Is there a better way?

Yes, there are a lot of better ways. Some are f'ree and some are not. The basic idea behind better ways is to find people who are already linking to your competition, then encourage them to link to you.

To find people who are linking to your competition 1) Go to www.alexa.com and type in their URL. 2) C'lick on link on right hand side titled "Sites Linking In"

This will provide a list of sites who link to your competition. (You could also use Google - but I find they are missing a lot of links.)

Now to get contact info for each site linking to your competition: 1) C'lick "site info" link for each 2) Scroll down to where alexa.com tells you phone number & email address for each site

Lastly, visit site and see what site is about. If you sell Gerber Daisies and they are talking about how great Gerber Daisies are - then contact them and ask for a link exchange. Since they are already linking to your competition - then they are more likely to want to link to you also.

Now I know how to find best sites…But, how do I get them to link to me?

As I said before - first option is to just ask. I know…this is just like cold calling and every'one hates cold calling. But if you do it with email or you already know what site is about, then it is much easier.

One thing you can do is have a reason for calling other than asking for a link.

One of things that I am good at is finding problems with other websites. I don’t really do this on purpose - but as a web developer, these things just seem to jump out at me. When I am visiting a site and I find a link that does not work - I shoot a quick email off to webmaster and tell them. Normally they appreciate fact that you are helping them - they want their site to work and are usually losing money if it does not.

Sometimes when doing this I also ask a question. For example I may ask how they did some effect on their site or what things they are doing to improve conversion. You can use this same technique to ask for a link exchange.

The point is not to complain or find a problem - point is to provide person some information that is valuable to them. For webmasters - they want their site to work. If I see something that does not work, they are usually happy to know about it. As for Gerber Daisy fanatics, they may be interested in some other good sites - or some nice pictures or some interesting information that you know about Gerber Daisies.

You will know a lot of good information about your product, so I am sure you can find something to start a conversation - even if it is nothing more than how much you like their site.

What else can I do to get people to link to me?

Well, there is a whole list of techniques - but they all are based on same thing. Providing other person a benefit for linking.

For example: • You could set up an affiliate program and give them a commission on every sale they referred to you. • You can share with them what you learned in Trafficology and help them get more visitors. • You can write an article on topic of site and give it to them in exchange for a link. • You can create an eBook or something else that they can give away to their visitors • You can of'fer them a special discount on all purchases • You can send them some samples of your product to try for themselves

This is only limited by your-own imagination. Thats It For Now, in next issue we will look at adcopy/sales copy so keep a close eye on your mailbox!

Remember you can get all this information plus thousands of dollars worth of resources and products you can sell online and keep every penny of profit from http://www.nicetodobusiness.com

Till Next Time, Mark Flavin www.nicetodobusiness.com

By equal value it should be kept in mind your site with a google PR of 1 might be turned down by another site when you are asking for a link on a PR 5 page. Most webmasters I have contacted want relevant link exchange of similar value and many want non-competing links as well.

Some sites owners will consider creative partnerships. From my site (link near top of this article) if you browse to forums then notice at bottom of forums listing a section called “Hosted Partners Forums” with a “Go Get Links – Support” forum? This is a creative partnership between of my own sites. Many webmasters would find great value in trading traffic and links with partnerships like this.

This type of partnership allows you to have a place to promote yourself from a different domain and update information about your site. Every time you post in “your forum” you would also be increasing links back to your site. This kind of partnership gives host of your forum content so site remains active and search engine spiders stay interested.

There are many ways to develop linking strategies from one site to another reason why you should take advantage of them is obvious when you search google for information. Most searches turn up a few forum post and articles on first page of results. I know I often find relevant information when I follow a link to a forum post and then to another website.

Keep in mind that all ideas suggested here are in no way intended to be high maintenance projects. These are just things you can take a day to do at a few sites and then revisit more productive sites and add more as you see fit.