This is article 2 of 4 about promoting a live security distribution. Aritcle 2 goes into a few ways to promote on the web.

Promoting a Live Security Distribution: Online Promotion: Article 2/4

  Online promotion consists of making your live security distribution stand out on the Web. This can be quite challenging when you’re up against all the other distributions out there which are also in Google’s eight-billion-plus site index. Everyone knows that there are certain holy grails when it comes to promoting something. The holy grails consist of things like making the Digg.com front page or having a video about your distro go viral on YouTube.com. This is not a comprehensive list, but doing either can take many attempts or require going against the standard use etiquette of the site. There are thousands of ways to promote your distro but I am only going to go over a few which are both helpful and attainable in a short period of time.

  The first step is to get your distribution posted by any site that specializes in Linux distros, live distros, or live security distros. Popular related sites bring in large amounts of users who are there just to see what’s new. Linux distribution-related sites that are good for promoting your live security distribution include DistroWatch.com, SecurityDistro.com and DistroRankings.com. There are many more but these stand out the most for your goal. Keep in mind that when you are submitting to each site, you should provide as much data as possible. The more data you provide, the quicker your information can get posted. Before you submit a distribution, go through the site and determine what information is available on currently-posted distros to use as a model. Let’s take a closer look at the popular distribution sites mentioned above.

    DistroWatch - DistroWatch is one of the most well-known sites for tracking Linux distributions. They are not niche distros like those typically   found on SecurityDistro.com, and DistroWatch posts more types of Linux distributions than most know exist. Getting your distribution posted   is fairly simple and starts with an e-mail. You send them an e-mail about your distribution and if they need more information before it is           posted, they will ask. DistroWatch is probably one of the best sites that your distribution can be on and will bring you heavy traffic. Before you   send them your distribution, go to the website and look at the summary for other distros. The more summary information you can provide, the   better your chances that someone will look into using your distribution.

      SecurityDistro.com – In the interest of full disclosure, I must let you know that SecurityDistro.com is my site. It specializes in Live Security       Distributions and provides a wealth of information on the topic. Like Wikipedia, it is free and provides another avenue for users to research       information about your distro. SecurityDistro brings together screen shots, reviews, video tutorials and other information that can help create   a following for your distribution.

      DistroRankings.com - If you search for distro rank in Google, DistroRankings.com will be the second site to show up between DistroWatch   and Wikipedia. They currently have a page rank of 6 and have a very similar strategy to DistroWatch. They post your distribution for free and       then provide news and other data which is relevant.

      Wikipedia is considered by Alexa.com to be the 12th most used site on the Internet. At first you may wonder how helpful it can be since         people have to search your distro name to find it, but Wikipedia is such a popular research tool that it can be very valuable. Wikipedia won’t       directly help you to find new users, but when a technical writer decides to write the first review on your project, there is a good chance he or       she will include Wikipedia when researching it. Along with the Alexa ranking, Wikipedia has a Google page rank of 8 which can help your site   in the search rankings.

  Websites that sell Linux distributions on CD or DVD can provide another way to promote your distribution. Among the most popular of these are OSDisc.com and LinuxCD.org. As long as your license allows them to sell it, they are usually happy to post them. Both of these sites have affiliate accounts and other advertising programs which means your distro could be promoted on sites that you have never been to or heard about. According to DistroWatch.com, they serve 11.8 million pages per month, and they also advertise for both OSDisc.com and LinuxCD.org on the front page! This is a great chance for anyone to promote a distribution on multiple sites without paying a dime in advertising. A simple Google search of OSDisc.com will return 129,000 results, many of which are very positive and lead people to the site, in turn giving you a place to showcase your distribution.

  Using the base distribution of your live security distribution is a great way to promote your project. Let’s use SLAX for an example. If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAX you will see a contents page on the left side which contains distributions based on SLAX. This allows you to take advantage of the popularity of the base distribution and use it to meet your promotional goals. There are also many sites, forums and groups that specialize in one specific distribution. You can simply search the groups in Yahoo or Google and find hundreds of groups that could relate directly to your efforts.

  These are just a few of the ways to promote your live security distribution on the Web. The four ways to promote your distro can lead to months’ worth of work and upkeep to properly maximize the benefits of their use. The last word of advice for online promotion is a simple one:  Make sure your URL is the signature that you use for every forum to which you post. Simple, but effective.