Advice: When to start looking for links, dumping to directories, etc

[phuckbunny]

I have a new blog that I've been working on that some similarities with Bill, i.e. I want to make it more interactive and community based. I have the structure down, design is okay for starters (I'll probably be tweaking it down the line), wrote about 20 or so blog posts and I'm getting a thimbleful of google traffic.

The one thing is that I wanted to add a forum, which I did (I used simplemachines). However I'm guessing in order for the forum to get a little attention from both visitors and the occasional SE hit, I have to fill it up with fake posts first. This could take some time as I would really be reaching out of my arse to try and make those forum posts and making them look real, as well as adding new bogus members and what not.

Should I just go ahead and dump it in the directories and start exchanging links to get that initial PR while I write the forum and keep that section as a draft or wait a bit longer?

Your opinions are appreciated as always.

[sunfunbill]

So how hard was getting SMF installed Puckie? I was told on another board to use that too, so maybe that is what I will use.

I also was thinking about when I start putting fake usernames and so on in. What about if a few of us that had forums help each other out by posting on the others forums?

Say make a post a day, using 2 or so usernames. That way the other persons style of writing looks more different. Interested?

As for if you should hold back or not, I was going to just get it out there. There is a chance you'll get someone to start posting, and any pages and words for seo are better than none at all.

Just my 2 cents.

[phuckbunny]

Well I still haven't switched hosts and of course there were permissions errors with my boys and the usual bullshittttte so I finally got them to install it for me - otherwise, it should probably have been a piece of cake. Since I'm no longer putting all eggs in one basket, I went for SMF and saved the $100 I would have spent on VB while I learn how to get a forum going in general and while the site takes off. We'll see. Otherwise, SMF looks pretty easy to navigate and they have a wide array of free themes, like WP that you can upload with one click and which you can easily modify. I'd give it a go, it really does seem 'simple'.

OK I think I'm going to do a combo. I'll make a few fake posts here and there this weekend and start dumping it and linking on Monday. Meet this idea in the middle.

But.... GREAT idea about cross posting on each others forums! I'm definitely interested in that! BTW since you know the site I'm talking about and your sites slightly overlap, we could do a lot worse. Why don't you give SMF a whirl this weekend, drop me a line, and we can start talking crap on each others boards. I'm totally into that idea!

[sunfunbill]

Well, I'm not sure if I will have the time to get mine going this weekend. But by next weekend for sure.

I'm finishing up some post I've been doing for someone, will have them done this weekend. Then the next 3 weeks is nothing but working on my site!

I also will be installing a forum on my friends Ashley's blog. She has a gay/lesbian one, so maybe we could even do a 3some!!!

I'll start poking around in it starting Sunday. But yes, swapping post would be great. You can only fake so many different users.

I saw a forum once where the guy was faking them all, and could not speak English. So all the users sounded like:

The girl, beautiful she was, a long legs she had on that body.

[phuckbunny]

Cool! Let me know how it goes and when you're ready for a 3some, hahaha!

BTW that guy who couldn't speak English? I've seen entire blogs written like that (by Borat I'm guessing).

[Cozy Monica]

I think as long as you continue to add blog entries to give the surfers something to read, then you should go ahead and start link trading and so on.

And start working on that forum. It's VERY hard to get a good forum going, but holy cow can it ever pay off if you get a successful one working.

[Hammer]

The problem is that no site worth actually linking to is going to exchange with a site that doesn't look established or in your case, busy. If you're only looking for PR links then you'd be wasting your time anyway since you probably have no PR yet so again, no one with a decent PR is going to exchange with you.

As for directories, sure, why not?

[Cozy Monica]

But there is no reason why you can't get links going, where they link to your blog and you link back to them from a different site that already has some PR.

[phuckbunny]

Thanks all, great advice here.

One question: dumping to a whole buttload of directories can't HURT you, can it? In SE's eyes I mean?

[phuckbunny]

I'm bumping this b/c I've read mixed results on a few other boards about this - boards I hardly ever look at since cozy is the best, but... the point is...

The standard procedure so many do, and which I have been on and off following with every new blog or splog is after getting the design right and having a certain # of posts to start with is to dump it to a whole mess of directories for that initial PR boost. However, with a few new projects I've found I'm getting better traffic than with the once I've done the ye olde dump to directories bit, and I have zero inbound links so far.

So I was wondering if there's validity to the idea that Google et al will look unfavourably on a new blog that immediately follows that same pattern and dumps the link into a couple of dozen PORN directories.

[sunfunbill]

Well, I would say 99% of adult webmasters do the old porn link directories thing. So I can't see how it hurts.

It's not uncommon for a site that has good seo to do very well while having no links.

My new site, in the 3 weeks it was out there got 900 different search terms before google seems to have put me in the sandbox. And I had no links.

I still get search term hits from yahoo and msn.

BTW I downloaded SMF, going to try to install it within 2 days.

[phuckbunny]

Cool, let me know how SMF goes.

As far as the whole directory thing, maybe meeting this concept halfway would be to space it out over time instead of just dumping everything to 30+ directories overnight. I'm not sure how yahoo and msn work but I do believe they are also somehow tied to the way googlebot crawls you.

Back to work tomorrow, we're having a heatwave here and it's way too early in the year for one!