For outbound links it is natural to assume that they might decrease link popularity of a web site but this is not true. You do not give away your link popularity when you link to another site. They do not add to your link popularity though.

Reciprocal links can add to your link popularity if web site that you exchange links with has a higher link popularity than your site. However they are not as powerful as inbound, one-way links as they are quite artificial in nature i.e. most probably created by communication between owners of both sites.

How to build link popularity:

So it is quite obvious that to help build up a nice link popularity many inbound, one-way links need to be created. This can be achieved in a number of different (and most importantly, legal) ways:

Directories: Directories are categorized listings of links from around web. Many, many directories exist and vary in their methods of getting your link posted on them. They provide a great source of quality inbound, one-way links. Getting listed in quality directories such as DMOZ or Yahoo can be more beneficial for your link popularity than a lot of links from smaller, newer directories.

Site content: The most powerful way to get inbound, one-way links is to have great site content that other web sites will want to link to. This allows you to get links from sites other than directories, which can definitely be better. The best thing about this is that it requires no communication on your part, it just happens naturally. If your site has poor content then others sites may not link, including directories. Most of top ranking web sites today got to top because of great content. Writing interesting and informative articles for your web site is a good way of getting these kind of links.

Emailing web site owners: If you come across a listing of links on a web site other than a directory e.g. a links page on a somebody's personal web site, it can do no harm to write web site owner a polite email requesting a link to your site from their page. They may request a reciprocal link in return but sometimes they do not and you can get a quality inbound, one-way link for your efforts. I have got many links in past using this method. In my email I always ask them to visit my site first before making a decision to link and I personalise each email with a comment or two about their site.

In Conclusion: The best and most effective way of increasing your search engine rankings is working to improve your web site's link popularity. This can be achieved by getting as many inbound, one-way links as you can from quality sites such as directories. Other ways to get these links are having great content on your site and requesting a link to your site from other web sites.

Increasing link popularity is a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process but is definitely worth time and effort when you see a dramatic increase in traffic.

Most website templates can be customized with common HTML editors and a simple graphics program. Templates can be edited without having to invest a lot of time and energy into learning how to code web pages.

You’ll want your website content to target specific keywords. This can be achieved by creating articles, product reviews, product comparisons and detailed description of your products. Avoid repeating keywords so often that text becomes difficult to read. There is a fine line between good copy text and spam text. Spam text is designed to increase your site’s listing in search engines, but often backfires when penalties are issued and your website is dropped from listing.

Host Your Website

Now that your website has been created, it’s time to find a company to host your website on their servers. You should be able to find a good hosting company for around $10 per month. This fee should include technical support and email accounts with your domain name. Domain name-specific email accounts are important for a professional image.

Your website files can be uploaded with a simple FTP program. The hosting company’s technical support personnel can walk you through steps to upload your files and launch your website.

Implement A Shopping Cart

No e-commerce website is complete without a secure shopping cart. There are many shopping cart options. Many e-commerce business owners make mistake of using Pay Pal to accept payments, which immediately tells visitors that their company is very small and not professional.

A good alternative to Pay Pal is a remotely hosted shopping cart. Remote shopping carts take burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder and places responsibility on another company. Remote shopping carts can usually be configured to look similar to your website. In fact, your customers may not realize that they have left your website to place an order. The remote shopping cart provider will give you HTML to add to your website. When your potential customer clicks on Buy Now button, he or she is taken to remote shopping cart to enter personal information and payment details.

Depending on your choice of a shopping cart, you may or may not need a merchant account to process transactions. Some shopping cart services allow you to use their merchant accounts for a slightly higher fee.

Stock Your Inventory

Now that your website has been created, it’s time to stock your inventory. The first step is to find manufacturers of products you wish to sell. You can find this information by reviewing your competitor’s websites. Some of them may list manufacturer with product name or description. Once you have name, you can search for manufacturer online.

Contact manufacturer and tell them that you are interested in becoming a distributor. Ask for a wholesale price list and an application. The price list will help you determine if profit margins are high enough to justify selling their product.

You’ll want to ask manufacturer following questions:

· What is MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) for item?

· Am I required to sell item at MSRP?

· What is your minimum order quantity/amount?

Some manufacturers will not sell to e-commerce businesses that do not have a brick and mortar retail location. If this is case, you’ll simply have to find a company that manufactures a similar product and is willing to sell to an e-commerce business.

Promote Your Business

Now that your website is live and you’re open for business, it’s time to promote your website. If no one knows that it exists, you will not receive any sales. Most website visitors originate from search engines. Before search engines can list your website, they have to know that it exists. You’ll need to submit your website to search engines and directories such as Yahoo!, DMOZ, Excite, and others. Search engine submission programs and services are available, but they not effective. Most good search engines require websites to be manually submitted. They enforce this by displaying an image with a series of letters or numbers that automated programs cannot read. The code embedded in image is required to submit your website.

Search engine algorithms are extremely complex. The ranking of a website in their search results depends on a number of factors, including keywords, density, back links, page rank, and other factors. After submitting your website to major directories and search engines, next step is to establish back links. When search engines crawl web and find a link to your site, they count link as a vote for your site. The more votes you have, higher your site will rank (assuming other criteria has also been met). You can acquire back links by sending emails to other website owners and offering to exchange links. It’s very difficult for new websites to acquire back links. Most people prefer to exchange links with established websites. In a way, it’s a catch-22, but it can be done and results are worth it.

Starting your own e-commerce business is a lot of work. Making it successful is even more work, but pay-offs can be rewarding. Thanks to explosion of Internet age, e-commerce business opportunities are now available to anyone with a computer, a few hundred dollars for start-up costs, some spare time and desire to create a business.

Copyright 2004 Danna Henderson. All Rights Reserved.