The Media Experiment Hits The Headlines

Two weeks ago Russell McGurk, a 22-year-old British student attending Nottingham Trent University launched his first website. He is attempting to prove his theory about website optimization and gaining large amounts of traffic without spending a penny on advertising or promotion. An article in UPI's The Washington Times and various forms of local media coverage later and Russ is beginning to make supporters and sceptics alike stand up and take note.

Russ believes it is possible for him to achieve one million unique visits to his website without investing in forms of promotion or advertising or even selling a product. If he manages to reach his goal, webmasters may well be interested to know how he did it.

www.TheMediaExperiment.com was originally set up as a way for Russ to gain an advantage' in an increasingly competitive jobs market when it comes to graduation time. "I study multimedia, so I'm used to being on the Internet" says McGurk. "Over the past few years there have been many examples of very simple online/website ideas causing a stir in the media. Many sites are becoming popular and famous, simply for being popular and famous. This leads me to believe there is a great amount of potential to exploit in terms of getting media coverage of your website. I believe it should be possible for any individual or company to achieve a degree of media coverage which will increase awareness of their website and in turn help generate online traffic and ultimately increase sales. If my theory proves correct then I would hope to pass on the skills gained in promoting my own site to other companies and individuals.

A major factor in the success of any online business is indeed to do with the human traffic flow a website receives. Companies spend vast amounts of money in an attempt to 'optimize' their websites through various tried and tested means including search engine submission, Link exchange programs, offline advertisements etc. so how will McGurk achieve his goal without the financial investment?

He has decided to use a three-pronged method. First, via the press, he has various ideas to increase the 'news worthiness' of his experiment. The second method is to get people who've already been to the site to come back. This way, McGurk figures, they'll become fans and tell their friends. Thirdly, he is holding a regular prize draw every time the site receives ten thousand hits.

This word-of-mouth advertising, dubbed "buzz" by those in the industry, is an elusive but valuable thing. Sometimes, businesses get lucky, and find just the way to generate it in their target niche but Russ believes this less to do with luck and more to do with good planning. "I think it is possible to create a 'buzz' around any website or product. It is true that the 'buzz' around a very unique and brilliant website may be a lot less than the 'buzz' around the latest online clothing store but it is all relative, if the clothing store receives only 100 hits more per week as a result, that is still 100 more than it was getting beforehand. If this can be achieved at minimal cost then there really is nothing to lose"

Will Russell McGurk prove his theory? Either way the results of http://www.TheMediaExperiment.com will prove interesting.

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The Media Experiment
21 Balmoral Rd
Nottingham
NG1 4HX

Contact: Russell McGurk
email: contact@themediaexperiment.com
Tel. 07738022951


This release was published on openPR.