LL Owners - The Perfect Freesite ?
 

Been a reader here not a poster so first.. hi To all :o)

On to my question..
Freesites so far has been pretty much an unexplored area for me.. Did a few years ago but really it pretty quickly became too anoying to me that there where so many different rules, so LL-a wouldn't list me if my site fitted LL-b's rules, or wasn't grouped with LL-c's reciep, etc. and even if trying to follow all rules i only got random listings, Propably becaurse i just sucked at making freesites *lol*

Anyways, no reason to loose out on good traffic if it's there so i was thinking of giving it a second try.. Now looking at the freesites that do get listet they pretty much look just as crappy (read 'simple') as the ones i made, so what makes the big difference if you get listet or not ? What does that perfect freesite look like from the linklist owner/reviewers point of view ?

Any kind of input on this, as well as any tips, tricks, NoNo's and url's to LL's where i actualy have a chance of getting listed without knowing someone that knows someone, will be most apritiated, Thanks :o)

So did you also get annoyed with TGP rules?

If you find the answer to this please share it so we can all get rich. Probably, the correct answer is the perfect free site is one that follows the linklist's rules.

Most all of them, but keep in mind that "you pat my back and I'll pat yours" rule applies in all business relationships. Chose a board that you comfortable being a part of. Become active and do not be selfish. If you can help a fellow webmaster, do it.

I'm not a link list owner, just a concerned citizen. ;) I didn't 'know' anyone when I started building and submitting free sites and I've always felt pretty damn successful at getting listed. I can submit a free site to 12 lists and almost guarantee that at least 10 them will accept it. But when I submit galleries to TGPs, I'd be damned if I get listed at 10 out of 300 places I submit to.

But as Chop said, become part of this community. Let people see your name and use that name when you submit to them. That way you aren't just another complete stranger to them. Plus, you can always post your free site links here and ask the link list owners why the hell they didn't accept it.

Taass,
Due to hell lot of cheaters, some LinkLists may not list you right away. Like UW and Chop Smith said, be a part of the webmaster community. Build and submit good freesites and be honest. After a while LinkList owners will notice you and you will start getting listed.
Best of luck with your second time...
Neo

Hey Chop Smith, Thanks for the ansvers (or questions ;o)

Well, on some i did, but Imo. the larger tgp's much quicker came up with some sort of standart rules so when you made a gallery that one of them accepted most of the others would too.. In the beginning though a lot of the tgp's where quite diverse in their rules aswell *lol*



HeHe.. Follow this tread and maybe gold will fall in your lap ;o)
Just thought it would be nice with the input from LL's as obviously it's not just about following the rules but also a matter of different taste, and perhaps something else, that i have missed the first time round ?


As allways, i know.. Well, guess this is step one then.. board here i am |waves| *lol*

Quite the oposite with me then, Never had a problem with getting listed on tgp's, got partner accounts on more of them than i have use for.. But then, been quite a while since i made freesites, so maybe my luck will be better this time :D


Hehe.. that was good advice, trash them on the board if they don't list me *just kidding*.. Hmm.. does that work ? :D

Welcome to the board, Taass, you will find loads of help here. Good luck in the free site world.

Well can't really blame them, though it's anoying that they can't tell straight away that i'm an honest guy |cool| guess i'm just in for the long haul of proving myself once again then |cry| :D

Thanks a lot Chop Smith, It's nice to feel welcome |thumb

hi Taass

I suggest that you attend the on the bench chat on saturdays with MrMaryLou
there is a wealth of knowledge being shared every week in those chats.


Fred

Hello and welcome to the board.

The only advice I can give is the same everyone else has given thus far. So instead of repeating what they've already said I'll just say good luck! :)

I really need to start attending that too. I've heard great things about OTB, but come Saturday afternoon I'm off somewhere in la-la land.
|mml|

|waves| Hi Taass!!

yes..and it's a pretty open forum where you can ask questions and actually receive answers or be directed to where you can find them.

and opportunities to network as there are submitters, newbies, middlebees, oldbees, LL owners and paysite owners who attend.

get a list of questions together so you can bombard MML with them.. |mml|

|shake| |shake| I'll set an alarm clock and meet you there tomorrow. Deal? |shake|

I make no guarantees, but I am putting a post-it reminder on my moniter. I am just a man who performs at the whim of his pretty little wife. If she is having one of her 'I feel like I haven't seen you all week' moments, I'll be with her. (She's cute and she makes a lot more money than me:D)

The perfect free site ...... I personally look at the content and design. Any gimmicks like shoving the recip link somewhere it won't be seen, or trickery such as huge FPAs with tiny links at the bottom for the surfer to enter galleries would most definitly make me hit delete.

Best advice - read the rules and follow them

Hi Fred
Won't be able to this saturday as i finaly took a weekend off, but i will deffenetly try to attend the next one.. Thanks |thumb


Hello Osiris and thank you very much :o)


Hi docholly|waves|
I'll be there next chance i get, with my notebook ready ;o)


Hi Jigg
Well I allways read the rules however long they might be before submiting anything, no point in wasting everyones time in submiting something that don't follow the rules :o)
Allways try to make my stuff very surfer friendly aswell, with no blind links or tricky stuff.. If i click something myself and it takes me somewhere other than expected i close, and can't see why the surfer wouldn't do the same..

As for the design, I was actualy thinking that was one of the reasons for me not getting listed.. Most sites i see listed seems very simple with no real design at all, so maybe i'm simply overdoing it with trying to make mine look nice ?

Would this site fall in the crappy category in your opinion?
http://www.weboflinks.com/lesbians/free/lap/index.html

If so please give me some advice so i can start getting fewer listings and make less money :D

Hmm.. is that a trick question ? :D

Well.. Imo. yes it kinda does.. Crappy might not be the right word, as that will give a negative ring to it and thats not the way i meant it(that was more a refference to my own skills back then), but it does look very simple.. I think i could make 5 complete freesites like that in the same time i use now just making one good tgp gallery..
But then, that might be the reason i don't/didn't get listed, because i make too much out of it, with graphics and stuff..
So is the whole idea keeping it simple ?

There is an ongoing myth, especially in the TGP area, that things have to be nice & fancy & loaded with graphics & pretty looking & whatnot.

What it all boils down to is of you know how to sell the surfer on at the very least, going to the site that you're promoting.

If you have little or no marketing skills, you might as well get out of the advertising business, which is what all of this Free Site & Gallery stuff is.

Layout to sell the LL reviewer, ad text to sell the surfer. Perfect :D
Actually, to take a shot at answering your top question I think.
Make it easy to say "Yes". Standard sales stuff.
That is to say, all of your links should CLEARLY indicate where they lead. Forever.
Thats about it I'd say honestly.

Hi Greenguy
We can easily agrea that graphics can quickly become too much.. Imo, it's a great tool though if you can use it as a way for the surfer to quickly recocnise the niche of the content, or to guide their focus, but should not be used in a way where it takes the focus from the content or sponsor link.

It does seem (to me anyways) like free sites has a "no graphics at all" policy though and i was wondering if that was just due to the free site webmasters making them that way or simply because LL owners won't list graphics sites ?

Okay, so now i've made my 'first' freesite and just spent 2 hours (YES TWO HOURS *lol*) submiting it to 9 linklists..
Right now i must admit that i'm not sure if i should laugh or cry, but in any case submiting to linklists has defenetly not gotten easier since the last time i tried it..

Of the 9 LL recieps spots i started out with on the site, 7 had to be replaced.. in one spot i whent through 4 LL's and was about to just quit that spot before i finaly found a reciep for it..(thanks to RichardsRealm for knowing how to make things nice and easy)
Basicly what i have been doing is reading through every LL's rules very carefully, downloading their reciep, placed it on my site, uploaded it to the server..only to hit the LL's submit button and get the message 'Partner submit only'.. Then doing it all over again on the next LL.. Damn, would it really be so hard to write on the top of your submit pages "PARTNERS ONLY" to stop wasting everyone elses time ???

At least the ones i ended up with was nice and easy..(thank you for that) now i just have to wait and see if my site will even get listed at all, or maybe i've just been banned on those for changing my index page those 10-15 times *lol*

I don't mind them & I do list them all the time, but I think it's just that Free Site builders choose to use more text & less graphics on their sites, probably because of SE stuff of the fact that it's 4 pages for a Free Site and just one for a Gallery - or we're all just very lazy or graphics impaired :D

Thanks for that ansver Greenguy, It does make a big difference if you have one page to make the sale or 4 so i guess it makes sence to go lighter on the freesites.

One quick question to your rules :
I asume that relates to those anoying counters that pops up a lot of crap if you click them, but would a hidden counter be allowed on a page submited to you ?
(..or did i fuck up allready) |cry|