For those not aware, MYST is one of the top ranked Computer Games, selling over 3 million copies in the past 3 years.

One year ago I read on a mailing list how one could develop a high traffic web site by picking a topic you enjoy and collecting a list of all the links to that topic from around the Internet. I created the above MYST page and starting collecting links. The results were incredible and I will share those with you below. Firstly, though I wanted to pass on what techniques I used that helped me and may help you with promoting your pages.

1) In creating my web site, I approached the company selling the products and advised them what I was doing and got the proper wording for copyrights. By acknowledging the copyrights, my relationship with the company has grown in a large way. They now link to my site from both there corporate site ( high traffic ) and there gaming site. This one tip is overlooked by many sites on the Internet.

2) I provided a contest offering a banner on my site. The contest allowed people chances to win by sending me links to my page. Each new link was added to my page, saving me hundreds of hours of searching.

In two weeks I collected over 120 new links I did not have. Offering a Banner ad attracted attention!

3) I have offered a TRIVIA contest allowing me to collect demographic information on the visitors plus their permission to use their email addresses in future mailings ( about 95% give me the OK ).

4) I started profiling special sites giving the viewers the chance to expose their sites to hundreds of people a day. I was honest but focused on the positive...

5) I posted short, polite emails to NEWSGROUPS ( after reviewing them for a week ) advising them of my page.

6) I became an associate partner with Amazon.com and created a bookstore online. No one else had offered books or ordering this way for the MYST game. Being the first ( outside of the corporate
site ) allowed me to be a leader in this area. It also created an income source for me outside of my site.

7) I created a Message Board on my site allowing people to voice technical questions, exchange gossip, and generally have fun. The difference between this board and a newsgroup was the fact that the
board was "onsite" and allowed me to provide a central spot for MYST game fans to get together online. Many of the staff from CYAN ( makers of MYST ) used the message board to answer tech questions
on the upcoming MYST sequel, RIVEN.

The Results....

My site now gets over 3300 visitors daily. Search engines have my page listed in the top 5 on 3 of the big search engines ( thanks to the proper use of meta tags ). I now have over 200 sites linking to my site on the net ( using my referrer log I can keep on top of this). In the past week, I have been interviewed by the Wall Street
Journal and numerous Radio and TV stations.

If any one is interested in more ways to create a high traffic site, using innovative marketing, I can post another article with more detail on how I was able to build loyalty with my visitors to my site.

Thanks and good luck marketing....!

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G.F.Currie Consulting
Email gcurrie@gfcurrie.com