Do any of you remember Webrings? Did you use them? My forum 15 some years ago, I remember using them. They are similar to Affiliate Exchanges. They were a collection of websites linked together, but unlike Affiliates, they were linked by a specific theme. It was popular in the 1990’s & early 2000’s. If a person went to a website & wanted to find others similar, that is where the Webring came in handy. You could join several Webrings.
If they brought back Webrings, would you use them?
I remember plenty of directory/toplist sites. Some that were general and for every kind of site, and others that were dedicated to a specific niche. FP actually had its own directory and topsite back in the day. I've never heard the term "webrings" though. That lingo must be before my time. 😛
One site that comes to mind is The Ads Tower, or I think that's what it was called. That was a site that just let you put you 88x31 affiliate banner on it for free, and the site was just plastered with 88x31 banners everywhere.
I liked the webrings at the time that they happened, but I don't use them now when I see affiliate links. The affiliate links of today are different because they're plastered all one one page, whereas the webring had a Next in Webring arrow so you only saw one to three other sites in front of you pretty much. You could pull up the list of the other sites, but no one did that. They wanted to be surprised by the next site they could land on. It was a different internet back then when it was mostly for enjoyment purposes and everyone was excited to see who came up with something new to view.
I had a Spoiled Pets website so I could promote my pet portraits through that. I really should have kept that URL but I had no idea how difficult it would be to get simple .com domain names back then when I gave it up.
I had a webring on that site that connected other people with pets. It gave me some nice hits through it but I don't think I got any portraits commissioned? I honestly can't remember. Most of my business was through eBay and a local consignment shop in my town.
