporarily added to the Blog.SpoonGraphics blogroll to pass on some Google juice.

Stumbled, Dugg and Delicious'd for the sake of it

Continued to add content to keep the site updated.

An idea I might go ahead with is to have a bunch of stickers made and hand them out at the next race I attend.


Any further ideas, suggestions and general comments welcome

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Distill

I like the site a lot...I'm not a mountain biker, but it seems authentic. The information seems timely and relevant. I love the rating system (which should really benefit from a larger community of viewers/raters).

Have you tried any kind of print campaign (I use the word campaign liberally)? Post or place something in bike shops in your area--they tend to be hubs of biker culture (if my college roommate was any indicator).

Stickers (or some little adornment) at races--that's a great idea--maybe make it useful in some way, or an indicator of something? Wrestlers (in the states, at least) often wear hats or jackets to meets filled with little pins to represent the pins they had that season--something to that effect? Football players also add stickers to their helmets to represent sacks, TDs, etc. Just a thought.

None of this will work as quickly as a spark on the web would, but it's a way to build recognition & credibility (if it's perceived as authentic) at the base of an outdoor-driven culture. Especially if you have any friends in the sport who'd be willing to jump-start it for you (consider the success of the Livestrong bracelet in road racing culture, then the public at large).

Best of Luck--I think you've got a good thing there!

Gino

I'm all about free promotion so here are my suggestions:

1. Create viral videos or just cool videos for Youtube on mountain biking and post them on Youtube. Make sure your Youtube profile can direct people to your website to check out more videos and make sure your website url is at the beginning and or end of the videos.

2. Work on link exchanges with other similar sites using important search keyword as your anchor text.

3. Refine your content to include long and short tail keywords for search engines to pick up.

4. Look into setting up a forums on your site and or a blog if not already a blog to help drive traffic and keep people on the site.

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