Coming Soon… or Never At All

If you can access your domain enough to put up a coming soon note why not go a step farther and create something to come for? Get your money working for you, use that domain rather than leaving it idle. You can begin building your traffic, get the site listed in search engines and begin networking even while you’re working on the site you really want to put up there.

Some ideas… put up a blog and seed it with contributed content each week. Add a message board to the site, or a web hosted email list, then get people talking. Create a sample gallery of your work: photographs, cartoons, short stories, whatever you have on hand. Run a contest and have them email you (you can use webmail like Gmail) to enter. Display your wares, if you’re selling products showcase some of them with pictures and short descriptions. Write a blurb about your company (at the very least) and add a contact address for more information.

Site owners submit their site when there is nothing open, just a coming soon note. They take a gamble, hoping the site will be open and functional by the time the Dmoz editor gets to it. This includes those who are revamping a site and leave an ambiguous date it will be back online. An exact date the site will open is good. Coming soon is only good for so long. If the site does not have content there is no reason to list it or keep it hanging around in submissions. You’re much better off all around if you stick something worth coming for on your site.