35+ websites to gain serious design related traffic

The first thing that I do when I’m promoting a particularly good piece of content is to scope out the websites within the design community that allow user submitted content. There are a couple of larger sites / blogs with good content that allow this – a simple tagline with a link that can direct visitors to your site. This can drive traffic to popular posts, and convert some other people’s traffic to your RSS subscription. If you write a really good newsworthy article and don’t spam the websites that allow content to submitted, this can be a great way of growing your site.

So here’s the 35 brilliant websites generous enough to share their traffic with you – some of them even follow their links as an added bonus, and could well boost your search position for that article.

Noupe

Direct Link to Submit:http://www.noupe.com/designnews.php
Traffic Rank Technorati: 557
Twitter Followers: 3311
RSS Subscribers: 20,389
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/noupe
PageRank:6
DoFollow: Yes

Owned by Noura Yehia, Noupe has grown in size and stature to be ranked within the top 1000 blogs in the world. Simply with outstanding content, its a must read for many within the design and development community. It has become notorious for publishing easy to follow tutorials on a wide range of topics ranging from JQuery to the latest how to trends with Photoshop. The add news section can be found top right on Noupe’s home page, I couldn’t link direct to it here, as it utilises a jquery popup, but you should be able to find it easy enough.  You will probably receive around 40 visitors+ from Noupe, as the news is frequently rotated as it gets added.

Design You Trust

URL: http://designyoutrust.com/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 1,186
Twitter Followers: 1,361
RSS Subscribers:12,039
Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/designyoutrust
PageRank: 3
DoFollow: No

Design you trust, whilst not a blog, is still worthy of a mention. Having made their way inside the Technorati top 2000, they allow user generated content to drive the entire site. If  you are a graphic design artist, and want to get some kudos within the design community, it is more than worth a look. I wouldn’t recommend putting articles on this one- rather it works quite well if your content is primarily visual. Creative photos and artwork would fit inhere perfectly, and drive traffic to a photoblog or website. Simply sign up, logon and submit your work along with an attribution to get traffic off this one.

Computer Luv

URL: http://www.cpluv.com/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 1,550
PageRank: 4
DoFollow: Yes

Computer Love offers a user generated link feed on the right hand side of their site. They cater mainly for digital creatives, so content which is visually impressive would do well here. They host the content on their site, but do offer a link back to the authors portfolio.

Abduzeedo

URL: http://abduzeedo.com/user-news
Traffic Rank Technorati: 7,394
Twitter Followers: 3,637
RSS Subscribers: 21,341
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/abduzeedo
PageRank: 4
DoFollow: No

As with CSS Globe, Abduzeedo requires a short registration form to allow you post community news. The actual community news section is as big and bold as the rest of the abduzeedosite. Which gives you maximum exposure on one of their tabs. They actually have a larger subscriber base than Noupe, although not as many backlinks – which has a significant impact on your Technorati rank.

PSDTuts (tuts+ Network)

URL: http://psd.tutsplus.com/link-feed/#add
Traffic Rank Technorati: Unavailable
Twitter Followers: 1,768
RSS Subscribers: 50,753
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/psdtuts
PageRank: 4
DoFollow: No

If you offer design freebies, photoshop templates or other graphic design related content, then tutsplus is a great place to promote it with their community link feed. Tuts plus  comprises of a number of sites (the Tuts+ blog network) for digital creatives including Vectortuts, Psdtuts, Audiotuts, Flashtuts and After effects tuts.  This gives them a firm standing when it comes to traffic, so promoting your site on here is guaranteed traffic. If you feel that your article fits well into one of the other sites mentioned (e.g. if your article is about Flash – use Flashtuts), they also provide user submitted link feeds within them.

Instant Shift

URL: http://www.instantshift.com/user-submitted-news/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 4,389
Twitter Followers: 527
RSS Subscribers: 1,870
Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/instantshift
PageRank: 4
DoFollow: No

Instant Shift out of all the websites I’ve seen has (interestingly) very minimal branding on it. No logos at all, just content. There’s a lesson to be learned there somewhere, it’s remarkable the reach that this site has, and how well it does without it! If there has ever been a great example of how content is king, this is it. The user submitted content section is generally approved within 24 hours, and once live make a welcome appearance on the home page.

Design Mag

URL: http://designm.ag/submit-news/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 4,031
PageRank: 5
DoFollow: Yes

Design mag offers a community based approach to its content, involving web designers and graphic designers in the generation of its content. It offers a blog, a gallery and a community news section – which can be found in the sidebar on the homepage.

Freelance Folder

URL: http://freelancefolder.com/submit-link/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 4,615
Rss Subscribers: 11,702
Pagerank: 3
Do Follow? Yes

Freelance Folder is inside the technorati top 5K. Their user “Community news” feed features about half way down the page, and is available sitewide. A great place for freelancers looking for gigs to post their blog posts.

GoMediaZine

URL: http://www.gomediazine.com/news/site-news/go-media-user-link-feed/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 6,661
RSS Subscribers: 14,066
PageRank: 4
DoFollow: No

GoMediaZine – inside the top 10,000 blogs in the world offers real world advice from designers. The link feed is available on the site in the right sidebar, about half way down the page.

You the Designer

URL: http://www.youthedesigner.com/2007/11/01/community-links/#add
Traffic Rank Technorati: 7,101
Twitter Followers: 1,800
RSS Subscribers: 9,655
Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/youthedesigner
PageRank: 5
DoFollow: Yes

You The Designer is inside the top 10k on Technorati, they also boast a significant number of RSS subscribers, and cater to the design community. Their “Design Links” plays a significant role in the site architecture – which follows closely an Apple inspired theme.

CSS Globe

URL: http://cssglobe.com/news.asp
Traffic Rank Technorati: 7,394
Twitter Followers: 3,637
RSS Subscribers: 8,696
Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/cssglobe
Pagerank: 6
DoFollow: Yes

CSS Globe is inside the top 10, 000 blogs in the world, and is run by Alen Grakalic – in Croatia. Their  focus is on web standards and css news. If your article leans heavily towards these topics, it will be in front of the right audience with this one. Community News is available at the top right navigation bar of the site, and requires registration before posting.

Kaliber1000

URL: http://www.k10k.net/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 8,341
Twitter Followers:
RSS Subscribers:

Kaliber1000 has been around for a while inside the Technorati top 10k, it’s distinctive pixel based design has won accolades within the design community for years. They are now giving back to the design community with a community link section on their homepage.

ProblogDesign

URL: http://www.problogdesign.com/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 9,725
Twitter Followers: 2,087
RSS Subscribers: 4,718
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/problogdesign
PageRank: 5
DoFollow: Yes

Inside the top 10 K and ran by fellow Northern Irish blogger, Michael Martin – problogdesign is a part of the same blog network that Smashing Magazine belongs to – 9 rules. They have a site wide link on Smashing as well, which I’m sure provides a welcome boost to site traffic. Michael has helped me out in the past with monetization questions, and has also given back to the community with a user news section linked from his home page. Well worth a look into.

Fuel Your Creativity

URL: http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/user-link-feed/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 9,591
Twitter Followers: 1,767
RSS Subscribers: 9,650
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/fuelcreativity
Pagerank: 5
DoFollow: No

Fuel your creativity is a well respected blog that offers an inspiration resource. Their main aim is to be the first stop shop for designers embarking on new projects. If you have an article that lends itself to creative inspiration, then Fuel your creativity would be a great place to start pr0moting. The community user link feed is available down the center pane of the site.

MyInk Blog

URL: http://www.myinkblog.com/2008/07/06/user-link-feed-my-ink-blog/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 12,731
Twitter Followers: 1,932
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/myinkblog
Pagerank: 5
DoFollow: No

MyInkBlog is the creation of Andrew Houle and was designed to be a resource for web and graphic designers alike. Their link feed is available on the right hand side of the site, just above the Flickr Images.

Design Shard

Direct Link to Submit: http://www.designshard.com/link-feed/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 19,785
Twitter Followers: 3240
RSS Subscribers: 3525
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/designshard
Pagerank: 5
DoFollow: Yes

Design Shards link feed runs through the site like a banner – so again your link will appear extremely prominantly if approved. They also follow their links, so this is a great place to grab a PR 5 link, if only for a short period of time. The site design on this one is absolutely stunning, and well worth a look for inspiration.

Divito Design

URL: http://www.divitodesign.com/news/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 22,324
Twitter Followers: 817
RSS Subscribers: 650
Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/divitodesign
PageRank: 4
DoFollow: Yes

Divito design is created and ran by 18 year old Stefan Vervoort from the Netherlands. The site features tutorials on WordPress, HTML and CSS – and it’s great to see younger folks having enough of a following to be able to monetize. Give it a couple of years growth, and this site will be sitting alongside some of the other bigger players in the web design space. Community News is available on the main navigation bar, and runs in a pane on the main homepage.

2Experts Design

URL: http://www.2expertsdesign.com/2009/02/19/user-link-feed-2experts-design/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 32,411
Twitter Followers: 725
RSS Subscribers:619
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/2experts
Pagerank: 4
DoFollow: Yes

2Experts Design was created and developed by Akhtar Sheikha, a designer living in Pakistan. He achieves recognition via the blog, and like many bloggers in the design industry has built up a freelance business off the back of it. A user link feed is available on the right hand side of the site, near the bottom of the page.

Design Shack

URL: info@designshack.co.uk
Traffic Rank Technorati: 23,141
Twitter Followers: 620
Rss Subscribers: 3,082
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/designshack
Pagerank: 2
DoFollow: Yes

To submit design news to design shack, you have to resort to old faithful. Email. Which I suppose is a good enough idea, to keep out spammers. It seems however that this information is available on a enquiry basis – I had to throw a tweet out there to figure this out. In fact they nearly missed inclusion on this list for that very reason.

Kailoon

URL: http://kailoon.com/web-design-news#reply
Traffic Rank Technorati: 29,787
Twitter Followers: 530
RSS Subscribers: 1,417
Twitter Account: http://twitter.com/kailoon
Pagerank: 4
DoFollow: No

This site is the personal portfolio of Kai Loon – a WordPress theme designer from Malaysia. Kai’s work includes comic book style illustration which looks awesome. User generated links are available on the home page, and range from PHP tutorials to creative icon design.

Crazy Leaf Design

URL: http://www.crazyleafdesign.com/blog/user-submitted-links/#add
Traffic Rank Technorati: 12,946
Twitter Followers: 518
RSS Subscribers: 2,792
Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/crazyleaf
Pagerank: 3
DoFollow: No

CrazyLeaf Design Blog is the promotional blog belonging to Alex Ionescu from Romania. User submitted news is available on his blog within the sidebar on the right hand side.

CSS Creme

URL: http://csscreme.com/submit_news/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 31,723
RSS Subscribers: 1094
Pagerank: 5
Do Follow? Yes

Css Creme is a design gallery focusing on CSS driven websites. If you have just launched your site, then you could give this a double whammy – by getting featured on the homepage as a great design, AND getting included in the community news.

CSS Leak

URL: http://www.cssleak.com/submit_news.php
Traffic Rank Technorati: 48,289
RSS Subscribers: 1077
PageRank: 5

Css Leak is another Css Gallery, which uses community news to add value to the site. News is featured across the main navigation bar, and will give you additional valued exposure.

BrushKing

URL: http://www.brushking.eu/submit_news.php
Traffic Rank Technorati: N/A
RSS Subscribers: 1,341
Pagerank: 3
DoFollow: Yes

BrushKing caters primarily for Photoshop enthusiasts. It probably isn’t the place to submit, unless your content or piece is related directly to using photoshop, or photoshop brush resources. The site is very niche, and as such you may be dissapointed if your article doesn’t adhere to this.

QBN

URL: http://www.qbn.com
Traffic Rank Technorati: 20,133
Pagerank: 6
DoFollow: Yes

QBN features design industry news and discussion. The site itself has a nice clean feel to it. “Public Choice” is their user submitted section, which needs both a small graphic and tagline to your work, top quality professional graphic design pieces would do well here.

Visual Blast

URL: http://www.visual-blast.com/
Traffic Rank Technorati: 59,121
Rss Subscribers: 1,992
Pagerank: 4
DoFollow: No

Visual blast offers free resources for web designers from icons, to screensavers to backgrounds. Their community feed is available in the mid-pane on the page, and has a relatively short inclusion time.

Additional Resources

Social media promotion combined with user news, is a great way for your content to go viral. Combine the above sites with some of the social sharing websites within the design community and assuming its good enough -you will be getting some serious traffic.

URL: http://www.zabox.net/
URL: http://www.wscoop.com/
URL: http://devmarks.com/
URL: http://sharebrain.info/choose-your-submission/submit-a-resource/
URL: http://vot.eti.me
URL: http://www.queness.com/register
URL: http://designfloat.com
URL: http://www.onecss.com/oneup/
URL: http://www.designbump.com
URL: http://www.knowtebook.com/

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Filed in: Web Design • Website Promotion
Tagged with: Design • SEO • traffic • website promotion