How can I tell web site I want to exchange with has any traffic?

Check traffic ranking with Alexa (www.alexa.com). This will give you a good idea of its popularity. Another way is to check its page rank with Google. If a web site has a page rank of 4, it is more popular than one with a page rank of 20. Try to exchange links with sites that have more traffic but you must be realistic also.

How do I show my links on my web Site?

You can put your links anywhere on your web site, provided you do not have a large page with links to all kinds of sites. Remember, keep your links relevant to content of your site.

If you have only a few links, best way is to have a list with title of web site and a short description of its content. Large numbers of links are not recommended as it looks a bit tacky.

Exchange links can be worth time and effort if done properly. The golden rule is only exchange links with other web sites that have content related to yours.

(c) John Lynch

( For a Free 6-part mini course on Internet Marketing including free interviews with top marketers such as Jay Abraham, Joe Vitale etc., free autoresponder and free Internet Marketing ebooks by top gurus. http://www.merchant-account-service.com/internet_marketing_explained.html)

6. What if a Webmaster asks me to link to one site, but links back to me from a different site?

This process is sometimes referred to as '3-way linking' or a 'linking triangle'. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with 3-way linking as it can sometimes be done for convenience. However first thing you need to do is 1/ Evaluate site you are linking to and 2/ Evaluate site and page you are getting link from. So is outbound link destination relevant to your site, and is inbound link you are going to receive also coming from a quality related website?

7. Do I want to associate my business with this particular site?

It is a simple question to answer and this should form part of your decision making process. If you think you have been approached by a good website then chances are others will feel same and possibly search engines too.

8. How do I know if my link partners are still linking to me?

You can do this manually by keeping information for each link partner in an Excel spreadsheet or similar and then periodically check exact URLs your link should appear on. However if you get to stage of having hundreds of link partners this may become rather impractical. At this stage a reciprocal link checker might be advisable. www.linksmanger.com offers a link management system that includes periodic checking of link partners as well as a link exchange system for around $20 a month.

9. So what are best links?

One answer could be “the ones that deliver lots of relevant traffic”. However links can mean different things to different people. Natural linking [when people link to you without you asking] is a great reward, but it is also wise to ensure you have some links from quality sites in your industry. Teoma can be a good place to find such sites as it focuses more on human edited results than say Google for example. Simply make a search with a good key phrase on www.teoma.com and you will quickly see which websites are ‘authority’ sites. Set about trying to get listed on as many of best ones as you can.