Dear Internet Friend,
Greetings, I will cut to the chase - if you have founded this page that could only mean one thing...you want a proven web marketing technique that will attract more targetted web traffic to your web site and you want to do it all for FREE (no hidden charges, no fee, no affiliates). Who doesn't? :-)
So what's Link Exchange anway?
Link exchange is also known as reciprocal link exhange, link swap, link trade - you place my link information on your site and I will place yours on my site. It's like a barter/trade of exchanging links - you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours...sounds familiar?
The best thing about this form of web promotion is that it's literally FREE and is the most cost-effective way to improve your link popularity.
Note: Link exchange will NOT boost your page rank... link popularity and page rank is two different stories. I will reveal two excellent tools to determine your link poularity and page rank later...
Link exchange will NOT bring you an immediate surge or flood of web visitors rushing to your web site. It's more like a long term advertising, slowly building up the momentum by increasing your link popularity.
Link exchange can also be thought of as a FREE form of quality advertising for your site. Imagine this, your link partner's visitor visit his/her page, couldn't find what he/she is looking for, click on the links page to search for more resources...and your site is included in the link page. What does this means for you? Exactly, FREE targetted visitors for your web site!
WARNING: Exchanging links with unrelated web sites can be HARMFUL & DANGEROUS to both your site and even your business reputation!
Oh, exchanging links is NOT risk-free? Well, it's risk-free or at least safe if you follow the guidelines below:
Always find for Quality, Complementary, Matching, Related and above all Responsible & Ethical web site/webmaster as your link partner.
NEVER, ever exchange links with web sites that contain porn, violent, racists, hatred materials. Period. Sites that encourage illegal, immoral, irresponsible, unethical activities or contents will ONLY give your customer a bad impression of your business or web site - use your own judgement here! :-)
AVOID swapping links with the following kind web site:
Web site that contains NO apparent content, web site that are so full of affiliate links that it make no sense at all!
Web site with very poor presentation or unacceptable web design (apparently the webmaster doesn't care about his/her site, let alone your link?) Especially if the site don't have a clear naviagation system or way to the links page.
In other words, you can't easily find the links page or your link simply because the webmaster tries to hide it from his/her visitors!
Web site that do NOT categorize their links, especially if they have more than 50 links. Would you like to see your link buried deep within 50 or 100 non-categorized links? Never do the same thing to your link partners too! :-p
Web site that appears to be a link farm or linking to one (including FFA - Free For ALL sites). Same as above, only difference is that such web site will link to almost any kind of web site (including but not limited to illegal and porn sites!), swapping links with such web site will do you more harm than good... avoid it at all costs!
Web site that uses third party link exchange service to manage their links - you will notice this when you get a link back from them.
If the link is NOT directly from the website you're exchanging links with, rather from a third party site (different domain), then delete his/her link IMMEDIATELY (okay this sounds a bit harsh, but do you really want to be penalized for linking to a link-farm? Besides, this is like cheating. Anyway, third party site uses script to verify your link...). You can always contact the webmaster....
I have traded links with this kind of web site before, and frankly, I feel so cheated! (those links are not very valuable...) :-(
Above all, web site that is under construction and even worse, always offline and unavailable, you know those scary 404 errors - page not found (your link will be offline too!)
There are some web sites/webmasters that are really picky about which sites they will exchange links with. They will basically ONLY exchange links with site that meets a certain page rank...
These web sites may or may not have a high page rank or link popularity...I will reveal two excellent tools that will expose their page rank and link popularity now. :-)
How do you check a web site's Page Rank and Link Popularity?
To know another web site's or your web site's page rank, just download this nifty Internet Explorer add-on:
Google Toolbar: http://toolbar.google.com/
When you've installed it on your computer, the Google toolbar will reside nicely on top of your Interter Explorer browser. Be sure to enable page rank view.
To view another web site's or your own web site's link popularity, you simply insert the to the appropriate URL right after the q=&url=
Alexa's Link Popularity Checker: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=
For example:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=http://www.yoursite.com/
Visit alexa.com: http://www.alexa.com/ if you have any questions or simply want to know more about link popularity.
Is Link Exchange difficult?
Is writing a simple friendly email difficult?
There are basically two ways to exchange links. Before you start exchanging links, make sure the web site meets all the neccesary requirements to be your potential link partner.
More importantly, make sure the webmaster is interested in link exchange (Visit that particular web site and find the links page).
Add your link and wait for reply...
Usually there's a "add your link" or "submit your site" link. These are script that the webmaster written or installed to facilitate the process of link exchange.
It's an easy way to exchange link, you just basically fill in your name, email address, link information, and the reciprocal URL. After you've submitted your link information, simply wait for the webmaster to reply your request.
It usually takes around 1-2 days, but I've also experienced webmaster who takes more than a week (in some cases, two weeks!) to approve a simple link request...hmm, either they are simply too busy or don't care!
A good rule of thumb is to allow up to a week (7 days) for a web site to reciprocate. If they do not reply within a week, you know what to do... :-)
Email the webmaster personally...
This approach to link exchange is far more better and effective (in my opinion) because it is more personal and genuine. It may sound a little bit of a hassle and in some cases difficult but heh, quality does come with a price!
For those who don't know how to write a friendly email requesting link exchange, don't worry...I will give you a simple yet effective email template.
Visit that particular web site, try to find the webmaster's name and jolt down what interest thing you find in his/her site and tell him/her that his/her site will be a great resource for your visitors.
Hi Jimmy! <--If the webmaster's name is John, use John then :-)
I've visited your site: www.jimmysite.com and I really like it. Your site looks very professional and interesting.
I think your site will a great resource for my visitors so I have included your link information on my site:
http://www.yoursite.com/links_1.htm <--Always Mention the reciprocal link
Here's my site for you to review:
http://www.yoursite.com <-Try to make life easier for your link partner :-)
I have included my link information at the bottom of this message.
If you're interested in exchanging links with my site, please send me an email including your link information and where you've placed my link - I will send you an email confirming I have posted your link.
Well done on providing the web users with useful and quality information / services! I hope you will consider this reciprocal link exchange and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
John <-Always mention your name, this is very important!
links@yoursite.com
www.yoursite.com
P.S. If for any reaons you are not interested in exchanging links with me, please just reply me with the a simply no thanks or I'm not interested in link exchange. <-Including a simple and friendly "remove me" will make your offer look more professional and genuine.
General Information:
URL: http://www.yoursite.com/
Title: Offers some products some services
Description: We offer the best X products and Y services...
There! It's as simple as that! I'm sure you can come up with a better or more creative email template! :-)
As a golden rule, always mention who you are (your name - more personal), where (which web site) you are from and that you've included his/her link!
Most webmasters are more inclined to include your link this way...Always make it easy for your potential link partner to find his/her link (provide the exact URL, which category, etc.) and use less than 60-70 characters per line - it will make the email easier for anyone to read.
What if your potential link partner REJECT your link exchange request?
Yes, it is quite possible but if your site meets all the neccesary requirements of a quality link partner, chances of your request been rejected is minimal.
However, as I've mentioned before, they are some web sites that are ONLY interested in swapping links with web sites that has a certain page rank...If you really want to exchange links with these sites, you can always try it later when your site have a higher page rank.
Where do you find potential link partners?
Finding quality link partners is becoming quite a challenge, especially if you've traded more than 100-200 links. If you're looking for a quick and list of sites that accept reciprocal linking, here are some of the sites which I've used and would gladly recommend:
http://linkpartners.com/
http://www.linkexchanged.com/
http://www.linkalizer.com/
Remember, always and ONLY exchange links with related web sites, that way your chances of getting reciprocated will greatly improved.
Some final thoughts...
One more thing before we wrap this up nice report...although link exchange is a free form of advertising and a great way to boost your link popularity, it does require some efforts and patience to maintain it - this is especially true when you have more than 50 links.
You can save yourself a lot of confusion and trouble if you categorize your links neatly, this will also add some "appeal" for other webmasters to exchange links with you.
That's all for this report, I hope you had a wonderful time reading it!
Happy Linking,
Dave Tan
Webmaster
www.ebookok.com
P.S. Please visit my site: http://www.ebookok.com/ today, browse my fine online eStore and check if there's any particular ebooks that can solve your marketing problems, all at special irresistible prices.
