Building self-promotional bridges that don’t burn

Xenite.Org has recently been adding content that promotes other Web sites to new sections. Over the past month we’ve put up a site about huckleberry products, a site about the writers group the Compuserve IMPs, and a site about the upcoming “Pirates of Venus” movie based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs books in the Carson Napier series.

Most recently we added a section about a proposed science fiction television show called ‘Barrier’. In all these new sites I was able to leverage Xenite’s eclectic reputation for writing about everything — from Salsa dancing to cheese dip, from Hercules to Xena, from Tolkien to huckleberries — to engage people in the prospect of sharing unique, original content with us.

Now, your average business site isn’t going to be a Xenite.Org. Nor would you want your shoe factory’s Web site to talk about huckleberries (unless you sell huckleberry shoes, or make shoes great for hiking in the mountains where huckleberries grow, etc.). But being the solidly-focused business enterprise that your company is it most likely impacts a lot of people’s lives and lifestyles.

You don’t have to be a film or television studio to get my attention, although obviously entertainment businesses have an inside edge with a site built around science fiction and fantasy television shows. But what you do need to do is provide me with an advantage over other sites. That is, you need to give me a reason to add content about your site to my site.

Another business recently contacted us and asked if we’d like to be added to their distribution list. We have permission to reprint anything they throw out to the list. I reluctantly agreed to add Xenite to the list, suspecting what I soon found to be true. The first distribution to hit our IN boxes went to dozens of Web sites and the content is really not appropriate for Xenite.Org. And none of the sites on the list seem to be very well-known — at least I didn’t recognize any of them.

Now, that is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, if you’re going to blast email news to dozens of Web sites, it’s better to minimize overlap in their audience reaches so that each site has an opportunity to establish a reputation for relatively unique content in its niche. I read a lot of SEO news sites every day and by the time I get to the fifth one telling me that Google has burped on a biscuit, I’m kind of burned out on the SEO news for the day. So who wants to be fifth on my list of five SEO news sites?

Even a shoe factory can publish unique, interesting content on other sites if the team responsible for site promotion is willing to take the time to create useful content that other sites can use. And there is nothing wrong with adding a little incentive for the post. You don’t have to ask for a link.

For example, suppose your shoe factory manufactures hiking boots. Can you find some outdoor experience blogs? Can you find some outdoor experience amateur news sites? Can you find some outdoor experience forums? If you can, why not approach the site owners and say, “Hey, we’d like to send you a pair of boots. All we ask is that you write a review of them.”

Now, that’s taking a big risk. After all, some people won’t like your boots. So what? Take the review. In this day and age of consumer-sentiment monitoring, a company that is confident enough to put its products on the line won’t crash and burn because someone took the boots and said they didn’t like them.

You can ameliorate some potential negative reviews by asking people to be thoughtful in their posts. Ask them up front for an opportunity to add your own thoughts once they put up their content. If they bash your boots don’t go all marketing-crazy and try to convince them the boots are great products. Instead, show some class and thank them for taking the time to evaluate your products and providing you with valued consumer feedback.

I’ve been added to more than one distribution list in my time. Usually, the lists that enjoy the most cooperation from Xenite.Org are the shortest ones. When I was helping promote the Lord of the Rings movies along with other fan sites I became less and less interested in redistributing press releases as I saw the same content going up on more and more sites.

Yes, it’s a great thing to bring together a huge promotional network where you don’t have to pay for links and enthusiastic writeups, but the more sites you bring into the process the more you cheapen the experience for everyone. There comes a point in the distribution process where it’s not feasible to give every site an exclusive interview or unique content, so you burn through the list and hope that the larger sites will pick up your content as part of their “news feed” service.

Is a shoe factory or hand-crafted jewelry site really going to reach that point? I would say that most small to medium-sized businesses won’t get that far with their online promotions. It doesn’t cost much to hold an annual competition where you give out some real prizes and engage a growing community of Web sites that want to help you succeed because they get something in return. But then, most business site operators only think about bringing in sales and conversions.

That’s really what pay-for-click advertising is all about. In search engine optimization you want to extend your visibility as far as you possibly can, and that goes well beyond capturing the top position in a handful of queries. The more Web sites that are mentioning your company and its products and services, the more search visibility you build.

But the more Web sites you engage in your campaign to build visibility, the more friends and allies you acquire. Without ever needing to burn any of them you can create a decent-sized network of friendly sites that will help spread the word to the online world that you’ve added a new product, have moved your offices, are adding capacity, etc.

Any company can become the source of legitimate news and community building. If you can sponsor a team in the local bowling league you can give away a few t-shirts and jackets. If you attend trade shows you can ask bloggers and Web site operators to come by your booth and tell you about their Web sites so that you write each and everyone up on your blog (and get a digital camera - a picture is worth a thousand links).

You don’t have to be a television or movie studio to generate some publicity. You don’t have to distribute the latest hot gossip about popular celebrities. All you have to do is give content, create content, and build a community of people who are interested in what your business does. You start with one friendly Web site and build out from there.

If you’re lucky you’ll find a site like Xenite.Org that will go the extra mile and treat you like you’re Peter Jackson.

If you’re really lucky your campaign will become so successful thath you won’t care when your Xenite-quality friend stops redistributing your canned content.

And don’t feel sad for the Xenites of the Web. We’re still here, helping new projects get off the ground, doing what we love: connecting with people, connecting with sites.

That’s really what the Web and search engine optimization are all about.