* As with traditional reciprocal links, a very big drawback is that links are mostly on "Resources" pages that are just lists of links. There's only a small chance of getting significant traffic from these links. Plus, any "Resource" page may well eventually become an easy target for link dampening, if that hasn't happened already.

3. Submitting to Directories

They are legendary fairy lands of SEO: PageRank-passing, no-fee-charging, and actually well-run directories of relevant links. Yes, they really do exist. An SEO acquaintance tells me he knows 200 good ones just off top of his head. Plus, there are other kinds of directories: directories of affiliate programs, of websites using a certain content management system, of websites whose owners are members of this or that group, of websites accepting PayPal, etc. etc.

Ah, a link in a PageRank-passing link directory: it's a good deal if you can get it. But let's say you do get links from all 200 such directories and a hundred more from little niche directories--now what?

4. Paying for Inbound Links

Buying and selling text links on high-PageRank web pages has become big business. Buying good traffic-generating "clean" links is a great alternative to pay-per-click advertising, which confers no SEO benefit. But, there are a number of pitfalls of relying primarily on paid links for SEO:

* The cost of hundreds of links required for substantial search engine traffic can become prohibitive.

* As soon as you stop paying, you lose your link--you are essentially renting rather than owning, with no "link equity" building up.

* Google is actively trying to dampen impact of paid links on rankings, as revealed in various patent filings. A website can try to mask fact that links are paid, but how well it does that is out of your control.

* Given Google's mission to dampen paid links' effectiveness, paid link buyers have an interest in verifying that a potential paid link partner is "passing PageRank." But identifying appropriate PageRank-passing paid link partners is quite a task in itself.

* Google also has a stated mission of dampening value of any "artificial" links. Having most of your links on PageRank 3 or higher web pages would seem to be a dead give-away that your links are "artificial," since vast majority of web pages (note: not necessarily websites, but their pages) are PageRank 1 or lower. Meanwhile, buying PageRank 0 or 1 links would have so little impact on a site's PageRank that it would not be worth expense.

5. Distributing Content

All of above four inbound-link-generating methods really do work. But it is fifth method of getting one-way inbound links that is most promising: distributing content

The idea is simple: you give other websites content to put on their sites in exchange for a link to your site, usually in an "author's resource box," an "about author" paragraph at end of article.

The beauty of distributing content for links is that links generally generate more traffic than links on a "resources" page. Plus, your article will pre-sell readers on value of your site.

The downside, of course, is that it's no small amount of work to create original content and then distribute it to hundreds of website owners. But nothing good ever came easy. And on internet, one-way inbound links are a very good thing.

3. If you get same results with 50 pages with similar traffic levels, that's an increase of $328500. Now multiply that by however many sites you or your company owns. Can you say, "early retirement"?

Keep in mind, that's only additional revenue you get from improved content compared with what you were getting already from your work. No extra work needed.

Sales/leads model:

If your website is a promotional vehicle for a business, results can be even more spectacular. If a page nets you $500/day in sales or leads, website content improvements that increase your sales or leads by 20% will pay for themselves within a month, if not a week.

In reality, if your current content is really weak, improvement is likely to be even more spectacular. Traditionally, overhauling bad sales writing doubles or even triples response rate.

The best part of all this is advantage you'll gain over competition, with so many website owners in dark about their content. If you are earning 20% more than competition on same advertising or promotion expense, you will ultimately carry day.

Making a Content Investment

Now, back to price. What would you expect to invest to see a $6570 return?

Writer's Market, blue book of professional writer fees, says web content averages $300/page, which would mean a 2000+% return on investment.

But you can actually get away with paying only half that if you don't need research or meetings—the biggest time-sucks when it comes to creative projects. If you order content in bulk, you'll likely get an even steeper discount.

In short, with all obsession webmasters tend to have with increasing traffic, it's important to remember that making simple website content improvements is a much more cost-efficient and reliable way of increasing revenue. Not convinced? Just try getting professional help for a few of your page's content. You'll be pleasantly surprised when you see your site making more money.