FFA Links Test

test ffa links

With there being so much uncertainty regarding the usefulness of FFA link pages, I decided to run a little test. Using the links to FFA autosubmitters on the previous page, I posted my URL to (supposedly thousands) of FFA pages.

Before I started, I composed 4 attention grabbing headlines for 4 different sections of the NowSell.com site, and listed them together with their respective URLs in a text document. For future reference, I also included the email address I wished to use and the date.

To speed the posting process up I used one of my favourite pieces of shareware, the "CopyPaste" multiple clipboard utility for Mac, (allows up to 100 clipboards which can also be saved through restarts, plus many other useful features - GET IT!), which now offers a Windoze version as well.

 

Tip: In most instances, the fastest way to use CopyPaste is by loading the clipboard set containing the different bits of information you wish to use, and then pasting using the keys:

COMMAND + C + [CLIP # (i.e. 1, 2, 3, etc.)].

On Windows use the CONTROL key in place of COMMAND.

 

It turned out that a couple of the sites I listed were actually using the same submission service, so I only posted my links through four of them. I opened a separate browser window for each of these autosubmit pages and pasted the details of my first URL in each, pressing the 'submit' button as I moved on to the next window.

By the time I'd submitted my first URL to the page in the last window, the page in the first window had completed the submission process and was ready for me to post to another category.

In this manner, I quickly posted all four of my URLs to both the "Business" and "Miscellaneous" categories with the four submission services.

The results?

I waited several days, and then checked my server logs, looking for my '?FFA' coding appearing at the end of any referring URLs, which would tell me the visit was from a link on one of the FFA pages I had posted to.

 

If you don't have access to your logs you can also use a third party website traffic stats service instead.

 

Get ready for this...

After careful checking, I discovered that a grand total of...

ZERO visitors arrived at my site through the URLs I had posted to the FFA pages.

Not one single visit was generated!

Of course, this was too small to be considered a definative test, so I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions!