| One of the more interesting ways to add
some targeted traffic to your site is to join some webrings. A webring
is an interesting idea in that it allows people to surf through sites
which are related in one way or another.
For example, you could have a "Playstation Gaming" webring which is
comprised of a dozen sites all about the Playstation. If you surfed
this webring you would go from site to site through the ring. This is
a much more tailored experience than random surfing through search
engines.
The place to go to create, join or find out more about webrings is
Webring.Org (other webrings include The Rail
and RingSurf) This site has literally tens
of thousands of webrings available to anyone and everyone, covering
every subject from needlepoint to computers to adult sites.
Each webring is created and maintained by a person known as a
ringmaster. This person (who can also grant those same rights to
others, something that is absolutely necessary in very large webrings)
accepts site submissions, validates that the site meets the topic of
the webring and that the site has installed the webring code properly.
The ringmaster is the sole arbitrator of whether or not a site belongs
in a webring - after all, it is his webring.
If you maintain a site, than it is a good idea to investigate
webrings. In fact, my recommendation is to join as many webrings as
possible. Search through the webrings looking for any rings which seem
to fit your site. You are virtually sure to find at least one, and
probably many more. I tend to only apply to webrings that have more
than a dozen members, but occasionally apply to those with less
because they seem very targeted to what I want.
The cool thing about well run webrings is that they tend to deliver
highly targeted visitors to your site. If you have a Playstation site,
you can be sure that you will get visitors from the Playstation
webring which are actually interested in your site.
Generally, I've found that these webrings do not deliver anywhere
near the traffic of the major search engines, but they are massively
better than FFAs and other similar advertising methods. Another great
thing about webrings is that they continue to deliver targeted traffic
day after day. Once they are set up they tend to stay set up with
little further maintenance.
Each webring has something called a "webring fragment" associated
with it. This fragment is some HTML code which allows people to
proceed from site to site through the webring. It usually has a
graphic or two as part of the fragment.
Okay, so once you find a webring that you want to join, you proceed
to their "join" page and enter your site information. You should enter
the URL where the webring fragment is to reside - I tend to put the
fragments right at the bottom of the pages to which they apply. The
idea is that a surfer can surf right through your site without having
to look around very hard for the webring fragment.
Once you've submitted your application you will get an email with
the fragment code. Copy this code to your web page and download the
graphics locally to your server (this is very important as you don't
want to
steal bandwidth - that's bad form) and modify the ring code to
include those local graphics. Once you are finished and you are sure
it's correct, upload the new page to your server.
Now send an email to the ringmaster letting him know you have
completed this step. Generally you can just reply to the email that
you got when you signed up to the ring. The ringmaster will examine
your page and let you know of any changes that need to be made to the
fragment. He will also judge your site as to whether it is suitable
for the ring.
If your site is acceptable you will get an email back from the
ringmaster informing you of your addition. Generally you should not
expect to hear back at all if your site doesn't meet the grade.
And that's about all there is to it. You can expect an occasional
email from the ringmaster (I've found these to be very rare) with data
pertinent to the ring. It's usually wise to occasionally make sure
that the "next" and "prev" still work (if they don't remember to email
the ringmaster). Other than that, it's a self-maintaining traffic
machine.
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