Maybe your site is a "900 lb. gorilla?"

What's with all jargon today?

Glad you asked.

A slick new "Visibility Index" opened recently that you should try. It measures your website's visibility on web by counting up all links to your site. But rather than simply telling you how many links you have across world wide web, this one rates you from "limited presence," to "contender", "player" and even "900 lb. gorilla."

The site also lets you enter up to four other URLs so you can compare yours to them. What's more, results show your URL among lots of popular sites on web.

Not only is this free tool fun to try, it can reveal important information about your web presence.

Give it a go at: http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/

I just ran my http://www.bizweb2000.com site through and it was interesting to see it wedged between www.Coke.com and www.SouthWest.com, but a bit shy of www.MarthaStewart.com and www.GeorgeWBush.com. (See, I told you it was fun!)

But all fun aside, whether you find your site in limited presence category, or even "Contender" or "Player", you should always be working toward one goal -- getting more links.

Not only do lots of links bring obvious --- lots of traffic, they also help you in another important race; search engine ranking. Major search engines have been relying more and more on link popularity as a deciding factor in where they rank sites in their results pages.

- Could you become a gorilla?

OK, so how many links can you really get? Well, let's be honest. A lot has to do with your overall business budget and specifically, your marketing budget. If you think you can get to 900 lb. gorilla - that's half a million links - you could be setting yourself up for disappointment.

Take a look at "gorilla sites". Every last one is a giant company with big marketing dollars, including presence on television, radio, and like.

So how about next category down, "player" - with 100,000 links or more? Is it doable with a small or home business budget?

Why not! Sure, it would be quite an accomplishment on a limited budget, but it is possible. You just have to have a plan. And I'd like to help you with that right now...

- Put a powerful "get links" plan in place.

So how does a site start moving up list?

Simple. Get links. Or better yet, have a powerful plan to continually get links.

But getting other sites to link to yours takes a bit of originality. You can't just slap up a "link to us" page and hope job gets done. (Well, you can, but don't expect too many quality links!)

Here are three link strategies you should consider. They are not used at too many sites, they work well and they can put you ahead of most of pack...

1. Pre-license all your best stuff.

If you ever create your own tips, articles or content for web or email newsletters, consider pre-licensing it to others.

One of best ways to get a huge surge in visitors to your site is to have an article written by you appear in a highly-respected publication. It can be a nice credibility-booster, as well.

Let me tell you about Michael Pastore...

As Managing Editor of internet.com's InternetDay, CyberAtlas, and InternetPRGuide sites, Michael is one busy guy. (A little background info: InternetDay is a daily newsletter which has been around since mid-1990s. With nearly 100,000 faithful subscribers, it is one of net's most established and reputable publications.)

I've submitted two articles to Michael in past month, both of which made cut and appeared in InternetDay. (No, this doesn't mean he's desperate. He is actually quite swamped with submissions, thank you.) I decided to ask him what he looks for in a submission. I'm two for two so far, but I wanted to improve my chances. In addition, I figured his requirements can't be all that different from other big publishers.

Please, listen to this before you submit. His advice here is literally as good as gold:

Begin Quote >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Make article as professional as possible. The thing to remember is that you're likely competing with other articles, and if there's an article that doesn't need much editing, next to one that does, which article do you think editor is going to choose?

Stay away from gimmicks that belong in ad copy. Forget ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation points!!

Don't write like you talk. Sure, a casual style is OK, but don't open up a new paragraph with: "Do you understand that? Good, let's move on." a) You're not going to get an answer, b) It's not a lecture, and c) it's a little condescending to reader.

It's OK to ask editors to run major changes by you for approval, but editors are usually professionals. Most of changes they make will improve article and make you look better -- don't argue over commas.

Ask about style and submission guidelines. This serves two purposes: 1) it makes for "cleaner" copy (less work for editor), and 2) it shows that you are taking an interest in making your article appropriate for that specific site, as opposed to writing an article and sending it out to 1,000 sites.

If you ask for style and submission guidelines, follow them.

Follow basic grammar rules. You'd be surprised how often Words just Start with Capital letters in some articles that are submitted. It's probably been awhile, but capitals are reserved for start of sentences and for proper nouns ("Internet," by way, is a proper noun). [Despite fact that "internet.com" is never capitalized. Those rebels. - Joe]

-- and finally,