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If you are from the media or a blogger and wish to report on Appropedia, see Appropedia:For the media for useful links, an introduction to the site, and contact details.

Quality

"You want a product that is so good that the salespeople are basically order-takers." (says Jason Calacanis[1])

Our product is knowledge. Making a site that informs and excites people is a great way to raise Appropedia's profile. Of course, the media is attracted to flashiness and what's "new" so the ideal is to use both style and substance to attract attention.

But when we have good content, it's important to give it a push: Pages ranked as Good Articles, or even better Highlighted Articles or Highlighted Projects or good portals are suitable for blogging, Stumbling, Hugging. etc. To help get more pages ready for this, see Appropedia:Article improvement project.

Media strategy

When we have a newsworthy story, we should:

  • Write a press release (see #Press releases below) and release it.
  • Tweet it (including Chriswaterguy via @Appropedia, also anyone with an Identica or Twitter account)
  • Put it out through our other social media channels, including blogs, friendly bloggers, and Facebook.
  • Notify all our journalist contacts Who has contacts? I have some - who else? Let me know --Chriswaterguy 04:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Press releases

Blog posts and press releases can be released together on the same subject - one can be used as the basis for the other, where appropriate. (Probably this will work for big announcement blog posts or posts that profile a particular aspect of Appropedia's work.)

Category Appropedia draft press releases not found

Notify

Mention Appropedia on email lists and comments to blog feeds on topics like:

Mention Appropedia to:

  • sites with a similar kind of focus to Appropedia. When you edit a page and link to a good resource, contact the owner of the resource and let them know, e.g. You may be interested to know that I've cited your page at Appropedia.org - see (link addresses of the page where you've linked to them).
  • activist NGOs, and political parties (especially Green type parties, but members of other parties may also share the passion, albeit with different perspectives).
  • appropriate technology advocates

Mention it to likeminded bloggers:

  • Find bloggers with similar interests through blog search sites. E.g.:
  • If we're active on these blogs, engaging with these people, we can mention relevant Appropedia pages as appropriate. This should be done specifically where it's relevant to the topic being discussed, not just promoting Appropedia, as we absolutely don't wish to spam.

Organizations, such as the various Engineers Without Borders groups (chapters and national organizations):

  • EWB Australia via email;
  • EWB NSW at a meeting, with positive response. Not much action yet, but there is still interest. --Chriswaterguy talk 23:29, 9 August 2006 (PDT), updated 23:57, 27 October 2006 (PDT)
See #Draft notifications, below.

Some won't reply, so we will polish our pitch and send the word out again later... Do not spam! Be sure that most of the targeted group woul likely be interested.

When you have notified a person, group or site, it helps if you add it to the list below (#Already notified) with a date, to avoid unorganized repetition and to keep track of what is achieved by the promotion.

Specific media

Media outlets to approach:

  • Yes! Magazine
  • Slashdot & other online news sources where anyone can post (but may need an article to link to?)
  • Periodicals that focus on appropriate or alternative technology, sustainability, permaculture or international development... (contact re getting an article or column published; failing that, write a letter)
  • Syndicated column for relevant periodicals or even more mainstream papers, or local papers...? Something to dream about, but we can practise by blogging first. (e.g. [http://wannaresolution.blogspot.com/ Curt & Chris's blog...)
  • Small local papers might be happy to snap up a well-written article or column, particularly if it's free, and particularly in areas with a lot of hobby farmers or progressive/liberal/greenie/hippie readers, e.g. the North Coast of NSW, Australia.)
  • English language papers in developing countries. These sometimes have articles on appropriate technology. Ideally tailor the article, e.g. mentioning specific organizations in that country and the local term for appropriate technology (which may not be an exact translation). Language should be slightly simpler and clearer to allow for non-native English speakers. See Appropedia:Promotion of Appropedia/Developing country media.
  • Find relevant media outlets by searching on Google News for "appropriate technology" "alternative technology," "international development," or permaculture, or other specific terms, and sustainability-related terms.
  • Cite the use of Appropedia in peer-reviewed articles see Appropedia:Citations in the literature

General magazines (e.g. lifestyle, news) that have an interest in global issues:

Wish List

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is highly synergistic with Appropedia. A high percentage of visitors to Appropedia come from Wikipedia. Why? Because the nature of the content that Appropedia focuses on is not "encyclopedic". So it's not just "okay", but important to make sure to add a link (in the "External links" section) to Appropedia to all Wikipeda articles with an "Appropriate Technology" twist. The links should be as honest and relevant as possible. An appropriate link might look like: 

* [[XYZ|Related article(s)]] at Appropedia, a wiki for non-Wikipedia (projects & practical "how to") content.

The "XYZ" should be modified to point to a relevant category (for several articles) or specific article.

Similarly, all Appropedia articles could potentially benefit from a link to a relevant Wikipedia article. See Template:Wikipedia for ways to provide linkage from Appropedia articles to Wikipedia content.

Other wikis

Where there is a lot of overlap we should consider whether we could combine our efforts... being tactful of course, so we don't sound like "leave your wiki and join our better wiki." See Chriswaterguy's The Wiki Synergy Project at WikiIndex.

See #Notifying another wiki.

Already notified

Done, positive response

Some of the groups above may need occasional posting/contact. Those below have already had a good result, e.g. already link to us from their resources page... but occasional contact may still be good, to foster the relationship.

Draft notifications

These are just examples... please adapt accordingly or help to improve them.

Sample request to add a link

Hello _____________,

First, thank you for your fantastic site; I have used ______ as a resource many times.

Second, I would like to introduce you to the Appropriate Technology and Sustainable Development Living Library - https://www.appropedia.org/. This site is a wiki (i.e. anyone can edit and add to the content) with a focus on sustainable projects (mostly homemade), curricula, tools, howtos, organizations and social networks. See https://www.appropedia.org/?title=Category:Photovoltaic for an example... especially the project articles at the bottom.

Third, I ask you to consider adding Appropedia.org to your links page at http://www._______.org/links.html. We have added your site to our page, Useful sites - https://www.appropedia.org/Useful_sites.

Thank you again for the important work that you do,

___________________

(Remember, this is only a sample. Before submitting any request, please make any changes that you feel would make the request more appropriate)

Email lists

Permaculture lists: 

Hi,

I know that many permaculture people are interested in appropriate technology and international development, as well as sustainability (of course!), so you might be interested in this resource: [https://www.appropedia.org/ '''Appropedia'''] - it's a wiki, like Wikipedia, so that anyone can contribute. Add a link, describe a project, share your experiences, add a comment or question to one of the talk pages... or just have a read.

There are categories such as [[Alternative building]], [[Water]] and [[Solar]].

Note that unlike Wikipedia, which is an encyclopedia, Appropedia accepts a wide range of materials such as project descriptions, how-tos, original research, and (within limits) commentary. Appropedia is meant to complement Wikipedia, not compete with it.

Cheers...

___________________

Notifying another wiki

Hi,

First, thank you for your fantastic site that I have used as a ______ resource many times.

Second, I would like to introduce you to another wiki on a related theme - [Appropedia https://www.appropedia.org/], the "Appropriate Technology and Sustainable Development Living Library." It has a focus on sustainable projects (mostly homemade), curricula, tools, howtos, organizations and social networks. See [[:Category:Photovoltaic|Photovoltaic]] for an example... especially the project articles at the bottom.

Third, we have placed your site on our [[WikiNode]]. Please consider adding [Appropedia https://www.appropedia.org/] to your main, or links, page.

Thank you again for the important work that you do,

___________________

Topic notification

Mention relevant wikipedia projects as well as Appropedia.

Blog mentions

Include link text such as: 

<a href="https://www.appropedia.org/">Appropriate Technology Living Library</a>

Check out this TreeHugger article for an example.

You can sign up to Worldchanging Headlines, and when there's a relevant article, leave a comment and link when appropriate. Note, this should only be done where this is a valuable and relevant comment and link (otherwise it's spam, and we don't want to do that!)

SEO (search engine optimization)

In order to pool our ideas with a larger number of people, it is suggested that we work on strategy at OLPC:SEO for the OLPC wiki.

Any specific issues for Appropedia can be placed here.

SEO tasks on Appropedia

  1. Develop related pages: This is a bit speculative, but makes sense.
    1. Determine key focus areas where there is already good content, and a good landing page, e.g. Appropriate technology.
    2. Do a web search on the term and find related terms (including the key term or not). E.g. Intermediate technology, Small is beautiful. The key here is to find helpful terms that people use. Our primary goal is to create useful content that readers are interested in, not to game the search engines.
    3. Develop pages on these related terms, and any others that come to mind where useful content can be created. E.g. for Appropriate technology, helpful pages might be Appropriate technology for refugees; the Appropriate technology for Indonesia might explain, for example, why water conservation is important even when there is high rainfall, highlight work done by certain organizations, and link to relevant pages and categories.
    4. Ensure those pages are categorized, and also add links to these pages from other relevant pages (in body or under See also).

Check progress

Search for links to appropedia (using google).

Note this only searches for links to one page - so you have to enter a specific Appropedia page for links to that page. (However both links to the main page, i.e. link:www.appropedia.org and link:www.appropedia.org/Main_Page seem to give the same result.) In addition, this searches only for some links to that page, i.e. many links will not show up.

See also: Appropedia talk:Statistics tracking to see other metrics of progress.

Ideas to promote Appropedia

Note that the intent here is not to be ambitious for Appropedia for our own benefit - rather, we want to let people know what is on offer here, to increase collaboration with other groups (whether or not they actively join in the editing here) and spread knowledge about appropriate technology, development and sustainability.

Offer our services

If a group wishes to develop material, such as a brochure on an environmental issue, we can let them know that they can do it here, so they can edit collaboratively, and get the input of Appropedia community. E.g. Sustainable Energy booklet.

Design a poster

Some ideas to communicate demotech are also suitable for the promotion of appropedia. In order to promote these projects, designing a poster could be helpful to advertise the websites. The poster (as print or digital version?) could be send to Universities, libraries and Internet cafes in developing countries.

Hand outs

Hand out useful products with web address printed on – objects should be eco-friendly, therefore product should be carefully considered. e.g. Stickers, food wrappings, matches, pens/pencils, notepads... Problem: Sponsoring is needed to fund the products --Demotech (anna) 11:25, 16 November 2006 (PST)

Who can help?

Anyone. See Appropedia:Community portal for categories of helpers and how they can help.

When this page is fuller, mention the task at Wikipedia's promotion page (can't find it now - ask at community portal) and suitable WikiProjects.

Notes when notifying

  • If posting a link for a category page, never link to a category, which one day may become a dead link if the category is renamed. (This is because there are No redirects for categories. Always link to redirect instead, as this can be expected to stay constant. E.g., rather than linking to Category:Greywater, link to Greywater instead.
  • Do not spam! Only post quality, relevant links to Appropedia pages that people might find useful. This is important for our reputation. Plus, it's just the right thing to do.

Links to Appropedia

Publicity team members

External links

Retrieved from "https://www.appropedia.org/w/index.php?title=Appropedia:Publicity&oldid=698050"

Discussion[View | Edit]

Create submissions for sites and newsletters[edit source]

I think we need to go a step further than Draft Notifications, and also do writeups that we want organizations to put on their web pages and in their newsletters. Getting a notification will get some attention, and we should do it, but is also likely to fall into the category of "I really should try and do that one day..." Including something that they can easily put into a newsletter or copy to their web page is probably more likely to be used.

I'd suggest we develop short, medium and long versions. Let's focus first on Worldchanging submissions as these spiels can be then be adapted for other uses.

The one question I have about the Worldchanging submissions is about the form of url to be used in the links, so I've been putting this off till the short url is implemented. Or should we just use the old (long) form url, assuming that this will still work later? --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 19:00, 16 October 2006 (PDT)

I've been slowly shifting into the "do it now" mindset with respect to Appropedia promotion. Having said that, I don't actually get what "short names" are (is it getting rid of "?title=blah blah"?). And I don't know how long we would need to defer.. A few days? A week? Seems like this has been a pending issue for several weeks. And yet, short URLs are somewhat attractive.
Regarding the short, medium, long compositions, I agree. I've been thinking of creating and sending a single page PDF doc to all engineering departments that have graduate programs in order to promote the "thesis" category. We could write a different version for schools that have a EWB chapter. Alternatively, we could "co-market" with EWB when sending to those schools that do not have EWB chapters. On that score, I am now tempted to reach out to EWB USA and see what kind of group they are.
As for compositions, here is (for better or worse) the content of the email that I sent to various EWB chapters (which I would then customize slightly for each recipient, depending on what I found online at their sites):

Hi Chapter,

My name is Curt Beckmann. I’m a recent member of EWB San Francisco, and also very active with an open, public wiki, Appropedia, focused on Appropriate Technology and International Development. Appropedia has been endorsed by EWB International and other sites as a useful tool. I’ve just begun working on porting some of the EWB-SFP content over to articles on Appropedia.

On behalf of the Appropedia community, I want to invite you and your chapter (and all EWB chapters) to check into Appropedia as a resource. You can use it to post information about projects that you're working on or have completed, or technologies that you are investigating. (Posting public articles about your projects can be useful for fundraising, since you can send the URL to folks for viewing.)

So come check out the site! Here’s the link:

https://www.appropedia.org

If you find that your group is interested, but that you don’t have time or people to port your content, we’re also working to connect volunteer editors with people that have content. Drop me a note if there’s anything that you want to ask, or if you think something’s missing from Appropedia.

Thanks for considering Appropedia! I look forward to meeting you online!

Best Regards,
Curt

None of the chapters have responded, which suggests my composition leaves something to be desired. :-(
By the way, this leads me to ask, how does one post/attach docs or pdfs to a wiki page? Suppose we did develop a single page pdf flyer, then what?
This is a great discussion to be having! (Reminds me of "Mission" and "Logo", two other efforts that I link to promotion...not sure why.) --Curtbeckmann 06:34, 17 October 2006 (PDT)

Linking from Wikipedia[edit source]

With all the porting going on (great work, Curt & others) we're now coming into the time when there are pages here which are worth linking from Wikipedia. Of course we should only do this when it does add value to the relevant Wikipedia article, and not just to promote Appropedia. However, one effect will be to bring more people to Appropedia.

I suggest we make a practice of linking the editable pages, rather than original documents (but of course ported material will still be credited on the editable page). --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 17:50, 6 December 2006 (PST)

I'm certainly fine with this, but would defer it (on my own to-do list) for a while. The porting process (naming, templates, protection, when attribution no longer applies, yada yada) still needs a fair bit of work and I'm uncomfortable adding more wrinkles at the mo'. But if someone else does it, hey, that works for me.... --CurtB 06:51, 7 December 2006 (PST)
Of course, I didn't mean to suggest that you should do it - you're plenty busy enough, and I wouldn't want to distract you from your good work. I'll do it as I'm able, as it seems appropriate.
There's no particular timetable for this task. I've added it to Category:Appropedia maintenance#Linking to other wikis. I've also done it for Water conservationW (actually not a very complete page, by a long stretch, but I think still a valuable link for the Wikipedia page). I added this text to the external links:
* [[Appropedia:Water conservation|Water conservation]] at Appropedia (wiki site).
We should aim for better wording, and apply it consistently... I might ask at Wikipedia's village pump. --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 03:38, 8 December 2006 (PST) (updated 05:22, 8 December 2006 (PST))

Protected project page[edit source]

Hi Folks. We have seen the project page be a very popular spam target, mostly in the "other wikis" section. That leads me to believe that somehow the section has been passed around amongst spammers as a great spot. Because of the nature of this page, I thought it would be fair to lock that project page to unregistered users. This talk page remains unprotected. --CurtB 06:36, 11 January 2007 (PST)

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