| URLwire
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
What is URLwire?
I started
URLwire in 1994 as one of the methods used to help Jeff Bezos announce
and attract attention and links for the debut of Amazon.com.
That sounds
glamorous, but it wasn't. I did it from the kitchen table in my three-room
apartment on a dial-up modem. URLwire has been going ever since,
helping educational, useful, and unique sites attract natural links. I've
been helping great content obtain links since before search engines existed.
Since before the search engines realized the value of those links.
URLwire
is a discreet and highly regarded news service for announcing genuinely
meritorious Web content to the right people. Sites announced on URLwire
must offer useful, unique, or educational content, or show off the capabilities
of the web in some way that is obvious and real. My URLwire contacts
are looking to be impressed or intrigued by an overall experience a
user will have when visiting your web site. URLwire has readers in
17 countries, and reaches hundreds of librarians, researchers, content
link curators, site seekers and editors looking to be informed of quality
web content. I announce your site privately to my personal contacts and
publicly here on the URLwire.com site. I also announce your site
via several other venues, described in detail below.
URLwire
is
not a press release distribution service, and is not automated.
It is sent by me, one at a time, to contacts who know me by name and look
forward to it. My subscriber/member list has continually evolved
and improved over the years, and each month I continue to add and remove
subscribers that I feel are of the caliber that make sense for my clients.
What is the main
mission of URLwire?
The mission
of URLwire is to help your high quality content attract high quality links
from trustworthy sources, like content link curators, online site reviewers,
bloggers, editors, writers, vertical web guides, social linkers, etc.
Here's
an example of URLwire's potential
URLwire
is not a link spam tool for helping you chase search engine rankings, and
URLwire was around before there were search engines.
Yes, it is possible that your site's search rankings may improve after
using URLwire, but it isn't URLwire alone that makes that happen. You must
be producing useful and linkworthy content in the first place, or no amount
of publicity and links will help you.
That last
sentence was very important, so let me repeat it...
You
must be producing useful and linkworthy content in the first place, or
no amount of publicity and links will help you.
What types of content
will URLwire accept/announce?
Your
site must offer useful, unique, or educational content, or show off the
capabilities of the web in some way that is obvious and real. The
site does not have to be brand new, however I will not announce sites that
offer no content other than a list of products, and I will not announce
sites that are, in my opinion, offensive or distasteful.
Who pays for URLwire
and what does it cost?
The people
who want to announce the site pay the fee, which is $495. A detailed service
description is available here.
How do I start the
process of announcing a site?
If you
know you want to proceed, click
here. If you want additional information, continue reading below or
send me an email and
tell me about the site you're wanting to announce. I'll reply as soon as
I can.
URLwire
subscriber comment
 "Eric
knows quality web content, and he knows how to reach out and publicize
it politely, personally, privately. When we see an email from Eric, we
read it and link to many of the sites he sends us." -- Library
of Congress
Why did I create
URLwire?
I created
URLwire because mass wire services are not selective about what they announce
and who they send it to, and cannot reach the key online contacts who specifically
write about, review, and link to new web content. Mass wire services send
out thousands of press releases a day. URLwire announces a few sites
each week.
Who does URLwire
reach?
Your
content's subject matter determines who I contact.
I personally
do the vetting/research and identify the exact people who are URLwire subscribers
and also looking for the subject specific and purposeful web content in
your subject area. For example, if your content is about Jazz music,
the people I contact and announce your content to can be from widely read
online publications like like Yahoo
New and Notable or
USA
Today Useful Sites, or from niche
links pages devoted to jazz
The key
is to match your content to the exact people that will care about it.
No matter the subject, if your content is of high quality, then there will
be people on the web who will care about it. As an example,
over 300 librarians across the U.S. are URLwire subscribers, and they represent
some of the most trusted sources of site collections in the world.
Some of you understand what that means to your organic rankings.
If you don't you need to read
this.
I also
tag your site announcement so it will be found by those doing tag searchers
(technorati and del.icio.us., etc.) and I provide chiklets directly to
your site's URL so social media users have the opportunity to share your
site with the exact people who would be interested.
URLwire
subscriber comment
 "Eric,
the sites you send us are exactly what we look for. Thanks for being
on target and not sending junk" — Adrian L. Yahoo
Key
Point: URLwire subscribers have requested it and those who subscribe via
proavte email have also given me a profile of the types of sites they want
to know about.
Below
is just a sampling of thousands of online venues where editors,
librarians, and content seekers are looking for high quality web content
to write about and link to.
Sample
URLwire member/subscribers: Yahoo
New and Notable Sites - NYPL Best
of the Web - Forbes Best of The
Web - Boing Boing - IRN
Internet Resources Newsletter - USA
Today Web Guide/Useful Sites - Exploratorium's
Web Picks - Librarians Internet Index
- Cool Tricks and Trinkets
- Parents
Best Web Sites - Guardian
Web Watch - Education
World - The
Scout Report - AOL StudyBuddy
- BestHistorySites - PC
Magazine Top Sites - Lockergnome
- - NetDetours - About.com-
FreePint
- NetGuide - WebUser
- Suite101 - Zoo.com
- .net
Again, this
above just scratches the surface. Here are a few additional examples in
specific niches
Busy
Educator's Guide to the Web - Classroom
Earth Best of the Web - Berit's
Best Sites for Kids - Surfing
the Net With Kids - Ask for Kids
- Child & Family WebGuide from
Tufts University - FamilyTree
Best of the Web - Kids
Web
Let's get
even more nichified. How about these?
Best
of PhysicsWeb
Useful
Web Links for the Materials Industry
Sleep
Disorder Sites
Dulcimer
and Folk Music Links
Jazz
Music Links
Speech-Language
Pathology and Audiology Links
My point
is there are literally thousands of people on the web who enjoy identifying
and linking to content in thousands of subjects. My attention to
this niche for years gives me unrivalled contacts and credibility, from
today all the way back to the nineties when URLwire
was a
Netscape
Editor's Choice source for new sites.
I want to receive
URLwire, how do I sign up?
There
are many ways to receive URLwire, described
in detail here. Quickly, if you want to hear about all of the sites
I announce (5-7 per week max), you can simply subscribe to the URLwire
feed here
or subscribe to the private URLwire
group at Google. If you just want sites about a specific subject, send
email to subjects@urlwire.com
or
eric@urlwire.com,
and
tell me exactly what you want, then only if I have a perfect match will
you ever hear from me. I match it myself. No bots and no scripts.
How does URLwire
differ from large wire services?
1). I
limit the number of sites I'll announce to a few per week
2). I
am extremely selective about what I feature on URLwire
3). I
am overly selective about who I contact on your behalf
4). I'll
make another announcement for you if you aren't pleased with the response
I know
my subscribers and what they want, and I don't pollute them with off topic
announcements. URLwire is not for sending news about your IPO or CEO.
If you have news about something other than the content of your site, you
should use a fine service like
Market
Wire or Internet News Bureau
or PRWeb to distribute it. I recommend
them as they are excellent services for this type of news. Only use
URLwire when your news is about the content on your site. The quality
of the site ultimately determines whether or not I will announce and pursue
links for it.
How
are sites announced on URLwire?
The URLwire
News Network announces new web sites via multiple channels as follows.
Step
One - Private email
The first
step is sending individual announcements about your site via email to my
private contacts. This will take anywhere from one to three hours
depending on how many contacts I identify that are appropriate for your
specific site announcement. For each site launch I announce, I personally
sort, cull and sift through my entire membership of URLwire subscribers,
matching your site announcement with the stated interests of my contacts.
I also look for the key influencers who are not already URLwire members
but who cover and link to sites in the same subject area as your site.
Any given launch alert is typically a fit for 300 or more contacts.
My contacts only hear from me when I have a site that matches their stated
interests. And URLwire is purposely not automated. It's
sent one-to-one from me personally to my contacts.
Step
Two - Web
Next
I'll post your announcement on its own page on the URLwire web site, and
create a headline link and summary to it on the URLwire home page above
and on the URLwire
headline page. Your announcement will be crawled by the various
news bots and search engines almost immediately. Google News and
Yahoo News, for example, crawl URLwire site announcements within minutes
of their appearing.
URLwire
has millions of annual page views. This is achieved as a result of
thousands
of sites around the world linking to my headline
page or story pages over the many years URLwire has been here.
Step
Three - Blogs, Feeds, Twitter and other Social Media
I place
your site announcement on the URLwire Blogs and
RSS
feed. I'll also Tweet your URL
via URLwire's Twitter option, tag your announcement so it will be found
by tagging sites like technorati, and I'll enable the well known share
chicklet (below) on your site announcement so social linkers and bookmarkers
have the opportunity to share, digg, bookmark and otherwise spread your
site's URL. 
(this one's purposely not enabled)
Step
Four - News Bots, Private Groups and Syndication
I place
a brief summary of your content announcement on the private Google
Group for URLwire. My announcement of your site will also
be
indexed by Google, Yahoo, and MSN very quickly, and I've had
instances where Yahoo
News picks up my announcements in less than five minutes. I
also have arrangements with key news syndication services and newsbots,
like
Moreover,
NewsHub,
and WebProWire, and to provide
them with my content announcements. This gets your site announcement
headline and link on thousands of other sites and into the Web's largest
news indexes.
Why does URLwire
produce so many versions of the site announcement?
URLwire
is not a press release distribution service. Most site reviewers do not
want a press release anyway. That's why I don't automate URLwire.
I provide each of my members with my site announcements in the exact format
they want. If they want a short email with a special subject line,
no problem. If they want a weekly digest, I send it that way. If
they want an RSS version,
I have it. Blog? Yes. Via
private
Google group? Got it. Twitter? No
problem.
Who writes the site
announcement?
You write
the initial copy, and I'll make suggestions if I feel it will improve the
reception. If you prefer that I write the entire announcement, I will but
I charge an additional fee.
What sites have used
URLwire to announce their launch?
Literally
thousands over the years. A sampling of sites that hired URLwire to
announce their launch includes Amazon.com, Weather.com, Wine.com/Virtual
Vineyards, Dell, Rodney.com, Infobeat, The BBC, Kellogg's, MoMA, Law.com,
Visa.com, and sites for Ziff-Davis, The New York Times, The Discovery
Channel, Microsoft, AOL, About.com and The AMA, and PBS. Many
other now famous Web sites were originally launched through my URLwire
service.
Do the people who
receive URLwire like it?
They
love it. They are interested in my announcements because they know it's
something they haven't seen, will be a match for their interests, and a
top-notch site. But don't take my word for it. Read their
quotes
here.
Does URLwire work?
Rather
than me tell you, I'll let my clients tell you. Here are three quotes
and a longer testimonial. A few more URLwire
testimonials are also available.
Jim
Osgood - OfficeFinder.com
"Eric,
URLwire got our site covered and linked online in places we'd tried for
months to get in without success. And, URLwire did it in one day. Thanks!"
.
Rob
Ford,
FavouriteWebsiteAwards
"URLwire
is a great service which has proven results. Two projects I have been involved
with that you have featured have both gone straight into the Yahoo directory
and been listed on their Pick of the Day page. Thanks a bunch, Eric!"
.
Amy Strycula, CoolShopping.com
- Cool Shopping Sites
"We've
been using Eric's URLwire service since 1995, and on more than one occasion
had to work closely with our hosting service to keep our servers up under
the high traffic loads that resulted".
"The
Silence is Deafening" - a Reverse Testimonial for Eric Ward
What if URLwire doesn't
work?
Give URLwire six weeks, and
if by then you don't feel URLwire did what you expected it would, let me
know and I'll run an additional URLwire announcement free of charge.
I'm not in this just to make a few hundred bucks. I'm in this for
the long haul. Try asking for this assurance from any other content
publicity service.
Can't a Public Relations
firm do what URLwire does?
Many
Public Relations firms hire me to announce their client's sites.
They know I have many years of contacts and relationships in the online
world, while they have contacts in the off-line world.
How do I start the
process to announce a site?
If you
know you want to proceed, click
here. If you want additional information, send me an email
and tell me about the site you're wanting to announce. I'll reply as soon
as I can.
Eric Ward
Phone:
865.637.2438 - but please try email first.
You can
read about my other services at EricWard.com |
