For a web designer, the best thing you can do to get back links and traffic is to give away designs and xhtml templates.
I released 2 simple designs on oswd.org and openwebdesign.org around 3 years ago. I gave the designs away free and released the .psd’s for them on deviantart.com. I asked, but didn’t insist, that people should keep the link in the footer back to my site. Some did and It has fostered lots of back links and good will.
These static designs were then ported by others in to Wordpress, Joomla, pivot and a whole host of other Open source software (through sites like themebot). This meant I was then getting back links from a whole new audience.
I never seem to find the time to release more open source templates but this is folly as It is the single best marketing exercise I ever did.
Open source template sites often run competitions which act as the perfect platform to launch your new design. You have twice the audience if it is part of a competition.
In total the two designs have been downloaded about 60K times just on oswd.org and openwebdesign.org. I have no idea how many times they have been used in Wordpress themes and alike.
The 2 designs can be found here:
May 2nd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
dude i used your design city in paint and change most of the stuff, but thanks for something to base on.
July 6th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
No problem Timmy. I am glad they helped. I should make a few more as they are great for backlinks and they can help people by giving them some solid foundations to work from.