Besides, hopefully your site will be interesting enough to keep them around for awhile, and when they are done, then they will go and visit your links.

Now that we've covered excuses, let's look at how you can increase your chances of getting linked from other sites.

First thing is that you really should have a quality site. Don't just throw together a page of banners and expect people that have worked very hard to get hundreds of thousands of visitors to want to link to you. Your link adds no value to their site.

The next important item is to personalize your email to them. Actually take time to visit their site and find something that you like about it. Find contact information and even a name if it is listed.

Find specific category or page that you feel your site would fit well on and mention that page specifically in your email.

If they think your email is generic they'll delete it right away. I know I do. The latest fad is to use automated programs to create theme pages and blast out automatic emails to every site program finds.

This may work to an extent but more than likely only ones that really benefit from this are creators. The search engines already know about this and have provisions to penalize sites using these. Read through second bulleted topic on this page: http://doc.altavista.com/adv_search/ast_haw_popularity.html

They have quickly gone way of FFA pages, or Dodo.

If you make an honest effort at this you can expect a decent return for your efforts. Look for shortcuts and your chances of huge success are shorted.

The next logical question in all of this is how in world you find sites to link to you.

My favorite starting point is to find sites that are linking to my competition. If they are willing to link to my competitor, they just might be willing to link to me too.

I use this great resource: http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/

Its purpose is to show you how popular sites are in relation to others, and it gives a ranking such as Player, Contender, 900 lb Gorilla, etc.

When you get to that link just enter in a couple of your competitors, and your own URL as well, and click Generate Report. This will show you how you rate as compared to your competition.

The other nice feature is you can click on results for domain for each of search engines. Meaning, if it found 200 links to a site listed in HotBot, you can just click number 200 in listing and it will take you to HotBot results. Then you just visit each of those sites, learn a little about them, then fire off an email to webmaster.

This method should give you a great start and keep you busy for a while.

The bottom line is that there are many benefits to getting other sites to link to you, just don't let excuses keep you from getting linked!

Chris McClean has created a service that connects web site owners with free courses. http://7LessonCourses.com lets you choose course you want to offer, insert your ad in course, then gives you a simple sign-up form to put on your site.

In case you want to create your own course, here are mechanics:

1. Pick a problem that lots of your customers struggle with. In my business big stumpers are getting a site that sells, finding a way to handle email, figuring out search engines, and finding low-cost ways to advertise effectively.

A course on any of these is guaranteed to bring lots of interested prospects and customers (and you can bet I’m plugging my ads here and there during course).

Your course could be on how to complete a basement, how to avoid an IRS audit, how to give your kids straight teeth, or anything else that customers often ask about.

2. If you don’t write or have time to pen your own articles, look for others who have written on topic. It is perfectly legal to put their ideas in your own words (always proper to give them credit).

You can also quote article. It is best to ask in advance, if your course is for commercial purposes. Start your article, then say expert Jane Doe has some valuable information. Include a few paragraphs of what Jane wrote.

Be careful not to use so much you give away her entire article and spoil her ability to sell information.

Email is by far most popular feature of Internet. Use your own email course to build an audience and promote yourself as someone who knows their field.