Building Traffic with Wikipedia

A free online user-edited encyclopedia, Wikipedia is one of the most trafficked websites in the world. Used as a reference by consumers, casual internet surfers, college students and hobbyists, Wikipedia is a massive online collaboration run by volunteers and enthusiasts.

Wikipedia dominates Google search results because of the presumed quality of its content. Search for almost anything and chances are that a Wikipedia entry will appear on the first page.  

How Wikipedia Can Monetize a Blog

1. Credibility from being listed in Wikipedia increases customer and visitor trust, which might lead to repeat visits, bookmarking and a bigger audience base. If you are pushing products on some other pages of your website, you might have a higher potential for affiliate conversions and product sales.
2. Wikipedia traffic is ultra-targeted. Visitors arrive through a keyword search onto a Wikipedia page and then onto your blog via a link.
3. Getting listed in Wikipedia has a direct correlation to any website’s long-term monetization strategy and should be considered a strategy to explore within any traffic building or marketing campaign.

But, before you get too enthusiastic... Keep reading to find out what to watch for before you sign-up and start using Wikipedia to market your brand.

Be Objective and Avoid Superlatives

• Articles about companies and products are acceptable if they are written in an objective and unbiased style. This means that overt commercial self-promotion will not work in Wikipedia. Even if you try your best, you might still get rejected by the zealous Wikipedia community.
• Superlatives are definitely not encouraged and your content should be purely descriptive. Opinionated evaluations need to be attributed to verifiable sources so stay clear of that unless you have specific references at hand.

How Do I Get Listed in Wikipedia

• Get listed as a resource. This means inserting the link to your website in the “External Links” or “References” section for existing and related Wikipedia pages.
• Create a new Wikipedia page describing a personality/event/business entity/profession/website. You should create a new Wikipedia page only if you are unable to find the topic in Wikipedia. When targeting a specific subject, do a search and make a list of the pages that you want to edit. I would add that should wait to create a listing only after participating in the community for a period of a time.

Now What?

• Monitor edits. Click on the “Watch” tab to include the page with your link in your Watchlist. This allows you to be notified when changes are made. If inaccurate factual statements are inserted, you can revert the changes. Do not remove counter-arguments that are well attributed and verified.
• Make edits for other Wiki pages. Basically, try to be a team player and build your user reputation among the community as an objective editor, arbiter, and contributor. It will help when it comes time to promote your product or service.

Comments

[Geoff Horner]

Wikipedia is real tricky - got be careful. They can ban your ass fast if you don't know what you are doing. As Pro Business says, get known and be a team player. Do a bunch of editing before you start self-promoting. Otherwise you are dead to Wikipedia and will be labeled by the community as such.

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