Web Promotion with Message Boards

Search engines have change their methods considerably in the way they index sites. It's no longer just submit your URL then expect a flood of visits to your site. These search engines are wanting meaningful content and relevance to their links. I agree whole heartedly with their decisions at being more selective. Why? Quite frankly relevance eliminates confusion and promotes order. Because of this choice by the search engines it is now a whole lot easier to find specifically what you are looking for when you search.

And search engines are paying a bunch more attention to message boards and forums for relevant content. The reason is that these sites are where the more indepth discussions on subjects are taking place. And being such are a great opportunity to give your site the exposure it needs.

The way that you can receive search engine attention is as follows:

1. Find message boards who's subjects are similar to your sites content. If you have a website who's subject is marketing, find a message board related to marketing. If your sites subject is ebooks, find a board who's subject is ebooks.

And once you've located that particular board with that particular subject, register and take part in the discussions so that you can build a reputation as someone who is knowledgeable in that particular area. The search engines usually spider and index these boards daily and your post on the subject will be picked up by them.

Make sure you use an avatar with your account. Maybe a picture of yourself as this gives your posts a bit more substantiality.

2. Once you have established a number of posts on that board, look at the rules of that particular forum and see if they allow custom signatures. A signature is an area where you can post a little about you and what you do. It also shows up on every post you make in that message board and as a result, also in the search engines. I need to caution you though, do not go overboard on your signature. In other words, simply make mention of your site and the link to it. Do not try to openly advertise your product on the board. Many boards consider this as spam and will most likely get you banned.

3. Create your own message board and invite others to come and discuss your subject. I just recently did this myself and am now in the process of getting members. This puts the promotion in your hands. I does mean a bit more effort on your part but the rewards can be tremendous.

The forum I mentioned in this article is located at http://receivedtext.org/forum/ and is wide open to use if you would like to try the same method. I plan to write an article later on the subject of promoting your own message board.

Ebook Research and Marketing with Message Boards

A little brainstorming to find out more about what the public is looking for in an ebook subject. General suggestions on communicating with prospective readers.

So you have an ebook and you are wanting folks to know it's there. What do you do? Well I've been an author for several years now and have written articles, courses, and ebooks on subjects like architectural and mechanical drafting, humor, church history and government, bible version comparisons, charity, etc. I've been around the bush a couple of times. And of those times over the years, I've dealt with numerous techniques of marketing and researching to find out what people are interested in for subject matter. Problem is that I feel there must be more ways to communicate with readers for more ideas.

I believe I've come across an idea that a handy tool in research. Being an author, of course I have my ebooks in as many directories as I can. Just recently I opened my own ebook directory where I advertise my various titles along with other authors works. The one thing I hadn't tried was to create a message board or forum and attach it to my ebook directory. With this method I can invite visitors and authors of the books listed on my directory to discuss the books themselves and even get ideas for future ebooks.

I already know this method works because interactions on my support board for the drafting lessons, I periodically ask my students on the board what they think of different subjects and ask them what they would like to see next in a course. Many gladly respond with their own ideas and thoughts. Matter of fact they are pleased to be a part of the process.

One of those conversations went as follows and originally wasn't aimed at research. This particular student was just asking a question about one of the lessons:

Me - Thanks. Would you believe by the way that you are the first in 2 years that actually let me know they found the window missing??? Now what does that tell us?

Student: Tim, Yow! I'm not even gonna venture a guess! Now I'm almost afraid to mention that I reached the point in Lesson #7 where the center beam for the floor joists should be 12"...

Me - Man, you are right on top of it. Continue to enjoy. Hey, help me out with something, will ya? I have a few projects in the works. If you don't mind, which do you think would be the most popular or interesting?
The projects I have on the drawing board right now are:
1. Creating construction drawings for a strawbale home
2. Converting a barn into a home
3. Mechanical drawing on a drafting board
4. Machine Shop Drafting 101
5. Industrial drafting 101
6. Survey and Topographical Drafting 101
7. Creating construction drawings for an earthship

Student - These are some very interesting ideas! If I were to pick from your list, I'd probably go in this order:
1. Survey and Topographical Drafting 101
2. Industrial drafting 101
3. Machine Shop Drafting 101
These for the possible future earning potential for students, but for me personally, I'd like:
1. Creating construction drawings for an earthship
2. Converting a barn into a home
3. Creating construction drawings for a strawbale home
That's because of my "Mother Earth News" way of thinking, I do believe!

Then another student joined into the conversation with the following:

Other Student - I would like to see these choices from your list, in no particular order...
mech drawing on a drafting board
machine shop 101
industrial drafting 101
survey/topo draft 101
also if you may consider input... i would like to see a few 101's directed toward indust mech sytems, electrical, boiler plants/chiller plants, hvac etc... just my $.02....ya get what ya pay for...lol

Anyway, I thought I'd share this tidbit with you. Just by including the public in suggesting topics can give you a wealth of information.

The forum I mentioned in this article is located at http://receivedtext.org/forum/ and is wide open to use if you would like to try the same method. The drafting lessons the students I quoted were taking is at http://houseplandrafting101.net

Understanding Mechanical Drawings

A mechanical drawing is defined as a scaled illustration of a subject machine or mechanical part, or construction drawing of a fixture, product, or furnishing. It is a precision drawing, produced with the help of instruments, such as compasses, triangles, T-squares, etc., on a drafting board, or entirely in a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) program.

Mechanical drawings are often produced in a reduced or enlarged scale of the subject so that definition of the parts and components can be easily defined. (ie. scale: 1 inch equals 2 inches, etc.)

A mechanical drawing will many times feature a fully assembled subject so that the concept of the subject can be more easily understood to the one reading the drawing. These are sometimes drawn in an isometric or 3d view to give more of the idea of substance and space to the subject. Then the subject itself is broken down into it's individual parts so that these can be clarified by dimensions and notes for fabrication in a machine, metal fabricating, or wood shop.

Mechanical drawings are use in fabricating things like steel beams and columns for building structures, automotive and machine parts, woodworking projects, reference drawings included with instructions for assembly, etc.

Ancient mechanical drawings can be traced back to ancient Egypt and were known as infographics. These either told a story or illustrated a process and were mostly carved in rock or drawn on papyrus. The more famous historical mechanical drawings came from the preindustrial era and were illustrations made by men like Leonardo Da Vinci.

Tim Davis has created a very complete course on learning to draw mechanical drawings in a CAD program at http://draftingservice.us/m101/. You will also find some woodworking plans on this site that are free to download.

Woodworking Plans

Searching around the internet you can come up with plenty of woodworking plans like tables, desks, birdhouses, bookshelves, dog houses, doll houses, etc. So how do you know if it is a good plan? Well, no matter the type of drawing, a good, usable drawing has a few things that you should look for:

1. Are the dimensions and notes readable if drawn by hand? There are some pencil drawn illustrations out there. Some good, some not so good and unless the drafter took care to make his lettering plain, there could be a problem as you try to build from it. The drawings should very clearly show dimensions and notes in such a way that it leaves no question as to how they relate to the subject.

2. Do all the views of the drawing look like they belong to the same piece? In other words, the quality of the projections will many times tell you if there was thought put into the design or if somebody was just doodling.

For instance, say you have a table top that measures 24 inches by 36 inches but the top looks like a square instead of the rectangle it should be. In other words, it's disproportionate. This can really cause confusion. Actually, the best drawings were drawn in a CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) program or on a drafting board with some controls over the images.

3. Is there a cut sheet attached to the drawings? A cut sheet takes the project apart and illustrates the various parts of the piece with specific dimensions for each piece. This is very important as it will cut your trial and error time down to a minimum.

4. Not always necessary by the way, but did the one making the drawings give specific notes about what types of fastners and glues to use? How about special joints needed to make the project sturdier. This is a big plus.

5. The really good drawings have an exploded view that shows parts placement. This is where the drawing is made in an isometric (3D) view with the parts out just beyond where they fit together. Another good example would be a finished photograph that shows most or all of the thing you are building. This helps you get a better feel for the overall project.

Hey, there are very few plans that are perfect. Whenever a human hand is involved in the creation of something, you have to expect some omissions or errors from time to time. But sloppy drawings can inspire sloppy end results if left unchecked.

Tim Davis has created a very complete course on learning to draw mechanical drawings in a CAD program at http://draftingservice.us/m101/. You will also find some woodworking plans on the site, free to download.

Making your own Woodworking Plans

If you are like me, I'm constantly finding things to build in my wood shop. Wood working is by far one of the most rewarding hobbies I know of and I can release a weeks worth of stress in one evening in the shop.

And searching the internet you will find a wealth of project plans free to whoever wants to download them. But sometimes there are projects I'm wanting to build that can't be found over the net. My solution is to create my own plans from whatever research I've done on the subject I want to build. One of my professions is that of drafter. A drafter (used to be called draftsman) is someone who draws mechanical and architectural plans professionally, so at least I'm qualified to do the task.

One of the things I wasn't able to find plans for was a water wheel. I own a farm and wanted to pump water from my spring to the barn without installing an electric pump. So I researched online to get all the facts, decided what size wheel would work in my spring, and started making a prototype drawing. After a few days drawing was able to come up with not only the water wheel but the braces and stand and also the pump frame to mount on the bottom of the stream.

From these drawings I was able to also build cut sheets for each part of the wheel and then start fabricating. Within a day or two I had a functional water wheel. After you build a concept drawing, you can dissect the drawing to come up with all the parts and their dimensions. That's by far better than using the old trial and error method many attempt in the shop. And the wheel works fantastic by the way.

Tim Davis has created a very complete course on learning to draw mechanical drawings in a CAD program at http://draftingservice.us/m101/. And if you want a free copy of the waterwheel plans and a drafting table plan, go to http://www.parsonscorner.org/pcimunity/showthread.php?tid=676