Do your website's promotion on a continuous basis. Rather establish 5 quality links in a week, than 20 bad or unrelated ones. The long term results will show. Where your opponent's sites might falter and move down rankings, yours will on other hand steadily move up search engine ladder. Search Engines might change their algorithms from time to time, but good linking will remain an important factor in deciding a website's rank !

Remember, marketing of any website is a long term project. Nothing big will happen overnight, and patience will eventually pay off.

Who to link to :

... link to related sites. It does not have to be exactly same as your site, but similar in a way. A good example is : if you have a freshwater fishing venture, you can link to related freshwater fishing sites, saltwater fishing sites, sites selling fishing gear & sites selling fishing boats. You can even include sites listing & detailing good fishing spots. As long as sites are related to yours, links will be relevant. The search engines value relevant links very highly, and you will do wonders for your search engine rankings. Your links can also be with international sites, not just local ones. Fishermen like to try our spots all over world, and getting a link on a related site in another country, might bring you lots of extra business in long run.

How to establish links :

many sites have a form where you can fill in your details and submit your site's relevant link details. This is not a bad idea, but many site owners don't even have decency to reply, or to establish a link, but they request on form that you first establish a link to them !! We have found that a simple introduction & link exchange proposal email works better. It's like making personal contact with other person. Do not SPAM, but rather send out personal emails one by one, and if possible, address it to a relevant person. If you SPAM, your email address might be blacklisted, and your link exchange program will be stopped in its tracks !

Protect your site's lifelines - check links at least once a month :

... there are many sharks out there ! Many people will except your link exchange proposal, but after a week or two they simply remove your link. It is very important to check reciprocal links to your site at least once a month. Links are a website's lifelines and you need to look after them ....