Webrings

good, bad?

[eljefe3]

Anyone have any experience with being in a webring or running one? The idea makes sense in that a group of websites all related in "theme" link to each other. Are there any positives or negatives that one should consider before joining or running one?

[DaveAtIFG]

I joined one once upon a time and it did nothing for my traffic. It was poorly managed and I got dumped out of it when they updated the program and didn't even realize it for several months, kept sending them traffic... It left a bad taste in my mouth and I've steered clear since.

If I was to join one today, I think I'd start with the SEs and try to identify which are prominent, well established, and stable. Even if the traffic is limited, one that's listed well should provide a links boost.

[Air]

I've steered clear of webrings, for one thing they are only suitable on certain types of sites, but the thing that most turned me off is they are like a traffic pyramid scheme, the person starting it, and those early to join benefit most.

[rogerd]

El jefe, if you are going to get involved in a webring, do it as the organizer. You will get maximum link and traffic benefit. They seem to be most appropriate for hobbyist and special interest sites, or small businesses. Larger sites usually won't participate.

[eljefe3]

Thanks for the replies. I was just checking out various cgi scripts and came across a few for webrings. They just seem a good idea for the theming of site's and for link pop. Don't know if I'd expect any traffic, but if you could put together sites related to the same content, I beleive this would be a good thing. I saw one where it supposededly had no beginning or ending ( Didn't look into it too much further after reading the responses here)

[ancarett]

Hi! I've been the organizer for several webrings for a community site. They are great for hobby or interest groups, that's true. My busiest ring is a virtual online crafter's mall. That kind of themed commercial ring can be a great little extra traffic add-on.

Depending on the script you can have a lot of management flexibility. Many rings can be set up to automatically or manually reorganize the order served up (for instance, stagger high and low traffic sites to give a fair chance to all sites in the ring). You can also choose to have as much option in managing as you want (to approve all additions) or let it be free for all who apply.

That said, be aware that the most popular web ring hosting system, webring, is now a wholly absorbed part of Yahoo! If you use them to host your rings, all applicants have to go through a Yahoo! ID to join and manage their end of web ring joining. Which can rather defeat the purpose of bringing them into your site for the web ring activities.

[Brett_Tabke]

I love the idea of webrings more than the actual webrings.

I wonder how search engines view those links on a page? Competition?

For a personal page or human interest page, I wouldn't hesitate to join one - but commercial? I would question it.

[heini]

eljefe3
"I was just checking out various cgi scripts and came across a few for webrings."
Would you mind revealing where you found them?
"They just seem a good idea for the theming of site's and for link pop."
Thatīs what I was thinking. If you keep the ring closely related to one subject it should work that way. But as Brett asks: how do SEs view webrings? They wouldnīt see this as kind of FFA Link, would they?

[mivox]

Most webrings I've seen have rotating link scripts, so when you click on "next site" the url actually points to the link randomizing script on the webring host site. I don't think links like that would do much for your link pop... the only place I always see direct links to the sites in the ring is on the webring home page, where they have a 'member sites' page. So really it would only seem you'd gain one new SE reconizable link for theming and link pop purposes.

[tedster]

That's been my experience, too. Only one solid new link, and not much help (or hinderance) on search engines.

I have clients who participate in four different webrings, and they are not a big source of traffic. But the traffic is highly targeted and therefore easy to convert.

[eljefe3]

heini,

Try these to find what you are looking for: [hotscripts.com...]

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