Now, if you have no reason to search for me on the internet, then yes, I'm relatively invisible. To alleviate that, I participate in as many of my friends blogs as I can, comment on forums such as this, and try to make sure that I can link back to my own webpage/blog. At the very least, I leave my name behind, like so.

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I found (after all of my hard work - of course!)that only those that I specifically direct to my website or blog will find it (for the most part).

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Surely this doesn't really surprise you? You can have the greatest product in the world, but if no one knows about it, it will flop. A website won't sell itself. You have to be the one to promote it, since you are the one who is emotionally vested in it.

I do website design, and my career is in advertising, graphic design, marketing, and sales. A website is like any other business... you have to market it in order for customers to find it. Using cross-promotion, ie using other forms of advertising (TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, trade journals) and referring to your web address, is best. But if you aren't operating on that level, then cross promoting and exchanging links with other reputable sites is your best bet.

Google is highly protective of their search engine secrets, but in the 200+ elements it uses in its search engine algorithms to build relevancy, having links to and from other reputable sites is probably in the top 5 or 10 of importance. Do a search on SEO, or Search Engine Optimization if you truly want to learn how to rank higher on searches.

Don't submit your URL to search engine farms... those business trolls who advertise they'll send your address out to hundreds of places... That will actually decrease your rating on the search engines. The key here is that you need reputable links, not ones that are black listed as spam collectors.

I used APlus.net to host the website, and had companion blogs with Typepad.com, cross-linked of course. I paid extra for an APlus.net tool which registered the website with Google, Technorati and other major search engines.

I followed advice like the reference you quoted--here's another one: http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000443.html

But the trouble is that (a) everyone else is following the same advice (so you gotta stand out somehow) and (b) most of the advice suggests contributing to other blogs in order to get trackbacks to your own. I could find few blogs I could be bothered to contribute to (aside from my own of course).

I concluded I'd have to put a huge amount of effort into promoting the site, more than I'm prepared to spend. And after all that, there's still an element of luck in it. But if you want people to find you on the net, you'll have to work at it, there's really no easy answer.

Sorry to be so negative,
Pat

Then you need to get into the scene. You need to have content that is updated frequently (in my observation, that's at least 3-5x/week.) You need to be linked to by others (best bet is to write interesting stuff, then people link to you and talk about what you wrote.) You need to link to others (this is often how people find good sites is by following these bread-crumb trails...let's see what JoeSchmoe says today, oh, he thinks that what HenryStevens wrote is bunk...but HenryStevens has some good things to say about HarrietBunkley, I like her, she's spunky, and she's just reviewed the book I finished last week and noticed the same plot hole I noticed!....)

I have gleaned this from conversations with some Industry Experts (I'm not going to unmask them, you'll have to trust me. They're the kind of people who are quoted in the Wall Street Journal a couple times a week.) I haven't yet implemented all the suggestions, but I do have two domain names purchased for my planned sites (I have two going, one specifically focused on technology, one as my "author site")

It's good that the link is now in your profile--but it doesn't work: you don't need to type the http:// because Hatrack puts it in for you. Lesson 1: always check your links.

I'd suggest proof-reading your site. For example, it's "excellence" and "created". Also, each page has a different background, a different look and feel. Most websites use the same background for all the pages to create a strong sense of identity in the reader's mind.

There are several guides out there for designing websites. Here's a simple one, for example:

http://www.vorburger.ch/kissfp/styleguide/index.html

I am still researching the actual setting-up of a website, though...

[Added edit:]

I shouldn't say "website," I suppose, I should say "domain name." I said I was still researching...

Buying the domain name itself is very cheap, provided the name you want hasn't been reserved already by one of those companies that invent them, sit on them and charge a fortune for reselling them.

What does cost is the provision of web-site services. There are many of them out there, designed to make it easy to create the website. They'll buy the domain name, host the site with a server, and provide software that enables you to create, edit and maintain the site as well as monitor statistics. Many offer add-ons like shops, shopping baskets, the ability to take payment with credit cards, etc.

When I did the research a couple of years ago there were two main contenders that fit my criteria (cheap, with editing software and page templates, and with statistics)--APlus.net and godaddy.com. I finally selected APlus.net but cannot remember why--I think their software was more flexible and in tune with my detailed needs.