Planning your links page is important in that you need to determine how you want it to look, what categories you will have and size and positioning of links. Will you just have text links or will you accept banner links?

It is good practice to have Link menu button placed in a prominent position on your home page. This is also a point to remember when evaluating possible link partners - on some website you can spend ages searching for Link button and Link pages.

There is also practice of placing extremely good beneficial links on other pages of your website. For example:

If your site is promoting health products you may very well want to place a banner ad on your homepage for say a health magazine.

In most cases you will be required to place a link on your website first prior to requesting a link exchange. Once you have placed link, send an email advising that you have visited their site and believe a link exchange would be beneficial to both parties. Mention something about site that impressed you, this way they will know you have actually visited their website. Endeavor to get a name to address email to if at all possible.

Of course, many sites today have everything set up with forms that enable you to just fill in your website details including reciprocal link address. This does make job much easier, but it is good business practice to send a confirmation email advising that their link is listed on your site and that you look forward to a reciprocal linking arrangement.

This last step can be beneficial at a later date in that you may want to approach them in future with a joint venture proposition for example. Linking is more than just swapping site information, it can be first step to a profitable business partnership.

A couple of important points to remember :

* Check all links regularly to ensure they are working. * Check that your link is still listed on partner site.

As your Link Pages grow, it will probably become necessary to use a Link Managing Program or Service, there are a number of very good ones available, some with a free trial period.

Happy Linking!

Joan Maughan CEO of Summerset Global Marketing.

Joan's previous experience in business has been in accounting and secretarial fields. Joan set up her website to provide honest, reliable products, service and advice after realizing the pitfalls facing newcomers to the internet business world.

Q: Are they effective for advertisers? A: I can't really answer that. I've never used them, so you'll have to ask someone who has. Of course, you could ask one of companies that offers text link ad technology, but you already know their answer...

Q: Will they become more popular? A: Once again, I can't answer that question with any authority. But I have my suspicions; I suspect they will become more popular, simply because there are a lot of web publishers out there who are willing to try programs that offer a revenue return. Ultimately, popularity of text link ads hinges how successful they are for advertisers, not how well-liked they are among users.

Q: Can I stop it happening to my reprint article? A: No. I believe that power lies solely with publisher. Of course, you can forbid it in your reprint guidelines, but that will simply limit number of times your article is reprinted (consequently limiting your referral traffic and link popularity).

Conclusion - Are any of these questions really important to article submission authors?

In my humble opinion, answer, once again, is “No!” As authors of reprint articles, we love Google AdSense arrangement because it creates a demand for quality content. The more high quality articles a publisher reprints, higher their site rank, greater their traffic, and more they earn from pay-per-click ads on their site. As a result, our article submissions get widely published and we build brand awareness, credibility, authority, referral traffic, and – of course – link popularity (i.e. increased rank).

Text link ads are no different. Like Google ads, they encourage publisher to acquire more high quality content. It's as simple as that.

“But my article is hijacked! What if reader doesn't return?” There's no denying we'd prefer to keep our reader. But most readers know where 'Back' button is, so if your article is good enough, they'll be sure to click it. And if they don't, well at least you've got permanent link back to your site in byline of your article. And after all, that's one of big benefits of article submission, isn't it?

Anyway, enough talk. Let's see how it all unfolds.

Happy hijacking!