Students Of Success

Some people just do not get it.

They go to all the trouble of submitting their links to a FREE
For All (FFA) Link site, be it an individual web site or more
than likely, a member of a huge network of 1000’s of FFA Link
sites.

But then they miss it completely by avoiding the massive amounts
of email the result from such submissions.

Some people enter in false email addresses that clog up
everyone’s email including the ISP’s that have to send out
those, “User Unknown” messages.

Worse still, even if by accident, or if on purpose, they enter
in an email address that turns out to belong to someone else.

Doing this does bring you the limited benefit of having other
web sites link to your web site but you would miss out
completely by NOT getting visitors.

And if you do it on purpose, there are now legal ramifications
for entering in false info that then causes someone else damage
due to the misuse of resources.

The absolutely outrageous truth about FFA Link submissions is
that there is a “SECRET GOLD MINE Hidden In FFA Link
Submissions!”.

The SECRET?

It is the email responses!

Many people consider those confirmation emails as junk email and
or spam. But that is totally WRONG!

Why?

Because those emails come from people that PAID for the
privilege to send you those confirmation emails, Spam-Free.

That means that every single email confirmation that you receive
comes from a QUALIFIED BUYER, someone that has already proven
their worth because they SPENT hard earned MONEY to buy a
business service online.

That QUALIFIED BUYER is a PREMIUM FFA member.

And, NO, it is NOT enough to send an auto-response message to
those confirmation emails.

But that is a great first step.

You make your FFA Link submission. The PREMIUM FFA Member sends
you one confirmation email.

You are now legally entitled to respond - ONCE, with your own
Auto-Responder message.

Make the SUBJECT - TITLE a good one because most people ONLY
scan the headlines and delete what is of no interest.

You can use any of several good Auto-Responder services that are
available for FREE online.

We offer a List of FREE Auto-Responder Services: via
Auto-Responder at: mailto:freeautoresp@emailexchange.org

But what about all of those confirmation emails?

Some of the Auto-Responder services forward all your responses
to you for review of any that might have special questions,
requests, etc.

That still leaves you with the problem of having to go through
all of that email via your main email address.

Solution?

A FREE Email Provider that ALSO has a FREE Auto-Responder!

That way all responses go to your extra e-mailbox and your
message AUTOMATICALLY gets sent to everyone responding to your
FFA link submission.

For a List of FREE Email Providers via Auto-Responder:
mailto:free_email@emailexchange.org

Don’t forget to access that FREE Email account and manage your
email otherwise your incoming messages will bounce because of a
“Full Mailbox”.

In order to really TAP INTO THIS SECRET GOLD MINE, you must take
a minute or two and actually reply to those email messages or
visit the web site they feature.

By doing so, you open a legal, Spam-Free dialogue with QUALIFIED
ONLINE BUYERS of INTERNET BUSINESS SERVICES.

Once you open a line of communication with these PREMIUM FFA
members, then you can legally email them from time to time about
something you are featuring.

Using this technique, I have amassed a list of over 700 PREMIUM,
QUALIFIED BUYERS.

And, we receive a steady flow of visitors to our web site and
new subscribers to our newsletter.

It has more than paid for itself generating new streams of cash
flow and new customers for our services with the only investment
necessary on our part being the time and effort to compile the
list.

Keep the lines of communication open with this small, select
group of people and you will always have ready access to one of
the best LISTS of potential BUYERS for your products or
services.

© 2004, John Calder http://www.TheEzine.net

Let’s face it, getting one-way, non-reciprocal links in to your
site is the way to go these days, at least as far as SEO
purposes go. Reciprocal links can send you traffic, and may
count for something in the search engine ranking algorithms, but
not nearly as much as they used to. To help you in the search
results, you have to get the inbound links, preferably a text
link with relevant text, from a site related to yours. Here are
a few tips on getting those all-important inbounds.

It’s doubtful, for new sites in particular, that you’ll get
another webmaster to link to you just for the asking. Many won’t
even exchange links with low PR sites anymore, so your polite
email request for a one-way link to your new PR 0 site may well
be met with laughter.

But there are other ways to get the links you need. For example,
you can post on relevant forums and newsgroups that themselves
have some decent ranking. Remember though, that unless you’re
selling to other marketers, there are a lot more forums than
just marketing related ones. In fact, it’s much better, if you
sell ski equipment for example, to post on ski vacation forums,
local forums centered around various ski resorts, and so on.
These are more on-topic to your site, and will carry more clout
than a link from a marketing site.

You can also submit articles to the various article directories.
Other webmasters typically have the right to use these articles
on their sites, provided they leave your resource box intact.
Again, these need to be relevant to the theme of your site for
best results. It makes no sense to write about your favorite pet
when you’re promoting the before-mentioned ski equipment site.

Finally, don’t overlook the use of RSS. With this technology,
you are able to syndicate your content to other sites, through
the use of a blog as one example. If other webmasters add your
syndicated feed to their sites, you will get inbound links, most
likely from sites that are relevant to yours.

I’ve been engaging in reciprocal linking with other websites
for some time. I’ve always been aware that a single incoming
link from a high PR website is worth far more than many links
from low PR websites (the actual ratio is known only to God).
I’ve also always been aware, at least over the last couple of
years, that incoming links from non-relevant websites is not
only valueless but can, in fact, have a negative effect on your
Search Engine ranking (*as opposed to PR).

I’ve written previous articles about linking, one or two of
which have been specifically about the practice of requesting
and accepting links from anybody and everybody. However, I’ve
never been armed with any ‘hard evidence’ with which to support
my plea for some sensible thought about the way in which some
people handle their linking practices. This time around, I have
this little offering from Google, the people who are responsible
for the whole ‘PR’ caboodle.

“How is PR effected if you have text links on a page that is
irrelevant to the website? Links from a non-related site will
still pass PR, but will have little or no effect on the SERPs.
Too many of these might even have a negative effect on SERPs.
Remember, PR matters when all other things are equal, but that
is never the case. You are much better off getting back links
from a relevant PR4 page (and site) with targeted anchor text
than getting back links from an irrelevant PR6.” - Ref:
http://www.prlookup.com/faq.htm

There you go. You may not have heard it here first, but it is
out of ‘the horse mouth’, so to speak. I don’t know how long
this particular piece of information has been available at
Google for all to see (I don’t spend much time in Google’s
‘support’ pages) but it’s there now and I hope that it becomes
common knowledge very quickly.

To some it may not be a revelation. It won’t be of any great
concern either, because like many, they have always been a
little particular about the ‘relevance’ of the websites from
which they accept or request reciprocal (or incoming only)
links. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about being ‘tight’
or ‘mean’ about linking with lower PR websites. I have always
agreed to link with any website that has relevant content.
Provided the website has the same (or related) subject matter, I
don’t care about the PR.

You see, that’s what it’s supposed to be about - supplying
worthwhile links and even alternatives to your users and making
your website available to users of other related websites. How
is this purpose served by supplying users with links to (and
accepting links from) totally unrelated material? Google, along
with the rest of us, tends to think there is no purpose served
at all, hence the possibility of negative effect on your SE
rankings for thinking otherwise.

I know there are many thousands of websites, which use software
to manage their ‘Linking Programs’. Some of this software is
‘automated’ and allows links from anyone who is willing to fill
in a form and post a link to their website first. This type of
‘Linking Program’ has turned many websites into ‘Mini
Directories’, with pages of categorized links which have
absolutely nothing to do with the theme of the website
whatsoever.

What good is a high PR if it doesn’t help your SE rankings, or
even hurts them?

I know this will be disappointing for those who have spent money
on these facilities (especially recently), as well as those who
have had them installed for some time. I feel for those who have
been doing what they have thought to be, or have been advised is
the right thing to do. But I’m sorry, it’s very clear, judging
by Google’s own advice, that these programs have been in the
very least, achieving nothing for the SE rankings by collecting
so many irrelevant links and it’s also possible that in so
doing, they have been “tying a millstone around your necks” and
your website may well have been penalized for it.

That’s not to say that the programs have somehow not done their
job. I believe they are for the purpose of improving ‘link
popularity’, and this is exactly what they have done. However,
link popularity ALONE is not a consideration in the SE ranking
algorithms when the PR has been established with unrelated
links. Remember - “Links from a non-related site will still pass
PR, but will have little or no effect on the SERPs”.

Every day, I still get emails requesting a reciprocal link from
an unrelated website, in which the sender informs me that
“reciprocal linking is a very effective way to increase your
website’s PR and SE rankings”. I hope now that we can all
realize and agree that when it comes to linking for the purpose
of improving SE rankings, it only works if it’s done properly.
This means, as with everything else, there is no quick way and
no ‘automated’ answer. You have to check each website that you
are considering linking to, in order to ascertain if it’s
relevant and consequently, of value to your users (and your site
to it’s users) and the Search Engines.

I wonder if there’s a software program that can quickly and
effortlessly remove incoming links from unrelated sites? I
seriously doubt it, considering it would involve removing
content from websites belonging to others. I feel that for most,
this will be the most difficult problem to deal with as once
they are there, they are there to stay. How do you undo so much
hard work?

One of the best ways to get free website traffic, as we all
know, is links from other sites which help improve your site’s
link popularity. Nothing new there…however now that Google and
friends are cracking down on reciprocal link exchanges and
de-valuing links from non-relevent sites, it’s become vitally
important to get 1-way INCOMING links from sites that are
related to your niche.

For example, a travel site would benefit from a incoming-link
from a holiday home rental company or an airline or car hire
place, but there would be NO benefit from getting an incoming
link from an online casino service or one of those ubiquitous
Viagra sales sites we all love to receive spam email from
(not!)…
Here’s what I suggested to one of my client’s (who runs a luxury
accommodation site) as a way for him to get quality incoming
one-way links:

Ideally, it’s MUCH better to have a one-way link coming into
your site, rather than having to reciprocate the link and give
them one back. HOWEVER, this is getting VERY difficult to
achieve.

Essentially, you are asking a possible competitor to give you a
link to your website, when they would much rather the searcher
just found them instead. Recipricol links are also starting to
lose their value in terms of link popularity. A one-way link
from a RELATED site is better than 5-10 2-way links from most
sites. So, I believe that in order for you to get as many
incoming one-way links as possible, you need to give website
owners a REASON to be prepared to give you that link for free. I
believe the best way to achieve this is to go back to something
I suggested in an email recently: As a way to differentiate
yourself from all the other sites out there offering similar
content/services to yours, you need to value-add so that it is
compelling for site visitors to make their bookings through your
site in preference to anyone else’s - even the actual
accommodation place site itself. As I suggested, one way is to
offer a package of discount vouchers for guests staying at each
place for all the local tourist attractions, and offer them as a
free giveaway to anyone making a booking through you. The more
discounts or specials you offer, the more attractive it will be
for someone wanting to make a booking thru you.

Perhaps on occasions, you might even persuade some companies to
offer free giveaways as an incentive to get tourists to visit
their premises (free wine samples or free food samples, etc.)
However, rather than call them up and just ask for discounts for
possible clients, why not approach them with a view to offering
to give them FREE advertising to your clients, in exchange for a
link from their website (designed the way we specify, and
preferrably placed in a vaguely decent spot on their site). So,
an example might make this clearer… Let’s say you have an
accommodation spot in Sydney. You contact all the related
businesses in that region that offer something that may be of
value to a visitor to the area. Say, a winery, a restaurant, a
car hire place, a movie cinema, a chemist/pharmacy, etc. Explain
to them that you would like to offer them free advertising for
clients you refer to their business while they are holidaying in
Sydney, in exchange for a link on their website back to your
site. Tell them you will put their details in a PDF document and
anytime someone makes a booking for an accommodation spot in the
area, you will email them a free copy of the document (sort of
like a digital voucher system) and they can print it out and
bring it with them for use while in the area. In fact, if the
truth be known, you could probably even put a link to the PDF on
your site so ANYONE can download it. Make them have to fill in a
small form to get it (name & email address) and then add their
name to your (upcoming) email newsletter. That way, even if
you don’t make a sale so far as a booking goes, at least you
have a good incentive for people to give you their email address
in exchange for downloading the vouchers for the location they
are interested in. Sell it to them on the basis that it WILL
give them FREE advertising. They don’t even have to offer any
specials (although if they do, that’s obviously a bonus for you
and the client), and all you ask for in return is a one-way link
back to your website. I’m not sure what sort of success rate you
would have getting this, but I would be surprised if it was less
than 1 in 10, perhaps even 1 in 5 businesses being prepared to
say yes. And, you have a WHOLE country of accommodation hotspots
you can call over the next 6-12 months and put this proposition
to, with a view to getting ongoing increasing one-way links to
your site from relevant businesses. Oh, a small but important
point. Get them to provide the text &/or graphics content that
goes in your voucher. Saves you some time & money. I would
assume that many of these places already have some form of
brochures & advertising, etc - just get them to email you the
image in a usable format.

If you have to spend time designing the look and content of each
ad, it will chew up your time, so if they see the value of doing
this, just explain that you will NEED them to email you their
voucher entry (perhaps specify the size and format, etc), and
you just drop it into a word doc (for example) and turn that
into a pdf when you have filled it up. Also, you will no doubt
have some places being concerned that they are going to be in
your voucher “book” with their competitors, which may (in their
minds) devalue it for them, so offer them exclusivity if they
come up with a great special offer for your clients. Rather than
making them pay for exclusivity upfront, get them to pay for it
when someone redeems the voucher, which is good for you AND
them. I believe this will be the best way for you to secure
one-way links from related websites, without having to spend
large sums of money. Once your page rank increases (for both
your home page AND individual internal pages), you will find
your site showing up higher in the organic searches across the
board, which is the ultimate goal anyway.

There you have it. Any business (not just accommodation) can
take this idea, mould it to their specifics, and be generating
great incoming links from relevent sites in days.

As a last suggestion, if you want to speed up the process,
contact prospective link partners by direct mail. That way, you
can get in touch with 10-100 of them in a very short period of
time, and only deal with the ones who see the value in what you
are offering.

All the best with your link building campaign, and remember that
success on the internet takes time and dedication. You won’t get
miracle results in 1 week, so be persistent.

Why Award Sites?

Award sites are, in essence, directories that hand review sites,
placing the ones with the most or best content and services at
the top of the list. These sites are an excellent source of high
quality, targeted traffic, and should be utilized by any site
looking to promote themselves online. High rankings on these
sites are not based on the amount of links you have or the
volume of traffic your site maintains per month, but rather on
who has the best site in their opinion. This makes it one of the
best places to start off your promotion campaign for your
website.

To get high listings in these sites, you will generally want to
have a lot of high quality, topic related content, as well as a
layout that is easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye. With a
high ranking on these sites, you will generate quite a bit of
targeted traffic to your site, as well as get a nice link out of
the deal. These sites are generally very popular, as well,
helping out your rankings in the search engines while bolstering
your traffic.

Some awards sites require a link back to their page in exchange
for a ranking on their site. You can opt to not exchange links
with these sites and move on to the “catch-free” sites, but in
all fairness, a simple reciprocal link is well worth the traffic
and reputation boost you will receive with a high listing. Many
web browsers will stumble onto these sites in search of the
“best” site for whatever subject they are interested in, and may
find your site the most appealing to them. The only way for them
to find you early on, however is through links from other high
traffic sites.

Finding a Related Award Site

Finding an award site is not difficult at all, depending on your
topic. Try your favorite search engine with the phrase “top 10
sites.” More than likely you will receive a myriad of
results. Skip over the sites that are not award related, and
focus on the award sites for now. Make a list of the most
appealing award sites / top 10 sites to you, as these will most
likely be the ones that are most appealing to other web
browsers. Later you will be trying to get in the top listings
for as many as you can, so don’t skip over any just yet. Before
you get started submitting, make sure the content on your site
has been read through and looks good. Typos throughout your
articles and pages can be a major detriment to your rankings on
the award sites out there. You might also want to include a few
extra pages with simple articles to be sure that you have plenty
of unique content. This will help enormously with your rankings,
both on awards sites and on the major search engines, so take
your time and do them right.

Submitting to Award Sites

Once you are sure of your content and services / products
outline, go ahead and begin submitting to your list of award
sites. Many of these, as stated above, will require a link to
their site before linking to you, so have your links up and
ready before you begin. It will save you time in the end, and
will reduce the chances of accidentally not adding a link and
getting denied by the site you submitted to.

If an email is required to have your site listed, be sure to
write a short, but descriptive letter to their site. Include
what the site specifies, and it always helps to add a paragraph
stating that you already have a link to their site on yours.
Don’t forget to include a link to the exact page you placed
their link on, so that it is easy to find. With a reciprocal
link placed already, most sites will not have any problem with
linking back to you as soon as they get your email. Don’t be
discouraged if your site is not within the top 10 on their site
after just submitting it. With a little bit of time and effort
you can always raise your ranking on an awards site.

Also, be sure to keep a list of which sites did link back to
you, and delete the links for the ones that did not. This will
keep your links page clean and neat, increasing your chances of
getting a higher listing in the award sites you have linked to.

Getting Higher Rankings on Award Sites

Now that you are listed in a few award sites, it’s time to start
focusing on getting a higher ranking in them. Always keep fresh
content on your site. This will help your ranking not only on
the award sites, but on the search engines and directories as
well. With new, unique content and constant updates to your
site, you will stand a much better chance of being seen as an
“expert” in your field, and your site will never grow stagnant
or outdated.

Periodically send an email to the award sites you are listed on,
informing them of updates since your last email. If the sites
see that you are updating and improving your site daily, they
will be much more apt to rank you higher on their list.

Another good tip is to keep the links to the award sites toward
the top of your link page, or on a separate page altogether,
linked from your main page. This will increase traffic to the
award sites, further improving your relations with them. If you
are sending three times as much traffic to their site than the
current #1 listing, chances are good that the #1 will soon be #2
on their list.

Always keep in mind that there is lots of competition on the
internet, regardless of which product or service you are
promoting. The important thing is to remember that “you get what
you pay for.” In other words, the harder you work at something,
the better the results are going to be.

Don’t Be A Reciprocal Linking Turkey!

I had an email exchange with an SEO client today after his
webmaster called him pushing reciprocal linking software (when
all this web designer was after was to generate some extra work
from a client that hasn’t needed him for awhile). Then that
client called me after he received my email de- nouncing the
software, fully convinced by a follow-up phone call from his web
designer that the reciprocal linking soft- ware WAS valuable.

He had been assured that the spamming, er - I mean, linking
software, would increase his visiblity for an inside page on a
hot topic currently in the news. He didn’t want to hear my
unpopular opinion that reciprocal linking is DEAD! Halloween is
over people! We don’t need the mummies of yesterdays’ linking
schemes haunting our Thanksgiving too! Oh, it must be a
Thanksgiving TURKEY! A reciprocal Linking Turkey! Can reciprocal
linking Santa’s be far behind? OK, I’ll drop the holiday
metaphors.

I tried in vain to convince this client that he didn’t need that
software for his review of the new Myriad Pictures flm, “Kinsey”
about early sex educator Professor Alfred Kinsey.
<http://www.doctorg.com/kinseyfilm.htm> We had just that morning
distributed a press release online
<http://www.ereleases.com/pr/20041111001.html> which is now
posted on over 100 high visibility news sites and Yahoo news
picked it up! <http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041111/phth014_1.html>

These are hugely valuable ONE WAY inbound links that will vastly
improve his search engine ranking immediately due to the topical
nature and excellent timing of the release. This client is a sex
educator and runs an educational web site about sex and love.
His press release put down the idea of the use of the new
Intrinsa© testosterone patch to cure the low sexual desire of
post-menopausal women and praised the new film Kinsey. He’ll be
top ranked for two highly desirable and valuable (to him and his
web site) keyword phrases within the week.

By the way, I HIGHLY recommend this approach for those with
newsworthy issues they want to promote to the press.
<http://www.eReleases.com> will send your newsworthy press
release to over 100 top news sites, hundreds more radio,
television and newspaper reporters, and tons of journalists who
have signed up to receive them. Ereleases.com is syndicated by
major news organizations and you can gain hundreds of links
while generating interviews and even television appearances, all
for only $400! Some people will pay that much for worthless
reciprocal linking software and installation by webmasters
having a slow week. Back to our story…

I re-affirmed my opposition to the use of the software as we
ended our call and he hung up disappointed because he wanted my
support and assurance that the sales pitch he got from his web
designer on the reciprocal linking software was accurate and
that it would do more for him than this press release.

Unfortunately, we’ll never know because he bought the sales
pitch from the web designer, installed the software and
immediately sent out a sp*m - AHEM, er, I meant to say - email
to his newsletter mailing list announcing the availability of
reciprocal links and asking them for links to his newsworthy new
pages.

When will this linking insanity end?
<http://website101.com/arch/archive153.html>

Following is my reasoned - and decidedly calmer than I am now -
email response to him.

Dear Gary,

This link generation scheme is standard for reciprocal link
software. The value of “Reciprocal links” is far lower than the
value of the ONE WAY links you already have from that press
release distribution and the posting of the press release on
your site which, by the way, includes linking instructions at
the bottom of the relevant pages.

I’ve written an article call “Linking Psychosis is Treatable”
<http://website101.com/arch/archive153.html> which discusses the
foolishness of links pointing all over the web.

It doesn’t address reciprocal linking so much as the insanity
with which webmasters persue them. Your press release has
ALREADY generated a huge number of inbound ONE WAY links that
will increase the visibility and rank of both Kinsey Film Review
<http://www.doctorg.com/kinseyfilm.htm> and
<http://www.doctorg.com/intrinsa.htm> Intrinsa© Testosterone
Patch pages.

Doing the reciprocal page will initially LOWER your rank because
it is RECIPROCAL. There is a concept called “Authority Site”
that search engines use where ONE WAY inbound links are ranked
VERY highly and reciprocal links are devalued BECAUSE of
software like that being promoted by link-crazy folks not
willing to do the hard work of generating the more valuable
one-way links.

The search engines know about the software available from
linking fanatics and DEVALUE pages that use it. Ultimately it
can increase your visibility, sometimes, over the long run, but
it just isn’t that helpful in most cases.

I’ve taken a hard line about this and get a lot of flack about
it from those without SEO experience or knowledge. But smart
professional SEO’s agree that reciprocal linking schemes - AND
ESPECIALLY SOFTWARE GENERATED PAGES - are not worth much in
search engine rank. The search engines are reducing the
importance of those type of pages daily because it is too easy
and too commonly used by scores of webmasters looking for an
easy ranking.

I have written in the past that “Reciprocal Linking is Dead!”
<http://searchengineoptimism.com/reciprocal-linking-dead.html>
in which I outline my linking policy and encourage all
reciprocal links requests to submit articles to be used on my
site and that I’ll link to them through the resource box of
their articles - IF I decide to publish them - but that I just
don’t do reciprocal linking - period. I don’t even require them
to link to me, but I point out that I have over a hundred fifty
articles on my web site available for use on their site if they
use my resource box, provide author credit and link to me
through my resource box.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. No matter how
unpopular it makes me with software vendors selling programs or
link fanatic webmasters looking for extra income and easy
solutions.

Don’t be a linking turkey! Happy Thanksgiving!

Google has just sent the Search Marketing world into a frenzy of
hair pulling and nail biting. Its latest shake up of its
algorithm has put paid to unrestrained link swapping. It had
gone overboard like Meta tag stuffing before it. Even before
this latest revision, all signs indicate that the Search Engines
were beginning to devalue reciprocal links and forum signatures
in their SERP’s .So what is a harried webmaster to do? Are
backlinks still relevant to search rankings? If they still
count, how do you acquire them without running afoul of the SE’s?

The answer to that is Link Trading. Link trading also known as
Link Renting, is simply paying to have a link pointing to your
site from another site, usually, with a high or higher page
rank. In essence you are buying the linking site’s traffic and,
if your own site is related, its search relevancy.

Link trading came into vogue even before the current SE
upheavals because it was often the only way a new or lowly
ranked site could get any links from authority sites. Its
principle advantage from a search rankings point of view is it
is a one-way link - the most valuable kind - and thus
constitutes a high quality link.

Secondly, link trading or renting if well executed can pull in
significant amounts of traffic. If you target a site with
relatively high traffic, you are likely to benefit from the
overflow - obtain traffic you would not otherwise have gotten.

Link trading also has a viral or branding effect leading on from
its traffic-generation benefit. More web surfers get to see your
link and if you properly optimize the link’s anchor text, your
site profits from the resultant visibility. You also profit from
being associated with the site hosting your link, and if its
reputation is good, this will yield a powerful networking
advantage. The downside is clear - a site may have negative
connotations for your visitors, so researching them thoroughly
before buying your link space is critical.

As link renting becomes more popular, the number of sites
willing to sell link space increases. Given that the purpose for
most webmasters is to gain links from sites with relatively
higher PR, you should consider only sites that rate as authority
sites in your category. Over and above that, the usual factors
for quality linking should be taken into account. Briefly these
are:

1. Visitor Profile - choose only those sites that get the type
of surfer you are targeting.

2. Page Relevance - make sure that the title and body content of
the page hosting your link is relevant to the linked page on
your site.

3. Optimized Anchor Text - it is imperative that the text in
your link is optimized for your web page, as well as being
curiosity arousing.

4. Text Link Placement - wherever possible determine the
placement of your link - you are paying for it. Links within
body text (usually in your own distributed content) are the most
effective. The rule of thumb is that the higher up the page the
link is placed, the better its click-thru-rate (CTR).

5. Quantity of links on page - in a link trade set up, the
hosting site usually guarantees the number of outgoing links -
3-5, and never more than 10. The fewer links there are, the
better your CTR. Too many (6+) will erode the link PR you
acquire as well as create distractions to your link.

6. Design - again you may not have control over the design of
the text link ad, but it is worth checking to see whether you
have any options. A simple link will generally maximize your
CTR. Dynamic urls are not spidered by the SE bots, so any ad
tracking scripts will do nothing for your link popularity, only
boosting traffic your site.

How to Buy Links

Many sites readily link sell space on their pages. Due to the
fear of SE blacklisting, some sites are reluctant to openly
advertise the fact that they will sell you link space, and with
these, it is often best to approach 3rd party link brokers. This
will generally not cost you more as the linking sites’ pays the
brokers’ fees, but it will give you more options to choose from.
The leading link brokers are Text Link Brokers and Text Link
Ads. The caveats for quality linking still apply, and don’t
plunge in if you are not sure.

It is usual for linking sites to charge a monthly fee for each
link with the possibility of getting site wide links or links on
specific pages. However site wide links tend to be more
expensive and may not achieve any higher PR than single page
links although they may generate more traffic. Typical charges
would range from $15/month for PR3’s to +$400/month for PR7’s
with wide variation in between. I do not think there is anything
to be gained in linking with pages with less than PR5,
principally because the PR they would pass on would be minimal.

Hosted Marketing Pages

A variation on the theme coming into fashion is Hosted Marketing
Pages also known as Content Hosting or Pre-sell Pages. In this
method you arrange with the site that you want a link from, to
have a highly optimized, timely and relevant article that you
provide, hosted on that site for a fee. You of course will have
embedded all the relevant links in appropriate content that you
control. Its main advantage is to allow you to advertise more
links than a straight link trade, and with links that rate more
highly in SE algorithms for relevance. On the other hand you
lose out on PR because the article would most likely be on a
brand new page, and anyway you don’t want your material
competing with other similar editorials. Hosted marketing pages
will I believe replace reciprocal linking as the leading SEO
technique, especially to establish new sites.

HMP’s are one way of paying to syndicate articles relevant to
your web site or page. Paid article syndication is not a new SEO
method, but as part of a link trading strategy, it takes on a
new dimension. Like with HMP’s you would distribute optimized
articles, in order to acquire inbound links to your site. One
can either issue press releases through agencies like PR Web, or
have article directories do so. Either way you would pay for
prioritization and for wider reach. Just as with HMP’s apart
from the exposure your site gets, you retain control of your
links’ anchor text. According to research conducted by the
Marketing Experiments Journal, paid press release distribution
has for traffic generation purposes, a better ROI than
traditional PPC, with an added SEO benefit.
(http://www.marketingexperiments.com/see/1122).

Link Trading or Link Renting differs from straight advertising
in having an SEO focus that in the longer term obtains more
valuable organic traffic from high SE rankings than the direct
traffic generated by PPC or any other type of advertising. The
latter is only effective for as long as you are shelling out
money to fund it, and most advertising experiences diminishing
returns, whereas an SEO technique like link trading gains
momentum from its viral effect such that in time you can curtail
the amount of link renting you are doing with only a marginal
effect on your SE visibility.

It is debateable whether Link Renting amounts to SERP
manipulation. By the reckoning of some, all SEO is just that -
Search Engine manipulation. However even the SE’s are aware that
SEO hones their own search results by forcing webmasters to
focus more acutely the type of traffic their sites attract,
based on existing search queries and extrapolating for future
ones. In a hypothetical world, if all web pages were adequately
optimized, even the most incomprehensible search query terms
would return relevant and usable results. This is surely the
holy grail of Search.

You need to decide before you start researching sites to buy
links from just why you want to trade - for traffic or PR. Some
research suggests that PPC has better and more controllable
returns than Link Renting for traffic conversion (traffic that
buys or takes some other specific action). If your aim is to
boost your own site’s PR, be careful about how much you pay.
Tony Simpson of Webpageaddons has written an informatively about
this in a two part article. He concludes that you are much safer
bidding for link space on the basis of traffic generation than
PR. Either way, buying links, if properly executed, enhances the
prospects for a new site, and is set to become part of the
internet marketing mix for most webmasters.

Happy Link Trading

We have been discussing trips & tricks to generate one way
incoming links into your site. To read the first part of this
article read one way incoming links generation.

Then there is a way to generate links with the content that you
have not as yet created. For this contact the established
authorities (writers, publishers ) in your domain area & let
them know that you are available as a resource for researching &
writing on any topic from the chosen domain. When they will use
you they will credit you for it. Also submit your articles to
them. If they ever quote you they will link to you & the added
advantage will be that their articles will get published in good
places. Imagine an incoming link to your site from TIME or
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.

What if you don’t have great content writing skills or the
necessary expertise. Then do the next best thing. Ask for
permission from writers to host their content on your site in
exchange from link from it. So, if you are able to create a good
selection of articles people will still link to you for a good
compilation.

Now to the next step of creating one way links:

Apart from content you can use other free available downloads
from your site as the carrot for people to link to you. This
free carrot can be a good software tool relating to your domain
or an ebook (content again) etc. If people perceive value in
what you are offering chance are they will reciprocate by
linking to you. Another way to leverage this free download
scheme is to get listed in the directories & portals which offer
a listing of freeware on the net. Search the SE using keyword
freeware directories. Or shareware directories

You can possibly start with

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Freeware/Directories/

or
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Freeware/Download_Locations/.

Or
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/WWW/Free_Stuff/Link_Pages/.

Or http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Shareware/Directories/

Survey the products & services in your domain. Pick up the good
ones & write reviews for it. Then submit those reviews to the
concerned site/s. More often then not they will use it while
providing a link back to you for the credits.

Another way of getting some links is to hold a contest or host
sweepstakes on your site. Once you have this in place get it
listed with the directories which offer free contests & games
listings. You can search SE for contest directories or start
from here

http://directory.google.com/Top/Games/Gambling/Contests_and_Sweep
stakes/Directories/

All this is effective when you are creating content or giving
something free or reviewing someone elses’ offering. However
there are ways to create one way links which are different than
the abovementioned strategies. This entails leaving your
footsteps where ever you go. In simpler terms keep your
signature file ready( with a hyperlink) & then post it wherever
possible.

Whenever you visit a site, write a comment in the guest book
with your signature file.

Post messages on the forums or some chat rooms relating to your
topic with hyperlink built in ( check which forums allow that).

Post messages in the usenet newsgroups with hyperlink. For
selecting the right newsgroup to send a message you can search
with your prime keyword on google groups.

Always remember to have your signature file in your email.

Another way of creating one way incoming links into your site is
by either starting an online award category or by participating
in an award category.

If you are an award giver the recipient will place your gif
file(with hyperlink in it) on his site. If you win an award you
will link to the award site & they in turn generally link to you.

Another play is to book additional space/ additional url on any
other server & create a small site on it(related to your topic
area with some unique content) & link it to the original site. A
variation of this is to create a blog ( search SE for blog ) or
start here

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Web
logs/Tools/?tc=1 .

Link this blog to your web site.

Another long winding however effective way to create incoming
links is to host affiliate programs or launch banner exchange
programs or launch a web ring program from your site. People who
will sign up will have links pointing to your site from theirs.
However this approach does take time & efforts to bear fruit.

In almost all these variations one of the most important
parameters you can control is the anchor text.

These are just some of the methods that you can undertake
profitably.

Once you are done with your one way linking campaign, its time
to start with reciprocal linking campaigns

Link popularity has recently become an important aspect to
consider when promoting a website. Many search engines have
started to use link popularity to help determine ranking in
their listings. Gaining links from other sites is also very
beneficial because you gain added traffic when users follow the
link from another site to your site.

What Is Link Popularity? Link popularity is basically the number
and quality of links that point towards your site. A link from a
very important site is worth more than a link from a smaller
site. The search engine companies think that an important site
would only link to your site if your site was important, and it
makes sense too. Try getting the main page of Yahoo! to link to
you and you’ll fail, but if you did get a link, then your site
must be worth something. You couldn’t even get a link to your
site from a medium size site unless your site was important
enough and had something to offer. Both of which are important
aspects in determining relevancy - a search engines main goal.  

The number of links is also important for the same reason. Your
site must be important if many sites link to you. Search engines
know these things, and that is the basis for link popularity.

Linking Strategy Rules

The most basic way of gather and exchanging links is to simply
visit websites and email the webmaster asking for a link
exchange. However, there are a few rules to keep in mind.

1. Related, Not Competitive - You should try to focus your
linking strategy on sites related to yours, but not in direct
competition. For example, a search engine submission company
site wouldn’t want to link with a competitor. They would be
better off linking with a website that teaches various ways of
promotion. The object is not to lose business to competitors,
but to gain business from similar sites.

2. Offer A Link - Most sites won’t just give out a link for
nothing in return. Have a link to their site setup and then
email them asking for an exchange. Even go as far as to give
them the URL of where their link is located. This basically just
makes the offer more serious because you already have a link
setup.

3. Be Selective - You shouldn’t just fire off an email to every
website you find asking for a link exchange. Be selective based
on the importance of your site. If you have a large site that
has been around a while, you can be more selective with your
linking. You just want to be sure that you aren’t wasting your
time with sites that will benefit greatly from your link, but
won’t do much for you at all.

4. Mini Yahoo! - When I created my links page, I had in my mind
a picture of a small directory. Yahoo uses actual people to
decide where and if a site gets added. Although my link page is
obviously much smaller than Yahoo, I try to keep the same idea.
I set up a page with different categories that relate to my
site. This makes your links page professional and also offers
another free service for my visitors to use. They can use my
links page as a targeted directory where they can easily find
specific, relevant information.

Best of luck to you,

JC Anderl www.Redlionbooks.com, JC@Redlionbooks.com

Visit my site or email me if you have any questions about
marketing or website promotion.