The key to successful reciprocal linking is based on two things: finding right sites to solicit links from and positioning of link within each site. You must first find sites that are somehow related to product or service you are offering, and contact owner or Webmaster of those sites to arrange a link trade. (Posting their link first is a sign of good faith on your part.) In positioning link, make sure that it is located in an accessible part of your site - but not too accessible; You don't want your traffic being diverted by red, bold-faced, "Click Here for My Friend's Amazing Site" link on your home page. Likewise, make sure that link you receive from other site is in a decent location.

Keep in mind: What is your product and who is it for?

Note: This does not mean that you cannot use "Mandy's Stitches", or something like that in headings that your visitors will see on page. We are strictly talking about meta tags here.

Also, if you are selling a recognizable brand, use that name in your title. Remember, to be search engine friendly, a title can be up to 60 characters long - so maximize your keywords in your title!

Using Your Keywords in Your Site Text - of course, use your keywords in your meta tags, but also include them in text you use on your web pages. If one of your keywords is home based business, be sure to use those word in your site.

Free Search Engine & Directory Submissions – A number of search engines allow you to submit your site to for free. However, it often takes weeks or months before they will consider your submission and most often you will not know when they do consider it. Also, even if they do consider it, you may not be entered. That said, search engines are an extremely powerful tool for advertising your site and you will want to submit to them.

Note: Search engines are usually of two types: 1. web crawlers that find your page based on keywords and ranking and 2. web directories where you have to be listed to be found. Some engines are a combination of both (ex. Yahoo).

Beware: free submissions are becoming rare. Get your site in while you can.

Here is a short list of search engines and directories to which you can submit for free:

Google http:/www.google.ca (you should submit your site with a description, but Google is a web crawler, not a directory - it will eventually find your site)

Open Directory Project http://www.dmoz.com

AOL http://aolsearch.aol.com/

Alcanseek http://www.alcanseek.com/ (Alaska & Canada only)

All Web http://www.alltheweb.com/

AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/ (Alta Vista is a web crawler but also contains a web directory you should submit your site to)

Biz Web http://www.bizweb.com/ (directory of business web sites - not a search engine)

Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com It's very difficult to get into their directory even if you pay, but they do have a free submission option. However, free submission option is not available if you want to list in Business to Business or Shopping & Services. So much for that idea. L

Web Rings – The idea of a web ring is that everyone in ring (related by some topic - ex. product, WAHMs, UK sites, etc.) places a link at bottom of their page that links site visitor to next site in ring. The visitor can click from site to site related to that particular topic.

A Web Ring may bring visitors to your site, but again you may lose some. Regardless, they are a good way to increase hits to your site and increase your search engine ranking. You need to decide which is most important.

You can find a directory of web rings at: http://dir.webring.com/rw (you can also make your own here quite easily)

WAHM.com offers a web ring at http://www.wahm.com/wahmring.html

iVillage has a directory of web rings or you can make your own

MomsNetwork.com also offers a web ring

Top Site List – top site lists are those buttons you may have seen on web pages that say something like "Vote for My Site". You can place a "Vote for My Site" button on your site and you will be listed in a directory. Generally, ranking on directory is based on number of links you bring into directory and how many links you receive out of directory. So if you give and receive a lot of links, you will rise to top of list.

Again take note, that top site lists may bring visitors to your site, but you may lose some. Be sure to have top site banner button on your site open in a new window.

WAHM.com has a top site list you can join (note: At time of publishing this article, WAHM.com had 1838 sites on its top site list. Consider it might be difficult to get hits of such a long list if you are at bottom)

MoneyMakingMommy has a relatively new top site list you can join. Hurry, it ’s a good idea to get in while there’s time.

Check out MomsNetwork.com's top site list

Take a look at Jarvis Network, they have a listing of top site lists you can join. You can find them at http://www.topsitelists.com

Good luck promoting your site quickly & for free. Look for future articles on other highly effective ways to promote your site.