Recently we were asked to give some recommendations for a BMX video website to assist with driving more traffic to the main site. Here’s what we said they should do:
Soulbmx website SEM
Traffic/SEM:
· General SEO
· Back links from industry related websites
· Forum activity
· Video sharing sites
· Live internet tv sites
· Human edited directories
· Image sharing
· Social networking
· Press releases
· Wiki’s/factual articles
· New content
· Newsletters
· PPC campaigns for Adwords, Yahoo and MSN
· Classified internet advert campaign
· Ezines and other online media publications
· Papers, magazines and other advertising
· Adsense advertising
· Blogging
· Google tools, Google sites, Google pages
· Online shop to sell associated products (gives presence on Google product search and Ebay shop)
In no particular order, the following recommendations are proven methods of internet marketing which drive traffic to any website.
General SEO:
Meta tags need tweaking page per page, header tags also need looking at with more site associated titles, sub-titles used. More text content should be added, FAQ’s added and the news section should be added to as often as possible to give Google new content to index each time the site is crawled.
Back Links:
Integral part of search engine marketing to enable page rank and to drive traffic from other sites. Reciprocal link campaigns with bike related websites also worth thinking about.
Forum activity:
Forums are great for back links and also to advertise the main site. Perhaps even add a proper forum to the community pages on the Soulbmx.tv site. Forum posts help with getting back links, to advertise competitions etc and also for the general promotion of any website. There are a lot of bike and BMX or sport related forums out there that can be used to increase internet presence in a big way.
Video sharing sites:
The usual suspects like Youtube.com, Yahoo video and Dailymotion.com are great examples. Videos from the main site can be posted using RSS/API feeds or by hand and they assist hugely with increasing internet presence, driving traffic and obtaining good quality back links. Other potential members can also be sourced by searching for their BMX videos on these sites.
Internet TV sites:
Justin.tv and Sopcast.com are good examples where one can start ones own internet TV channel. Live streams can be started to show latest clips or live bike shows, videos can be posted and groups can be started which all help with the widening of Soulbmx.tv internet presence as well as creating something different for existing and potential new members to take part in.
Human edited directories:
These are a must for improving page rank and back links. Dmoz.org is the best example as Google uses it for its directory. Listings can be added on a regular basis to the highly ranked directories.
Image sharing:
Picasaweb, Flickr and also the social networking sites all have image sharing platforms where images can be posted either by hand or with API/RSS feeds. These are great when used correctly with quality, relevant tags as images associated with the main site are then shown in image searches and you will find that people start to use your images more. Copyright issues and permissions need to be thought out carefully!
Social networking:
Social network accounts are a no-brainer! For your particular industry and the fact that you want more members ALL possible social network accounts must be started and built on day by day. Groups, bulletins, images and videos, Blogs and more can be started and friends can be added so that more traffic is driven on a daily basis to the main site.
Press releases:
These are great ways to get back links to the main site and also to advertise absolutely everything about what is happening on the main site. There are thousands of sites which can be used and as long as new PR is wrote and published regularly, they assist well with SEM
Wiki’s and factual articles:
Listings on Wikipedia.com are a good example of helping with driving traffic to an existing site. As long as the articles are factual and don’t blatantly advertise a product or a service then they are mostly accepted. Existing members can be invited to add to the articles or to post their own on the main site and then these articles can be added to the exterior sites.
New content:
As mentioned above, new content is imperative to assist with achieving and sustaining high placements in search engine listings for any website. Members can be encouraged to post Blogs, image, videos via competitions or prize draws and then this new content can be added across the board on all of the sites/posts that Soulbmx.tv maintains. The news section should be added to on a regular basis and every newsletter sent out can also be posted across the board.
Newsletters:
Newsletters should be sent out at least once a month to existing members. They can also be used for attracting new members to the main site by approaching other organizations associated with bikes and BMX’s (shops, clubs and other websites) and inviting them to join/sign up to the main site. Data can be purchased which lists all these relevant organizations and then emails can be sent, snail-mail outs posted and the newsletter content added to the news section on the main site.
PPC (pay per click) campaigns:
This form of internet marketing can be used to great effect to really kick start the main website. Adverts can be run for a limited period to attract new visitors on Google Adwords, Yahoo and MSN. Paying for adverts on other sites like Facebook.com or highlighted listings on classified sites are also really worth thinking about as they can really start a major influx of new traffic and new members to the main site.
Classified internet adverts:
This is a tried and trusted method of driving traffic and obtaining back links. There are thousands upon thousands of classified sites out there which allow free posting of adverts on them. Most are geographic targeted but new pages can be added to the main site for each country/geographic area with perhaps a contact person/administrator chosen to deal with new enquiries from the adverts.
Ezines and online media publications:
There are a multitude of online publications out there on the net which would definitely be very glad to hear from Soulbmx.tv. Back links can be obtained and a share of their traffic. Sports Ezines and other similar genre related publications can be chosen and then approached with either a newsletter or personally, which would perhaps ensure a better response.
Papers, magazines and other advertising:
A presence in genre related magazines is always good. It is worth contacting all possible BMX and biking magazines to let them know about Soulbmx.tv and perhaps get some stories running in them about the site. It is also worth budgeting for running small adverts in these sorts of publications with references to the website and other online activites.
Adsense:
Adsense can help to generate revenue to pay for advertising like the above or for the PPC campaigns. The more site visitors, the more potential clicks you could get on the Adsense adverts which advertise other websites on your site. It is easy to set up and quite simple to maintain and also can be added to Blogs and other online activities.
Blogging:
Blogging is again, a no-brainer. It simply has to be done! Blogs can be set up both on the main site and on third party hosting sites and content can be posted regularly by the Soulbmx.tv team as well as members who are interested in guest Blog posts. Blogs are always great back links as they are controlled by the writers and they offer a more personal view of what happens behind the scenes of any company which helps with attracting new members.
Google tools:
Google offer a variety of different tools to assist with indexing a given websites content, driving more traffic and increasing internet presence in general. Some of the tools are being used already but they could do with more time being spent on them to optimize their true performance. Google Maps is being used but there should maybe be a maps section for every country where members are from. Administrators can be chosen from new and existing members and their contact details added to Maps to ensure a wider presence.
Other Google tools include:
- Google Analytics
- Google Webmaster tools
- Google sites (was Page Creator)
- Blogger
- Google video
- Adsense and Adwords (as mentioned above)
- Google Maps and local business listings
- Google groups (could be a great addition for your members to post on)
- Orkut (Google’s social network platform)
- Picasa (Photo sharing)
- Google book search partner program (for future paper/online publications from Soulbmx.tv)
- Google Base (for products, reviews, stories and more)
Online shop:
The main site does have a form of a shop at the moment but it’s not very good/user friendly. A new shop should be built, perhaps as a separate entity from the main site which will help with back linking selling product associated with bikes and BMX and also clothing. This could be a fantastic source of revenue and also encourages more traffic as one can obtain a presence on Google product search (Google Base), set up an Ebay store and also advertise individual products with back links to the main site.



247 put together a campaign which included: