Helping The Forum To Grow

[__-Steve-__]

I'm doing some optimisation on the Forum to help it get ranked in the search engines because I would like to see hundreds of people coming in here forming local groups and action committees etc.

I need you all to help out;

One of the best ways to improve your positions in the search engines is to have lots of links from other sites pointing here (the search engines figure that if lots of other sites link to us we must be good)

Every time you all make a post on a blog or newspaper comment section etc remember to leave a link to the Tavern as well. If just 10 of you do this twice a day we would have 200 inbound links in only 10 days and within months we should have thousands of sites linking to us.

It would also help if you could try to use the phrase 'smoking bans' somewhere near the link as well or even better in the links anchor text if you are able and know how to do this.

Now get onto those comment sites and put the world right! Any questions, give me a shout.

Steve

[gilster]

It would also help if you could try to use the phrase 'smoking bans' .....................or even better in the links anchor text if you are able and know how to do this.

Hi Steve, you are going to have to explain that last part to me, have no clue how to link an anchor text - or what it is

Also, do the search engines also pick up on the word "Forces" or does it need to be a true link?

I've seen some of my posts show up on news searches later on - especially when I write wood smoke in a comment section and search for wood smoke on another day - It freaks me out when I read a sentence on a news search and click onto it and realize "Hey, that's me"

I've also noticed that some news searches pull words out of certain papers comment sections - but others don't - The UK's Morning Advertiser always show up on news searches on 'smoking ban' because it's written in the comment section and not necessarily the article.

[__-Steve-__]

Hi Steve, you are going to have to explain that last part to me, have no clue how to link an anchor text - or what it is

Anchor text in a link is something like this;

Learn about smoking bans at the Tavern

to achieve that you would have to use html code and not many comments sections allow you to do that but if you come across any here's what you need to do;

Code: Select all

<a href="http://www.forces.org/tavern/">Learn about smoking bans at the tavern</a>

Forums like this one use a different markup language so you would have to use the following;

Code: Select all

[url=http://www.forces.org/tavern/]Learn about smoking bans at the Tavern[/url]

Also, do the search engines also pick up on the word "Forces" or does it need to be a true link?

Search engines will pick up on words and phrases 'close' to the link; but there is little point using the word Forces because we already come 4th in Google for that keyword and anyone looking for us under that word probably knows who we are anyway.

I've also noticed that some news searches pull words out of certain papers comment sections - but others don't - The UK's Morning Advertiser always show up on news searches on 'smoking ban' because it's written in the comment section and not necessarily the article.

The MA is a publican newspaper and so the smoking ban is a very hot topic for the readers and those who comment, that is why it ranks well for that phrase. If the tavern can get in the top 3 or 4 of Google for the term 'smoking ban' we will get thousands of visits per day from people who are interested in the issue.

[Ariel]

Slightly confused Steve. Got the part about putting smoking ban near the link -- but do you want us to link to the Tavern (why?) -- or to the Forces homepage?

Also, with regard to --

"I would like to see hundreds of people coming in here forming local groups and action committees etc. "

I would like to be a point of contact for folks from MD. Is there a permanent place for same-state residents to be able to hook up with each other here?

[__-Steve-__]

Slightly confused Steve. Got the part about putting smoking ban near the link -- but do you want us to link to the Tavern (why?) -- or to the Forces homepage?

Anywhere you link to on Forces is good but I particularly wanted to get the Tavern up in the search engine ranks. Forces already has thousands of inbound links (not very good ones but we'll get to that later) so I wanted to concentrate here first, like I said if just 10 of you could do a couple a day it soon mounts up. The Tavern is the place where people who visit Forces can get involved and have a feeling of 'belonging' to something rather than Forces just being a 'great place to visit when they want info'. This is where we can give people their say and get them actively involved; it is also where they can meet and make friends with like minded people and where they can see they are not alone as the rAntis would have them believe.

Also, with regard to --

"I would like to see hundreds of people coming in here forming local groups and action committees etc. "

I would like to be a point of contact for folks from MD. Is there a permanent place for same-state residents to be able to hook up with each other here?

Maryetta sets the structure for the forums but my advice would be to start a new thread in the most appropriate category and if it starts to get popular ask for a new category or group for it.

[DancingTigerBait]

Steve--

Here's what I put:

If you're fed-up with government intrusion into our private lives (alcohol, tobacco, weight or so-called obesity, etc.) especially the nonsense and destruction surrounding smoking bans, then visit <a href="http://www.forces.org/tavern/">the FORCES tavern</a> or go directly to their <a href="http://www.forces.org">FORCES homepage</a>. Another great forum, UK based though, is <a href="http://www.thebigdebate.org">The Big Debate</a> with a sister site for <a href="http://www.freedom2choose.info/">Freedom to Choose</a>.

I put this on four pages-- http://www.stahlheart.com/TheBigPicture.htm , http://www.stahlheart.com/Governor.html , http://www.stahlheart.com/Legislature.html and http://www.stahlheart.com/links.html . (However, I already had FORCES links on the governor and Legicalture pages.)

I second Ariel's notion of getting people to forms state groups.

[__-Steve-__]

That's great DTB

If a few of you can take up this activity we will soon be getting so many people in here we will need to buy some more chairs

The only thing I would change above is the way you linked to Forces. We have over 1000 inbound links indexed at Google but the vast majority of them link to us using the word 'Forces'; this is great when someone types Forces into a search engine (we come top) but the trouble is that not many people search on that word (unless they already know who we are).

Not one active pro choice or pro rights group comes in the top ten pages of google for the search term 'Smoking Bans', this is because thousands of websites link to the anti and government sites with phrases such as, "See here for information on smoking bans". There are hundreds of thousands of searches performed every month on the term "Smoking Bans".

You could perhaps therefore in future change your link above to something like;

"Smoking bans at Forces" or "Fight smoking bans at the Forces Tavern"

[DancingTigerBait]

I see. you want "smoking bans" right in the hyperlink--not just in the text near the link. Okay, I changed it on all four pages:

If you're fed-up with government intrusion into our private lives (alcohol, tobacco, weight or so-called obesity, etc.) especially the nonsense and destruction surrounding smoking bans, then <a href="http://www.forces.org/tavern/">discuss/fight smoking bans at the FORCES tavern</a> or go directly to their <a href="http://www.forces.org">FORCES homepage</a>. Another great forum, UK based though, is <a href="http://www.thebigdebate.org">The Big Debate</a> with a sister site for <a href="http://www.freedom2choose.info/">Freedom to Choose</a>.

[admin]

For those of us "old timers" here at The Tavern, you will remember that at one time I did have all the US states listed and was asked to remove them and just make "north america" because it made the page too, too long or large... in fact, I had every country of the world listed so folks could post in their own language on their country's forum. But the page was really too long and not well used.

If you want a specific state listed, I can put it up with no problem - just tell me what you want listed and after it is up please populate it so it is used and as new people come here there is something there for them to reference.

The worst impression a forum can give is quite simple: no activity: The reader sees this and thinks "I must be the only one, therefore no one cares about this but me, so I must be the only one who disagrees, gee, I should set down and shut up....."

[Jemeyes]

over on speakeasy we get a lot of hits or visitors with no posting form them..I think they just come to read

DTB can I copy your links and put them in my siggy line ,, every time I post anything on speakeasy those links will show up

[DancingTigerBait]

over on speakeasy we get a lot of hits or visitors with no posting form them..I think they just come to read

DTB can I copy your links and put them in my siggy line ,, every time I post anything on speakeasy those links will show up

Please feel free to use anything I've got. I think the F2C forum link needs to be updated, though.

If you're fed-up with government intrusion into our private lives (alcohol, tobacco, weight or so-called obesity, etc.) especially the nonsense and destruction surrounding smoking bans, then <a href="http://www.forces.org/tavern/">discuss/fight smoking bans at the FORCES tavern</a> or go directly to their <a href="http://www.forces.org">FORCES homepage</a>. A UK-based group (forcing a Judicial Review of the English smoking ban) is <a href="http://www.freedom2choose.info/">Freedom to Choose</a>, with another great forum for chatting and organizing <a href="http://www.freedom2choose.info/forum/index.php">here</a>.

Something like that? Again, feel free to use/adapt anything I've done.

[Jemeyes]

thanks DTB